Firm Drags Portuguese’ MD, Others Before EFCC Over Alleged N80m Fraud

A Nigerian firm, Nigerian Ropes Plc, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over multimillion fraud, allegedly perpetrated by its former Managing Director, Mr. Joao Mario Carradinha, a Portuguese, and it’s three former officials.

The three officials as listed in the petition dated October 22, 2019, and received by the anti-graft agency on October 23, 2019, are: Ayodeji Balogun, Chimaroke Aloa and Mobolaji Olawoye.
Nigerian Ropes Plc petition captioned: “petition against those listed above for acts of money laundering, criminal breach of trust and embezzlement of company funds e.t.c.”, to the EFCC signed by its solicitor, Adewale Fadipe, alleged that Mr. Joao Mario Carradinha Costa Pereira, while employed as its Managing Director, fictitiously and fraudulently appointed his wife, and made fraudulent payments in foreign currency of United State dollars to the said wife, who was not resident in Nigeria nor offered any services to the company.

The company’s solicitor, Fadipe, also alleged that Mr. Joan Pereira, made several withdrawal from the company’s account in local currency and converted same to hard currency for personal use.
The said embezzlement according to the company’s solicitor runs to several hundred of million Naira. Adding that attempt was made to retrieve the money from the Portuguese but such effort was unsuccessful as he suspected to have absconded from Nigeria and is thought make ingress into and egress out of Nigeria steadily.

The company’s solicitor further alleged that Mr. Pereira, rather than refunding the said money to the company, took flight and is reasonable suspected to be resident in either England or Portugal.
In the annexture attached with the petition tagged ‘fraud investigation report summary’, signed by the company’s Internal Auditor, Fuhad Smith, stated that On July 16, 2019, the Board Chairman Kola Karim forwarded mail he received from Marcus Curry Managing Director of George Taylor Lifting Gear Ltd a key Supplier of Nigerian Ropes Plc, wherein Marcus Curry informed that Joao Pereira and Ayodeji Babatunde incorporated a company named ‘OLS Hoist Service Nig. Limited to act as a parallel company to Nigerian Ropes Plc but since the incorporation of the company, he has not been able to reach neither Joao Pereira nor Ayodeji Babatunde and he alleged they are exploiting Nigerian Ropes pic with OLS. All these was done without the Board of Nigerian Ropes approval. 

The audit report stated that based on this initial predication above, a fraud examination was conducted, which included review of relevant records and interviews of appropriate personnel.

The Audit reports also stated that upon confirmation of OLS has a supplier to Nigerian Ropes Plc, Joao Pereira and Ayodeji Babatunde were picked up by the Police officers at Zone 2 Police Station Onikan for questioning on the allegations. While they were being questioned examination of the fraud commenced. 
Joao Pereira, according to the report. was appointed as the Managing Director of Nigerian Ropes Plc on 16th April, 2013. Ayodeji was employed in the Account & Finance department as Senior Accountant on 2nd January, 2014 and he was promoted to Finance Manager effective 12th January 2016. 

The report stated furtber that the Fraud Examination Team reviewed Purchase Orders to OLS from 2017 up to July 2019, conducted interviews of key employees who we believed may have information regarding the allegations, and also searched the office of both accused for any corroborative evidence; during the search, it was found Ayodeji Babatunde & Joao Pereira were maintaining box files of source documents for transaction of OLS within Nigerian Ropes P|c. Within these box files of OLS, we found OLS Purchase Orders to third parties for items invoiced to Nigerian Ropes. These third parties are initially suppliers of Nigerian Ropes, hence Joao & Ayodeji used OLS to procure items for the company and then sold the same items to the company at an inflated price. 

The Audit report also stated that during the fraud examination, it was found Joao Pereira allegedly falsified an employment contract for his wife Eugenia Ines Brites de Sa Alves. And that the fake employment contract was signed by him and dated 28th April, 2013, the Human Resource Department cannot verify the authenticity of this contract. However, his wife earned USD $1,500 monthly remuneration to her bank account for 10 months from September 2018 to June 2019. 
 The firm’s Audit report further stated that upon reviewed and analyzed OLS financial records which were retrieved in the office of Ayodeji & Joao, the OLS Purchase Order to third parties on items supplied to Nigerian Ropes Plc was matched against Invoiced issued to Nigerian Ropes to ascertain the margin and mark up to 01.5 on the cost price. Obtained, reviewed, and analyzed the payroll record to ascertain the nature and authenticity of the employment contract to Joao Pereira’s Wife Eugenia Ines Brites de Sa Alves as international Marketing Manager. 

The Audit report stated that based upon the documents reviewed, information collected, and interviews conducted during the course of the fraud examination, the Team finds as follows: the Fraud Examination Team indicate that Joao Pereira, together with Ayodeji Babatunde knowingly establish a parallel company OLS, to supply items to Nigerian Ropes Plc at inflated prices. Approximately N76 million is the traceable gain to OLS on Items supplied to Nigerian Ropes from January 2017 July 2019. A d that  Retrieved Certified Copy of OLS incorporation documents which shows; Joao Pereira and Ayodeji Babatunde as the Shareholders and Director of OLS Hoist Service. 

The Audit report further revealed that upon the interview with the Human Resource Manager, it could not verify the Joao Pereira’s Wife Eugenia Ines Brites de Sa Aives appointment as the International Marketing Manager. Hence, Joao falsified an employment contract for his wife to place her on the payroll to illicitly earn a monthly salary of USD $1,500 for 10months from September 2018 to June 2019. Total Salary earned is USD 510,500. 

 With all stated above, Nigerian Ropes Plc, appealed to the EFCC chairman, to use his good office to retrieve its funds alleged to have illegally obtained and retained by its Portuguese former Managing Director, Mr. Joao Pereira.

Attached are the copies of the firm’s petition to the EFCC