FG vs Petro Union: Court to resume criminal hearing in ‘$15bn fraud case’

A federal high court in Lagos will resume hearing in the ongoing trial against Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited over an alleged $15 billion attempted fraud.

According to a recently issued court hearing notice, the trial court will hold the sitting over two consecutive days and focus on hearing the remaining witnesses for the prosecution to give their evidence.

In 2020, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed a criminal charge against Petro Union Oil & Gas Limited (Petro Union), its financial consultant, and four of its directors — Abayomi Kukoyi (trading under the name of Gladstone Kukoyi & Associates), Prince Kingsley Okpala, Prince Chidi Okpalaeze, and Prince Emmanuel Okpalaeze.

The firm, alongside the other defendants, are facing a thirteen-count charge on sundry criminal acts bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretences, forgery, and fraud levelled against them by the anti-graft agency on behalf of the federal government.

At previous court sessions, eight key witnesses had testified before the court, including a former finance minister, a senior officer of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and an ex-Union Bank London Branch executive.

The witnesses told the court how the company and its directors allegedly plotted and conspired to defraud the country to the tune of $15 billion.

When the trial resumes tomorrow, the court is expected to take testimonies from new witnesses, including a forensics expert and the EFCC investigating officer.

Once the prosecution concludes, the defence will open its case immediately or at a stipulated adjourned date.

While EFCC is pushing for criminal offences against the oil company, the supreme court unanimously granted Union Bank’s application to appeal on its merit, previous judgments against it, the CBN, minister of finance and AGF.

The Petro Union case dates back to 1994 when the oil company allegedly drew a cheque against an account in Barclays Bank, United Kindom, with a value of £2.556 billion and presented it for clearing at one of the branches of the Union Bank in Lagos.

The oil company had claimed that the money was meant for the construction of three petrochemical refinery complexes and the establishment of a bank in Nigeria.

But enquiries made by Union Bank at Barclays Bank showed that the account against which the cheque was drawn was closed on 21st September 1989, five years before the cheque was presented in Lagos for clearing.