By Abiola Olawale
Oil magnate and Chairman of Platforms Capital Investment Partners Limited, Akindele Akintoye, is facing an escalation in his legal woes as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has re-arraigned him on new charges related to the alleged fraudulent conversion of $35 million earmarked for a Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) capacity building project.
The re-arraignment comes amid renewed efforts by the anti-graft agency to prosecute the case, which centers on funds paid by the NCDMB Capacity Development Intervention Company Ltd to Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited for the establishment of a modular refinery, a jetty, and other facilities in Brass, Bayelsa State.
The New Diplomat reports that Akindele was arraigned alongside two corporate entities—Platform Capital Investment Partners Ltd and Duport Midstream Company Ltd—before the Federal High Court in Abuja. The charges border on retaining and using several amounts of money despite knowing that these funds allegedly emanated from an unlawful activity.
According to court documents, the EFCC alleged that Akindele and Platform Capital Investment Partners Ltd indirectly retained and used aggregate sums totaling over $25 million between December 2020 and February 2021, knowing the funds were dishonestly converted from the NCDMB investment in Atlantic International Refinery.
Akindele and Duport Midstream Company Ltd were similarly charged with indirectly retaining additional sums of money, including amounts of $784,681 and $220,000, which were also allegedly part of the fraudulently converted NCDMB funds.
One of the count reads: “That you Akindele Akintoye and Platform Capital investment Partners Limited between December, 2020 and February, 2021 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court indirectly retained the sum of $16,006,000(Sixteen million, Six thousand United States Dollars) being part of the funds dishonestly converted from the money paid by the NCDMB Capacity Development Intervention Company Limited to Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited as investment when you knew that the said sum of $16,006000 constituted proceeds of unlawful activity and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 as amended by (Act No.1 of 2012) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.”
Another count reads: “that you Akindele Akintoye and Platform Capital Investment Partners Limited between December 2020 and January 2021 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court indirectly used the aggregate sum of $9,048,725(Nine Million, Forty Eight Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twenty Five United States Dollars) being part of the funds dishonestly converted from the money paid by the NCDMB Capacity Development Intervention Company Ltd to Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited as investment when you knew that the said sum of $9,048,725 constituted proceeds of unlawful activity and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(20(d) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 as amended by the (Act No 1 of 2012) and punishable under section 15(3) of the same Act.”
The defendants pleaded “not guilty” when they were read to them.
Meanwhile, during court proceedings, prosecution counsel called the third witness, Isah Yusuf, who informed the court that he was into sourcing dollars for people and getting commission, adding that he and one Adeshina used to give the first defendant dollars in cash, “but I only saw him physically for the first time in the EFCC office during the investigation.
Yusug said: “Sometimes in 2021, PW2, a Zenith Bank staff, Mr. Adeshina, called me that he had a customer who had dollars in his account and wanted to swap with physical cash, so I went to meet Mrs. Bunmi, the owner of Oxygen Oil and Gas and Kensley Logistics Ltd, and I met another person. Mr. Yunusa has four corporate accounts: Rochdale Logistics Ltd, Honda Manufacturing, Porkfirst Ltd, and Global Factual. They transferred the US Dollar to these companies’ accounts, and they were paid cash in dollars.
“I got the dollar in cash from Oxygen Oil and Gas, and Kensly Logistics Limited, and the other four accounts gave him cash.”
When asked by the prosecution counsel to tell the court where the location, place of delivery, and how many times the delivery was made, the witness said, “Victoria Island.”
“I used to deliver these cash payments to the office of the defendant on several occasions, which I have stated in my statement in the EFCC.”
This re-arraignment follows in the wake of investigations involving the NCDMB’s former Executive Secretary, Simbi Kesiye Wabote.
Wabote, who headed the agency when the $35 million investment was made to Akintoye’s Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, was previously questioned by the EFCC regarding the abandoned project.
In 2024, EFCC grilled Wabote over alleged connections with the $35 million Brass Project fraud.
In his defense, Wabote had denied any wrongdoing during his time as the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB.
