FCMB In Trouble For Negligence, To Pay Customers N540.5m

• In ex-EFCC boss, Magu’s money laundry case

It is certainly not the best of times for First City Monument Bank (FCMB) with over N540.5 million judgment debt hanging on its management’s neck for aiding and promoting false claims against one of its clients.

According to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, the said amount is to be paid as damages to one Pastor Emmanuel Omale of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry and his wife, Deborah, and the Church over the false claim that they laundered N573 million for former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.

Delivering judgment in the suit, marked FCT/HC/CV2541/2020 and filed by Pastor Omale, his wife, Deborah, and the church, Justice Yusuf Halilu held that the bank breached its “duty of care to the claimants”, the Omales and their church.

Justice Halilu said the evidence before the court showed that the bank admitted error in its report to the NFIU of entries in the account of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry which was accused of laundering money on Mr. Magu’s behalf.

The judge also said the bank claimed that the purported N573 million was wrongly reflected as a credit entry in Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry’s account by its reporting system, which it recently upgraded.

Similarly, Justice Halilu held that FCMB admitted the error, which brought incalculable damage to the reputation of the claimants both within and outside Nigeria, thereby depleting their church’s membership.

Consequently, noting that the claimants provided sufficient evidence to establish a case of negligence against FCMB, the Court awarded the sum of N200 million as aggravated damages.

The judge also ordered the bank to cough out N140.5 million as specific damages and N200 million as general damages in favour of the plaintiffs.

It will be recalled that about six months ago, around April 2022, the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) was listed among the commercial banks sanctioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for enabling cryptocurrency transactions among crypto asset traders.

In its 2021 full-year financial statements, the FCMB recorded the highest monetary fine among the erring banks, losing about N400 million for warehousing four cryptocurrency accounts.

The Bank was fined for failing to close the cryptocurrency accounts of Thanas fasio Experts, Quadrant Emergencia Golden Global, Cryset Limited, and Royal Jingling Enterprise, as directed by the apex bank.