My Staff Opened Another Account and Diverted Over ₦800 Million; I Later Found Myself Over ₦8 Billion in Debt” — Pastor Olumide Emmanuel

Pastor and entrepreneur Olumide Emmanuel has recounted how alleged fraud by members of his staff resulted in the diversion of hundreds of millions of naira and eventually left his business facing billions of naira in debt.

Speaking while sharing lessons from his experience in business, Emmanuel said some employees allegedly took advantage of company documents that had been signed to facilitate legitimate banking transactions and used them to open another account without his knowledge.

“They went to open a sub-account. Before I knew what was happening, over ₦800 million was gone,” he recalled.

According to Emmanuel, the alleged scheme also involved unused company invoices. He explained that his business printed invoice booklets in bulk, and some employees allegedly used those invoices to collect payments from customers while issuing documentation bearing the company’s name.

He said the problem became apparent when customers began approaching the company with legitimate-looking invoices and receipts for payments that, according to him, had never reached the business.

Emmanuel claimed that by the time the full extent of the situation became apparent, the business was facing debts running into billions of naira. He also said he spent about 11 months undergoing an anti-fraud investigation, during which business operations were severely affected as accounts and activities came under scrutiny.

He further recalled a meeting involving senior company officials, a lawyer and police officers after two individuals were identified as being behind aspects of the alleged scheme. According to Emmanuel, plans were made for police to visit the suspects the following morning, but they had reportedly packed their belongings and left the previous night.

Emmanuel questioned how details of the planned police operation could have become known when, according to him, only five people had attended the meeting.