Fraud seems to have turned another name for Sterling Bank Plc in recent times.
A source within the bank revealed how the financial institution was recently alleged of dumping a client of over N274, 049, 374.49.
The source, revealed the client who was duped by Sterling Bank Plc as Hotel Excel Limited, located at Km 1, Refinery Road Effurun, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria.
www.theoctopusnews.com, was informed that Hotel Excel Limited who maintained three current accounts with a Warri branch of the defunct Equitorial Trust Limited got the worst experience of their life on Friday 12th August 2011, when their bank merged and became a part of Sterling Bank Plc.
Trouble started when Sterling Bank Plc began to demand that Hotel Excel Limited pay back a credit overdraft facilities which had already been settled.
An insider at the bank revealed how Sterling Bank was in the habit of not sending the hotel a periodic statement of its account, an indication that it was a well planned job.
The source revealed that It was not until very recently and after concerted demands by Hotel Excel that Sterling Bank submitted a comprehensive statement on each of its three accounts.
However, on releasing the statement www.theoctopusnews.com was informed that Hotel Excel Limited was not satisfied with the statement of account, hence it commissioned an audit of its financial transactions with Sterling Bank.
Having commissioned a consultant Hotel Excel again requested for Sterling Bank’s comprehensive statement of its account from inception and disclosed that it was required for audit purposes which Sterling Bank obliged.
The hotel via its auditors however found out from examination of the two sets of statements that they were conflicting, contained bloated charges and fraudulent entries.
Here are the particulars of fraudulent entries:
The first statement on Hotel Excel’s account No. 0310009018 prepared by Sterling Bank on 22nd Dec 2000, commenced on 01-01-04 with Nill balance and the first transaction therein was a credit lodgment of N5,286,721.08 i.e four (4) years later But the second statement of the same account prepared also by Sterling Bank on Mar 2012 commenced with a Nil balance with a first transaction being an inwards transfer of N6,546,057.68 on 23-02-04 and contains robust transactions spanning over a total of 197 pages between 01-01-04 to 01-01-08. Hotel Excel avers that this was a conscious and calculated effort by Sterling Bank to shield from the account holder, the several fraudulent entries into its account.
The first statement of Accounts No. 03100090018 prepared by Sterling Bank on 22nd Dec 2011 contained only seven entries for the month of April 2009 the last of which was on 07.04.09 and showed a credit balance of N140,522,120.52 as at 07.04.09 BUT the second statement of the same account prepared also by Sterling Bank on 29 Mar 2012 contained 28 entries for the same month of April 2009, the last of which was 30.04.09 and showed a credit balance of only N1,9..,560.10
This discoveries led Hotel Excel to believe that Sterling Bank knowingly tempered in various ways with his accounts.
However, to be convinced beyound reasonable doubt, the bank again commissioned a firm of forensic investigators to scrutinize its said three accounts with Sterling Bank and the outcome wasn’t pleasant.
The result of the forensic investigators allegedly disclosed that Sterling Bank arbitrarily charged excessive interests and other charges in the total sum of N274,049,374.49 (two hundred and seventy four million, forty nine thousand, three hundred and seventy-four Naira, forty nine kobo on Hotel Excel accounts.
Presently, Sterling Bank, has deprived Hotel Excel its monies and as if that is not bad enough the bank has since classified Hotel Excel’s debt as a non-performing loan asset and has purportedly sold same to Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria.
Such is the tale trailing Sterling Bank Plc presently.
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