Date Published: 10/19/09

The bank PHB/Orient Bank of Uganda N65 million scandal

• Shady deals in Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia

Francis Atuche, Former MD/CEO Bank PHB

Fresh facts have emerged on how the former Management of Bank PHB, fraudulently purchased Orient Bank of Ugandan.

The former Management led by Francis Atuche allegedly inflated the value price of Orient Bank of Uganda from $16.5 Million to $65 Million.

Sources told pointblanknews.com that Atuche and his cronies lied about the actual purchase price. He curiously at a news conference in Kampala, Uganda, shortly after the purchase refused to disclose the actual amount the Ugandan Bank was purchased.

The purchase deal which gave Bank PHB an 80% share was sealed at a Completion Board meeting of the two banks held at the corporate headquarters of Orient Bank in Kampala.

According to a source that was privy to the Orient Bank deal in Uganda “Orient Bank assets were valued and the advice was that it would not cost more than $16.5 Million but how it got up to $65 Million is what we are yet to understand.

It was learnt that Atuche and his colleagues at the hierarchy of Bank PHB are notorious for dubious and under the table shady bank practices. An insider informed Pointblanknews.com that the disgraced leadership of the Bank took their scheme to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Gambia where Bank PHB had acquired banks. They were alleged to have also inflated the actual prices of all the Banks they had acquired in those countries.

In all Atuches and his team’s shady deals, one name that featured prominently is one Demola Banjo, a right hand man of Atuche who is said to know almost every deal carried out by the bank’s former CEO. Banjo, sources said has since moved his families to Dubai where some of the former Management of the Bank have invested in real estate’s with proceeds from sharp bank practices.

Sources hinted that that same pattern used by Atuche and his partners during the Orient Bank take over was also implored when Bank PHB controversially took over Spring Bank in 2008.

According to a recent report submitted by the Minister of State for Finance, Remi Babalola cited by Pointblanknews.com, it noted that the Spring Bank take-over was shrouded in secrecy as details were not made public leading to the failure to execute a post-merger adjustment as required under banking practices.

Bank PHB closed its 2008 financial year with gross earnings at $837m from $305m in 2007. It registered $220m as pre-tax profit from $8.4m the previous financial year.

It has a closing deposit base of $6b, ranking among the top five in deposits in the Nigerian banking industry.