CITITRUST Holdings PLC and three of its subsidiaries have been charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged financial misconduct involving unreported high-value transactions.
The trial is set to begin on July 1, 2025, at the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The subsidiaries named in the eight-count charge under the CITITRUST Holdings are Cititrust Funding PLC, Cititrust Credit Limited, and Cititrust Financial Services Limited.
The case is being prosecuted by a team from the EFCC comprising Anasoh Henry Onyekachi, Frankklin Ofoma, Abdulhamid Lamido Tukur, and A.A. Usman.
According to the charges, between 2021 and 2023, the companies allegedly provided investment management services without securing a valid licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)—an act that violates Section 57 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 and is punishable under Section 57(5) of the same Act.
The prosecution further alleges that the firms conducted a Collective Investment Scheme without registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in breach of regulatory requirements.
In one of the charges, Cititrust Credit Limited is specifically accused of failing to report several high-value transactions to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU). These include: A ₦20 million transfer on January 7, 2021; a ₦200 million transfer on April 4, 2021 and a ₦200 million lodgement on January 29, 2021.
Additionally, Cititrust Credit Limited and Cititrust Financial Services Limited are alleged to have respectively made a transfer and lodgement of ₦42 million into their bank accounts on January 29, 2021, without proper disclosure to the appropriate authorities.
These actions allegedly contravene Sections 11(1)(b) and 11(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2022, and Section 54(1) of the Investment and Securities Act 2007, and are punishable under the relevant laws.
