A $50 billion+ economic scam involving Olam Nigeria Limited, Olam International, and their nine subsidiaries is being looked into by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Since 2015, the corporation has booked over $34 billion in round-trip foreign exchange transactions through its Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) as capital importation at official rates with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). However, reports claim that the company round-tripped the forex and sold to businessmen, particularly oil and gas marketers and industries like Indorama and Fouani, at parallel market rates instead of putting the money into the Nigerian economy.
According to Trixxng, the investigation revealed that Olam usually directed the forex buyers to lodge the naira equivalent into the account of one or many of its SPVs during the period under review. Although some of the companies have fictitious Nigerians as directors, the accounts are solely managed by the Indian expatriates, some of whom are based in Europe and Asia. As the SSS opens probe into the FX fraud and anchor-borrower scheme deals that took place under the suspended governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, the country’s secret police has uncovered a chain of shell companies linked to Olam.
Sources said security agents uncovered traces of transfers into accounts controlled by Aminu Yaro, one of the ‘fronts’ of the embattled CBN governor. Mr Yaro, who was previously investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been in SSS detention since July 12.
Findings revealed that the SSS had invited some expatriates, including the MD/CEO of Olam Nigeria Limited Ashish Pande and some top officers of the company, namely Prakash Kanth, Sudhir Goenka, Niraj Shah, Chandrasekran Balaji and Venkataramani Srivathshan. The SSS also invited the Chief Financial Officer of Crown Flour Mill Limited, Rajeesh Damodaram Valagulam. According to sources, Crown Flour Mill Limited is one of the major Olam subsidiaries in Nigeria.
According to insiders, Olam Nigeria Limited and their subsidiaries are the key FX speculators that contributed to the declining value of Nigerian currency, naira
