Following
over a hundred petitions from across the country on the operations of
an alleged Wonder bank and its nefarious activities, the EFCC on
Thursday October 6, arrested the Managing Director of “Lets Partner With
You Ltd”, Chief. Patrick Shanchi Nwokike at his residence in Enugu,
Enugu state.
Petitions from a cross section of Nigerians and cutting across religious, gender,
ethnic, economic and social class indicate that the company had over
the past five years solicited and obtained deposits of more than
N4,000,000,000 ( Four Billion Naira Only) from the general public with
promise of mouth watering interest in return.
According
to investigations conducted by the Commission, the company has no
license to solicit and manage funds for the public nor was it registered
with Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, or the Nigeria Deposit
Insurance Company, NDIC.
Further
investigations revealed that a 10% (Ten percent) interest was for some
time paid on invested capital which for no justifiable reason, was
suddenly stopped and all efforts by depositors to have at least the
capital of their investments returned nor terminate their investments
proved abortive.
Many
of the complainants alleged that the operators of the scheme
especially, Chief Nwokike not only live very flamboyant lifestyles but
acquired several personal assets as well as using their deposits for
philanthropic enterprise. The company was also found to have over six
accounts in about four banks with the CEO of “Lets Partner With You Ltd”
and his wife being the only signatories to the accounts.
In
his statement, Nwokike who acknowledged that depositor’s funds with his
company was about N4,000,000,000( Four Billion Naira Only) , denied
operating both money lending and investment business as alleged by the
petitioners.
He
stated that his company is into partnership business which receives
money from interested partners who desires interest from their money
after it might have been infused into businesses especially that of
small scale traders.
