How fraudsters connive with registrars, brokers to sell people’s shares, by expert

The persisting fraud in the Nigerian capital market, may take long to abate hence notable market criminal acts are usually in connivance with the registrars and brokers and that such crimes usually takes time to detect.

Revealing this to Daily Times in Lagos recently, a stockbroker who preferred anonymity, said that while most shareholders fail to detect when crime is about to be committed against them through their investments in the market, many others take time to admit that they have been defrauded.

According to the stockbroker, fraudsters in some cases, may be insiders who connive with registrars and stockbrokers to finger liquid unclaimed dividend accounts in dormant stockbroking firms and forge documents to claim ownership of the funds eventually.
According to the broker, because of frauds originating from hitherto dormant accounts, serious stockbroking firms including his firm are usually cautious and careful with transfers coming from stockbroking firms that are dormant.

“Fraudsters zero down of dormant stockbroking firms, hence there is no activity in them and it is usually from here, that they transfer accounts to be defrauded”
According to the broker, it is either the insider party in the registrar or the dormant stockbroking firm usually initiates the fraudulent move, even as the rightful owner of the accounts remains in the dark.

“The fraudsters this time having been provided with requisite information by the registrar and brokers, now approached the front desk of the registrar, give details of their unclaimed dividend in their procession, mainly from N100 million and above, and the process of opening bank accounts in the dividend owners name commences.

He said that the fraudulent bank accounts are opened in the names of owners of such large amount of unclaimed dividends, having also secured all other necessary documents and other relevant identification they may be required to provide by the registrars, which the fraudster usually forge.

According to the expert, once the e-dividend form is completed by the fraudster, the huge amount will be directly paid into the account, that will be balkanized by all the parties to the fraud as soon as they acknowledge payment alert.

“And their fraud will not be discovered until the actual accounts owner waits for his dividend without success, he will now be forced to go to the Registrars, only to be told that his shares has been sold”