By Peter Omopo
Justice D.I. Dipeolu of the , sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has convicted and fined AP McNisi Initiatives Limited N500,000 for operating a Bureau De Change (BDC) business without a valid licence.
The company was arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the (EFCC) on a one-count charge bordering on illegal foreign exchange transactions.
According to a statement posted on the EFCC’s official X handle, the conviction was secured on Friday after the company pleaded guilty to the charge.
The charge stated that AP McNisi Initiatives Limited, on or about June 7, 2024, engaged in a foreign exchange transaction with one Adeoye Phillips Tomilola outside the official foreign exchange market and without a valid licence from the (CBN) to operate as a BDC, contrary to Section 11(1)(a) of the National Economic Intelligence Committee Establishment Act and punishable under Section 11(2) of the same Act.
Following the guilty plea, prosecution counsel A.A. Usman reviewed the facts of the case through an EFCC operative, Bello Buhari Kobi.
Kobi told the court that the Commission received a petition alleging that the company received N10 million into its Guaranty Trust Bank account for conversion to $9,000 but failed to remit the dollar equivalent to the complainant.
Investigations, he said, revealed that the company was not licensed by the CBN to conduct BDC operations. He further disclosed that Adekunle Fadibe McNisi, identified as the alter ego of the firm, admitted during questioning that the company lacked the required regulatory approval.
The EFCC operative added that the complainant had since been refunded. Relevant documents, including the petition, bank correspondence and the extra-judicial statement of the company’s representative, were tendered and admitted in evidence.
In his ruling, Justice Dipeolu convicted the company and ordered it to pay a fine of N500,000. The court further ruled that failure to pay the fine would result in the forfeiture of assets worth the same amount to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
