Ashish Pande
OpenLife Nigeria reports that on September 8, 2023, Daily Nigerian.com, an online medium, reported that the State Security Service, SSS, was investigating a mega economic fraud involving Olam Nigeria Limited, Olam International and their nine subsidiaries to the tune of over $50billion.
Olam Group is a major food and agri-business company, operating in 60 countries and supplying food and industrial raw materials to over 20,900 customers worldwide.
The report stated that in a chain of round-tripping foreign exchange deals since 2015, Olam Nigeria Limited, through its Special Purpose Vehicles, SPVs, had booked about $34 billion with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as capital importation at official rates.
But instead of investing the money into the Nigerian economy, sources said the company, according to Daily Nigerian.com, round-tripped the forex and sold to business men, especially oil and gas marketers and industries such as Indorama and Fouani, at parallel market rates.
The medium further reported that 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.
The medium added that 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.
Daily Nigerian.com said that 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.
According to inside sources, Daily Nigerian.com said that security agents uncovered traces of transfers into accounts controlled by Aminu Yaro, one of the ‘fronts’ of the embattled CBN governor.
Daily Nigerian.com stressed that Mr Yaro, who was previously investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been in SSS detention since July 12.
According to Daily Nigerian.com, 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 medium emphasized that SSS also invited the Chief Financial Officer of Crown Flour Mill Limited, Rajeesh Damodaram Valagulam adding that according to sources, Crown Flour Mill Limited is one of the major Olam subsidiaries in Nigeria.
The medium quoted insiders as saying that Olam Nigeria Limited and their subsidiaries are the key FX speculators that contributed to the declining value of Nigerian currency, naira.
Daily Nigerian.com noted that in one of the deals previously investigated by the SSS in 2020, the service advised the CBN to revoke the Certificate of Capital Importation, CCI, but the apex bank authorities ignored the advice.
“While the Nigerian authorities failed to sanction Olam for its various FX infractions, in 2021 Ivory Coast ordered Olam International to pay 142 billion CFA francs ($262.7 million) in connection with the repatriation of foreign currency.
“In 2015, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, imposed a $3 million penalty against Olam International, Ltd. and Olam Americas, Inc. for violating Cocoa Position Limits and unlawfully executing noncompetitive trades.
“In July this year, ICE Futures U.S. published a disciplinary notice against Olam International Limited for violating Exchange Rule 6.18(b) on February 17, 2022 by establishing positions in the spot month Coffee “C” futures contract that exceeded the contract’s notice period position limit.
“The company agreed to pay a monetary penalty of $30,000 and disgorge profits of $430,950.25.
“Contacted to respond to the allegations against his company and why he is at large, Olam Nigeria country head, Ashish Pande, requested our reporter to reveal how he knew about the investigations.
“But how did you know about all this? Who told you all this? Well, I’m not aware of all this,” he said and hung up.
“Mr Pande did not respond to subsequent calls to his number by our reporter, ” Daily Nigerian.com reported.
Reacting to the story, a social media enthusiast, Chris Ogbuji, on September 10, 2023 at about 8:43 pm wrote
“Just as the Gupta family ruined South Africa’s economy starting with their cabal under former president Jacob Zuma, the Pande network has ruined Nigerian economy uder Buhari.
“DSS should also investigate the bogus food supplies and diary food budgets of the presidential Villa u der Buhari’s Govt.
“I saw Olam foods were paid billions monthly for beverages supplies. One wonders if Buhari was feeding the entire nation monthly through Olam foods.”
However and few days after, Olam group limited denied the group’s involvement in the said multi billion dollar foreign exchange fraud.
The cable.ng, in its report on September 12, 2022, among other denials, quoted Olam as saying that there are no “fictitious directors” in Olam and the companies does not have “Network of shell companies.”
In a filing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Monday, September 11, 2022, the Cable.ng further quoted Olam Group as describing the claims as “inflammatory.”
According to the statement reportedly issued by Olam, the company said “Olam Nigeria has responded to various legitimate requests for information by the relevant Nigerian authorities, and will cooperate with any legitimate requests for information or assistance from relevant Nigerian authorities.
Further, Olam Group said references to $50 billion and the sum of $34 billion “funnelled… under… capital importation” by Olam are “inaccurate and designed to be misleading.”
However, Mr Ashish Pande, the CEO of Olam Nigeria limited , is allegedly said to be on the run at the moment.
Unconfirmed reports have it that Pande is avoiding arrest by the security agents and has been out of Nigeria since October 2023.
“He has not been in Nigeria for almost five months now. And he is not likely to return to the country soon. I am sure he is trying to avoid arrest over the allegations of alleged dubiousness in foreign exchange, ” a source stated.
However, clarifying the alleged “on the run,” the company’s communications manager, Elizabeth Nnoko said the information is untrue.
She confirmed that Mr Ashish Pande has been out of the country. However, she explained that the CEO’s travel is in line with business duties, some of which demand his attention outside Nigeria.
In a telephone conversation with OpenLife, Elizabeth Nnoko said: “He is not on the run. His travelling is work.”
When reminded that Mr. Ashish Pande has been out of Nigeria for a reasonable length of time, Elizabeth Nnoko explained that the Yuletide holidays could take anyone out of office.
She however, stated that “It was a holiday season. So, he has been travelling for work because we are doing additional exhibition on our agric business, he has been travelling to oversee them.”
On the alleged foreign exchange infractions by Olam, Elizabeth Nnoko said she cannot share update because “The issue is with the government and currently on going. It is under going review with the government.”
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