A businessman, Minnis Howard, has been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for an alleged N822,422,260 fraud.

Howard, alongside his company, Howard Minnis Asset Management Limited, was arraigned on Wednesday before the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja.

In the two counts filed against him by the EFCC, he was accused of obtaining money by false pretense and dishonest conversion.

The prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, Mohammed Bashir, told the court that Howard and his company committed the offences sometime in 2023.

Bashir alleged that the defendants fraudulently obtained N1,030,972,266 from Krystal Lube Limited and converted N822,422,260 of out of the money to their own use.

According to the prosecutor, the defendants obtained the money “by falsely representing that the money represented the purchase of 900,000 litres of SN 900 Base Oil and 500,000 litres of SN 500 Base Oil at the rate of N970 per litre, a representation you knew to be false.”

The anti-graft agency said the offences contravened Sections 1 (3) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006 and Section 285 (1) of the criminal law of Lagos state 2011.

However, the defendant and his company who was arraigned before Justice Rahman Oshodi, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

While adjourning till November 30 take Howard’s bail application, the judge ordered that he should be remanded in the custody of the EFCC.

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