After reportedly scamming a major oil and gas corporation in the nation last week for N67.5 million, a suspected fraudster operating under the name “Capital Plus Investment Services Ltd,” owned by Paul Demudia Eigbefoh, is on the run.
The impacted company has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to collect N67.5 million that it claims Paul Demudia Eigbefoh, commonly known as Paul Smith, fraudulently obtained.
In a petition sent to the EFCC Lagos Command on July 24, 2023 by its attorney, Bala Omar Yakubu and Co., the company claimed that Paul Demudia Eigbefoh and Capital Plus Investment Services Limited received the sum of N67.5 million by means of fraud.
It was revealed that Paul Demudia Eigbefoh approached the corporation to offer financial services to increase its operating capital while posing as Capital Plus’ alter ego.
“Our company, which deals in gasoline down the economy and has retail stores in certain Southwest States and the Federal Capital Territory,” the petition said in part.The company had requested a borrowing facility, but it was required to pay N67.5 million before it could use it. As soon as Paul Demudia Eigbefoh, the suspected fraudster, received the aforementioned funds, he immediately fled from his known office and home addresses and turned off his phone, which had been on since last week.
“The said Paul Demudia Eigbefoh insisted that the company make an equity contribution to the amount of N60,000,000 million as part of the condition for the said disbursement, notwithstanding the fact that he had initially requested an initial collateral of our client’s movable assets,” the statement reads.
It went on to say that Paul Demudia Eigbefoh’s insistence that the equity contribution be paid in order to facilitate the aforementioned disbursement was what ultimately led to the payment of the sum, noting that it paid N7,500,000 as processing fee charges on July 14, 2023, and N60 million as an equity contribution into the company’s account.
It added that the funds were deposited into Capital Plus Investment Services Limited’s Fidelity Bank Plc account number 5600141150. It claimed that shortly after Capital Plus Investment Services Limited received the final tranche of N60 million, it cut off all contact with the company.
It also stated that when its officials had to go to the company’s address at Block 69, Kusenla Road, Ikate Lekki in Lagos State, they discovered the location to be empty. They claimed that after realising this, they informed their bankers, who then notified the recipient beneficiary bank, Fidelity Bank Plc, of the fraud.
“Fidelity Bank learned that the company transmitted the money in installments to other victims of the fraud in other banks as soon as it acquired the aforementioned quantity.
The corporation has consequently pleaded with the EFCC commander to utilise his influence to get the issue handled urgently.
Since Friday, Paul Demudia Eigbefoh’s well-known phone number, 08060510537, has been off-limits to reporters who attempted to call him at his home and place of business.
