Bank customer threatens court action over illegal witholding of $2m by Sterling Bank
A law firm, Adebayo Ayodele and co. has petitioned Sterling Bank plc over illegal witholding of a sum of $2 million belonging to a company, ANK-KAZOAK NIgeria Limited.
It was gathered that the fund which was paid into the domiciliary account of the company since July 2021 by a foreign partner of the company has not been credited into the company account in spite of several correspondences written to the Bank.
Worried by different excuses and foot dragging method, the company approached a legal firm to intervene in the matter.
In a letter written to Sterling Bank, dated Nov 17, 2022, the company through its legal consultant, Benjamin Ogunmodede gave the Bank seven days ultimatum to credit the company’s account with the said sum or face legal action.
Read the full letter below.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer,
STERLING BANK PLC
Sterling TOwers,
20, Manna, Lagos Island,
Lagos State.
Dear Sir,
RE: UNLAWFUL WITHHOLDING OF FUND IN THE SUM OF $2,000.000 (TWO MILLION U.S.
DOLLARS) IN DOMICILIARY STERLING BANK ACCOUNT NO. 0071580839 BELONGING TO
ANK=KAZOAK NIG LIMITED
We are the retained Solicitors to ANK-KAZOAK NIGERIA LIMITED (hereinafter called our client”)respecting the above captioned matter.
We have been consulted and our services retained to refer and take appropriate actions regarding same. It is Our brief to state that our client is a legal entity registered as ANK-KAZOAK NIgeria Limited
by the Corporate Afairs Commission, Abuja, Nigeria and an approved franchisee with the International Franchise Association of Sweden. In line with the Legal operational Practices, Our client draws due dividends from the Foreign Operational Department for onward payments to various/numerous Subscribers.
Pursuant to the above arrangement, the sum of US$2,000,000.00 (Two Million U.S Dollars Only) was released to Sterling Bank Plc in July 2021 for subsequent credit in favour of ANK- Kazoak Nigeria Limited with Sterling Bank Plc Account No: 0071580839 (Copy of Fund Remittance Voucher of 13/07/2021 attached herewith).
Since the remittance/transfer of the fund, the bank has failed, refused and neglected to credit our Clients Account in spite or numerous demands representations.
We wish to state that thousands of subscribers depend on our client for profit on their respective investments, but the business of our client as a franchisee remains incapacitated due to the failure of the Bank to credit our client.
We hereby demand immediate release/credit into our client’s account
TAKE VERY STRICT NOTICE that unless the withheld fund of USS$2,000,000.00 (Two Million U.S Dollars Only) is credited to our client’s account within seven days, we shall not hesitate to approach a Court of Competent Jurisdiction to claim our client’s fund with damages since July. 2021,
In response to series of correspondence to the bank , it was gathered that just few days ago, the bank through its customers service department gave a response by referring the company to a ‘team’ set up to handle the matter.
The response dates Nov. 17, 2022 reads,
“Dear Esteemed Customer,
Thank you for contacting us at Sterling Bank today. We’re pumped and ready to attend to your email, and a member of the team will respond within 24 hours”.
All efforts by Our Correspondent to get reactions from the corporate affairs unit of the Bank failed as calls and messages sent to the official numbers of the unit were not responded to.
