Justice Deinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Lagos has issued an order compelling 54 financial institutions to return a total sum of N9.3 billion, which was allegedly stolen from an unnamed old-generation bank by cybercriminals.
As reported by PUNCH, the ruling, which was delivered on April 15, 2025, came after the affected bank filed an ex parte motion under suit number FHC/L/CS/629/2025.
The court also instructed the banks to immediately restrict all accounts that received any portion of the stolen funds by placing a Post No Debit (PND) status on them.
According to the bank, the breach occurred on March 23, 2025, when its core banking system was compromised, leading to unauthorized withdrawals from several customer accounts.
The stolen money—totaling over N9.3 billion—was allegedly distributed across multiple accounts held in 54 different financial institutions.
The bank stated that once the unauthorized transactions were detected, it alerted the relevant institutions and initiated an internal investigation to trace the funds.
It was discovered that the stolen money was funneled through various accounts in multiple stages, reaching primary recipients before being redirected to secondary and tertiary accounts.
Justice Dipeolu ordered all the banks involved to disclose full details of the accounts connected to the fraudulent transfers.
This includes the current balances, transaction history, and any amounts already moved out of the accounts. Furthermore, the banks must return any funds still available back to the originating bank.
The judge emphasized that all institutions must share relevant customer data linked to the transfers and continue to restrict affected accounts until the exact amount received is fully recovered.
However, the court clarified that the ruling only applies to the misappropriated funds and does not affect other deposits belonging to bank customers.
“For the sake of clarity, this order concerns only the fraudulently transferred sums and the amounts recovered,” the court stated.
Justice Dipeolu concluded by affirming that the misappropriated funds rightfully belong to the plaintiff bank and not the customers of the banks that received the funds, thereby justifying the court’s directive for full restitution.
