The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has narrated how a female ex-minister was aided by a bank to launder $37million through a property deal.

Bawa made this known while featuring on Channels morning show, Sunrise Daily.

The EFCC boss explained how the commission investigated a former female minister, who acquired a property worth $37.5m from a bank and deposited $20m cash.

He said, “One of the problems we have in the country is the real estate. Ninety to 100 percent of the resources are being laundered through real estate. Of course, they are being regulated but they are not enough in terms of how they give their returns to the Special Control Unit.

“We investigated a matter in which a bank MD marketed a property to a minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5m. The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20m from her house in the first instance.

“The bank succeeded to put it in their system and paid the developer and then a lawyer set up a special purpose vehicle where the title documents were transferred into and of course, he is posing as the owner of the house.

“Without the help of the banker, the minister couldn’t have imagined collecting $20m from anyone with opportunity from the real sector; she could not have thought of where to launder the proceeds of crime.”