By Will Sturgeon, 21 November 2005 12:25
NEWS
Two of the perpetrators of the largest ever fraud in Nigerian history have been jailed for a total of 37 years.
According to Reuters, Emmanuel Nwude was sentenced to 25 years and Nzeribe Okoli to 12 years for their part in a scam which brought down Brazilian bank Banco Noroeste.
The two men agreed to forfeit assets worth $121.5m to victims of the scam.
In common with many frauds emanating from Nigeria, the crimes of Nwude and Okoli began with an email which promised a large commission to the duped third party on the completion of a business transaction in this case the awarding of a contract to build an airport.
Often it is lone individuals who find their bank accounts cleaned out upon handing over personal documentation and bank details but in this instance the losses escalated as a result of the fraudsters striking gold when the victim who took their bait turned out to work for the Sao Paulo-based bank.
According to newspaper reports, Justice Joseph Oyewole said: "The activities of the accused persons not only led to the collapse of a bank in a foreign country but also brought miseries to many innocent people."
A third man, Amaka Anajemba, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison earlier this year in relation to this fraud, after he reportedly agreed to return $48.5m to Banco Noroeste.
The Nigerian government has recently grown aware of the full extent to which it has become synonymous with fraud and has begun working with Microsoft and the UK Office of Fair Trading to combat the problem.
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
I am surprised it has taken this long for the Nigerian Government to wake up to this problem. I first became aware of these scams back in the era of fax machines when the company I worked for in 1989 got a fax from a Nigerian which read exactly like today's emails. I often get ones in my personal email box asking for my bank details, telling me how it is top secret and I am to be part of a special deal which will make me very rich! I am amazed that these people managed to take a bank for mugs. It just shows, there is one born every minute! They should lock these guys up and throw away the keys.
2. anonymous
Doing maths now... Sting was $240m, they give back to victims of sting $115m..
Gets abacus out..... 240 - 115
= 125m left to share out?
37 years interest on 125m, while in jail.....
A tidy sum to retire on.
Crime never does pay does it
3. George Potts
We are a small business who export .
Over the years there must have been 50 or more of these scam letters sent to us. Now Russia has taken over from Nigeria with 4 sent in the past month.
The people who lost money with these scams need to learn there is nothing for nothing . greed was there problem not the Nigerians.
George Potts
4. Richard Percival
I take it that the previous commentator has his tongue firmly in his cheek. According to Reuters and quoted by the BBC the 419 scam (named after the part of Nigerian law which specifically bans it - so I guess there is no surprise there) is a major foreign exchange earner for Nigeria. On January 5th, 2001 the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr. M. R. Rasheed was charged in a US Federal District Court with lying under oath and providing false testimony regarding his direct involvement in setting up secret offshore accounts and trusts. (see collected news reports at http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Nigerian/nigerian_busts.htm)
5. Ian Hathaway
You fools! I gave them my bank info, and received a large percentage of 10 million dollars! I'm on my way in to tell my boss to stick this job!