I often wonder who falls for the Nigerian money scams but you can fool some of
the people all of the time and those are the ones they're after:
Tony
Five Nigerians charged in $242 million '419' fraud trial Friday, February 6, 2004 Posted: 4:54 PM
EST (2154 GMT)
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerian prosecutors leveled 86 counts of fraud and conspiracy against five
people Thursday for allegedly swindling a Brazilian bank of $242 million, in the biggest crackdown
yet on the West African nation's advance-fee fraud or "419" scams. The five are accused of luring an
employee of Sao Paulo's Banco Noroeste into siphoning off the funds from his employer, persuading
him he could land a share in a lucrative Nigerian construction contract if he just paid enough
handling fees up front. The five appeared in court in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, in handcuffs to hear
the charges Thursday. All the suspects, including housewife Amaka Anajemba, lawyer Obum Osakwe, and
businessman Emmanuel Nwude -- described by prosecutors as "a major shareholder" in a leading
Nigerian bank -- pleaded innocent. Penalties for each of the counts range between seven and 10
years. Four Nigerian companies -- Ocean Marketing, Fynbaz, Emrus, and the African Shelter Bureau --
also accused of involvement in the alleged crime were not represented in court. Presiding Judge
Lawal Gumi entered innocent pleas on behalf of the companies and postponed proceedings until
Wednesday, when he will consider requests for bond. There was mild drama in court when suspect
Nzeribe Okoli, while making his plea, declared he would make "shocking revelations" during the
trial. "There are so many hidden things which Nigerians should know," Okoli said before he was
interrupted by the judge, who told him to restrict his answers to the questions he was asked.
Nigeria's anti-fraud body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, alleges in court papers the
suspects told the Brazilian bank worker he would receive $13.4 million from an $187 million Nigerian
airport contract -- if he invested money up front. The bank worker allegedly dug illegally into his
bank's funds, transferring the $242 million -- in segments as high as $4.75 million at a time -- to
accounts around the world designated by the suspects, the papers showed. Nigeria has gained global
notoriety as a base for such advance-fee fraud, known as '419' schemes after the section of the
country's criminal code that prohibits fraud. In most of the cases, scam artists proposition victims
with e-mails claiming to have millions of dollars from inflated contracts, the estates of dead
dictators, or other illicit proceeds, and seeking help to transfer the money abroad. The victims are
then made to pay never-ending "service fees" and other charges -- the object of the scams. Nuhu
Ribadu, who heads the commission set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government in December 2002
to combat sophisticated fraud and money-laundering rings, told a news conference on Wednesday he
intended to use this case to prove that "no one is above the law." The case was also the subject of
criminal investigations in Switzerland, Britain, the United States and Brazil, Ribadu said.