Meet Nwude, the Biggest Nigerian Fraudster in History Who 'Sold a Fake Airport' to a Brazilian for $242m 

 

Here is the story of Emmanuel Nwude who committed the largest fraud in Nigeria by selling a non-existing airport to a Brazilian banker for $242 million between 1995 and 1998..

 

Emmanuel Nwude carried out one of the the biggest banking fraud in the world

 

The rise of internet fraud commonly known as 419 is one phenomenon Nigeria has come to be associated with. Before internet fraud became a global issue, Nwude had committed one of the biggest scams in the world. 

 

Specifically, his fraud was the third largest banking scam in the world after the Nick Leeson's trading losses at Barings Bank, and the looting of the Iraqi Central Bank by Qusay Hussein.

 

How was Emmanuel Nwude able to carry out this jaw-dropping scam and convince Nelson Sakaguchi who was the director of the bank to part with so much money for the purchase of an airport?

 

 He impersonated the then governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Paul Ogwuma, and connected with Sakaguchi informing him of a mouth-watering deal of Nigeria’s plan to build an airport in Abuja.

 

Nwude, pretending to be the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, told Sakaguchi that he stood the chance of pocketing $10 million commission when the deal passed through. Sakaguchi paid $191 million in cash and the remainder in the form of outstanding interest.

 

Nwude’s accomplices were Emmanuel Ofolue, Nzeribe Okoli, and Obum Osakwe, along with the husband and wife duo, Christian Ikechukwu Anajemba and Amaka Anajemba, with Christian later being assassinated.

 

The criminal gang was able to convince the director of the Brazilian bank to part with the money.

 

Nwude has become Nigeria's fraud kingpin after pulling off one of the biggest 'deals' in history.

 

Nwude used part of his loot to acquire block shares in Union Bank of Nigeria and that earned him position of a non-executive director in the bank. 

 

How did Sakaguchi find out he was a victim of one of the largest scam in the world?

 

In 1997, the Spanish Banco Santander wanted to take over the Banco Noroeste and a joint board meeting was held in December of that year. Officials of the Spanish bank noted that half of the Brazilian bank’s capital was at Cayman Islands unmonitored. This raised questions as this was two-fifths of Noroeste's total value.

 

Investigation began and was carried out in Brazil, Britain, Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United States. Although the sale of the Bank still went on as the owners of the bank paid $242 million bill, the nak still collapsed in 2001.

 

The birth of the EFCC

 

In 2002, the then president, Olusegun Obasanjo saw to the establishment of an anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Nwude’s fraud case one of the first to be investigated and in 2004, all members of the gang were arraigned before an Abuja High Court on 86 counts of "fraudulently seeking advance fees" and 15 counts of bribery related to the case . Although they pleaded not guilty, they were warned not to attempt to bribe court officials as it was suspected that money was going round.

 

In 2005, Amaka confessed to helping Anajemba and was asked to repay $25.5 million and also sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

 

Nwude attempted to bribe Nuhu Ribadu, the then chairman of the EFCC, with $75,000 cash but the latter refused and Nwude was charged with attempted bribery as well as attempt to kidnap a prosecuting witness.

 

Following Sakaguchi's witness, Nwude finally pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five concurrent sentences of five years and was also asked to pay $10 million fine to the federal government.

 

He was released from prison in 2006 and filed a case to reclaim his assets insisting some of them were acquired before the criminal act. He has so far been able to reclaim $167 million.

 

Aftermath

 

A land dispute in the town of Ukpo in the Dunukofia area with Abagana community turned bloody when over 200 men invaded the community killing four policemen and the security guard at the construction site in 2016. The Anambra state government fingered Nwude as the ringleader and he was subsequently arrested and arraigned on 27 charges including murder and terrorism. He is being held at Awka prison as the court case is still on.

 

While Nwude’s criminal exploit was not the first in the country, it signified the rise in international financial crime and popularise the advanced fee fraud syndrome with Nigeria's name associated with it.

 

Courtesy - Tori News

Georgia opposition rejects election results, calls for protests

____The governing Georgian Dream party is leading Georgia’s parliamentary election with a vote share of just over 50 percent, preliminary results showed on Saturday.

The opposition, however, rejected those results and said it planned to protest.

With almost 44 percent of the votes in, data from the Central Election Commission (CEC) gave the Georgian Dream party 50.58 percent of the vote and the largest opposition party United National Movement (UNM) 24.92 percent.

Several other opposition parties managed to clear the 1 percent threshold for membership in parliament.

The governing party – founded by Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili – declared victory soon after polls closed across the former Soviet republic on Saturday and four exit polls put it in first place in a tight race.

“Georgia has made me a worthy choice, and that Georgian Dream founded by me is a worthy dream. Georgian voters, who would not make the wrong choice today, expressed support for worthy people,” Ivanishvili told a crowd of cheering supporters in the capital, Tiblisi.

But it was not clear whether the governing party would secure the votes needed to form a single-party government.

The opposition said the results did not correspond with reality.

Nika Melia, a UNM member, called on supporters to gather in central Tiblisi to protest the vote on Sunday.

“We won’t accept this result and call on people to come to Rustaveli avenue at 4 pm” (1200 GMT), she told reporters after consultations with other opposition leaders.

‘Not a real picture’

David Kirtadze, another member of UNM, said: “This is not a real picture and these results don’t reflect the will of Georgian people.”

Earlier, he had tried to interrupt the head of the CEC head when she was announcing the preliminary results, and was forced by guards to leave the conference hall.

The opposition claimed it received enough votes in total to form a coalition.

More than 30 opposition parties, led by the UNM, the largest and strongest opposition force, had announced on Friday that they would not go into coalition with the governing party after the election.

Al Jazeera’s Robin Forestier-Walker, reporting from Tiblisi earlier on Saturday, said most voters were able to cast their ballots “freely and in safety”, though there were some violent scenes between supporters of rival parties.

He added: “Georgia is likely to have a more diverse parliament, but the politicians will now have to focus on immediate challenges – soaring COVID infections and a bleak outlook for the economy.”

The country’s economy has been hit hard by the spread of the coronavirus and is forecast by the government to contract by 4 percent in 2020.

The government’s popularity has waned, and opponents accuse it of mishandling the economy, selective justice, a weak foreign policy and stamping on dissent with the violent dispersal of protests.

Critics said Ivanishvili, who does not hold a government post, runs the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people from behind the scenes, an accusation denied by Georgian Dream, which has governed for two consecutive terms.

A fifth of Georgian territory is controlled by pro-Russian separatists following a short war with Russia in 2008.

Both the government and the opposition would like to see Georgia join the European Union and NATO, but such moves would be strongly resisted by Moscow. Georgian Dream also favours closer ties with Russia. ,