A scammer committed one of the biggest scams in history by telling the bank he was going to build an airport
- A Nigerian man told banks he was building an airport – but it was all a scam
- The scandal is one of the biggest financial scams of all time
A Nigerian bank director managed to cheat a large local bank out of a whopping £200m – simply by telling the bank he needed the millions to build an airport.
Emmanuel Nwude is actually the former director of the Union Bank of Nigeria – but he unethically channeled his expertise when he called a Brazilian bank director on behalf of another big bank figure.
Nwude called Nelson Sakaguchi of Brazil’s Banco Noroeste – posing as Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Paul Ogwuma when he asked for a huge sum to build an airport.
Shockingly, Web learns that this single phone call was enough to grant Mr Nwude’s wishes, and Sakaguchi had full confidence in the Nigerian bank manager.
Without carrying out any background checks, Sakaguchi agreed to Nwude’s demand – but only on the condition that he would receive a huge £8million commission for the new airport – which was never to be built anyway.
The evil scammer took full advantage of the kindness of a Brazilian banker – without doing any background checks, Sakaguchi agreed to Nwude’s demand – but only if he were to receive a huge £8million commission from the new airport – which was never to be built anyway
Over a three-year period – 1995-1998 – the Brazilian banker innocently paid Nwude and his associates a colossal sum of around £190m – all for the airport that nobody bothered to exist.
But one day, in 1997, the Brazilian bank checked its costs before it was bought out by multinational financial group Santander and found almost half of its money was in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven.
Alarm bells were finally starting to ring and Banco Noroeste wondered how this was all staying under the radar.
This launched a court case that showed Nwude had indeed defrauded the Brazilian bank of the generous £190m over a three-year period.
Unfortunately, Banco Noroeste was so good-natured that its bank owners ended up paying the costs out of their own pockets just for the sale of Nwude to go through – before its collapse in 2001.
The airport that was never built… Nwude called Nelson Sakaguchi of Brazil’s Banco Noroeste – posing as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Paul Ogwuma, when he asked for a huge sum to build an airport
Years later, in 2004, Nwude and his associates were tried, sacked, and arrested again before being charged in another court.
The scammers decided to plead not guilty to over a hundred counts of fraud.
Things got worse when Nwude tried to bribe his way out of a tight spot by paying £60,000 when one of his accomplices admitted his wrongdoing.
Though it was another large sum, his bribe was turned down — and the trial even brought in Sakaguchi as a witness, leading the scammer to confess to his crimes.
In the end, he pleaded guilty to a lighter sentence.
Emmanuel Nwude was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud – but was released from prison in 2006.
These days, this type of scam is affectionately referred to as a 419 scam, and Nwude contributed to one of the largest financial scams in history.