You Know That Famous $242 Million Fraudster – Emmanuel Nwude? See What’s Up With Him Now. READ MORE

If you are conversant with the key characters in Nigeria’s recent ‘419 scams’ history you would surely recognise him – Mr Emmanuel Nwude.

 

Mr Nwude, according to his Wikipedia page, is a former director of Union Bank Plc and one of the most notable advanced fee fraud artists to ever come out of the country. His name went down in ‘advanced fee fraud history when he successfully defrauded Mr. Nelson Sakaguchi, a Director at Brazil’s Banco Noroeste based in Sao Paulo,[2] of $242 million, $191 million in cash and the remainder in the form of outstanding interest,[3] between 1995 and 1998.

Man that was the biggest heist in the history of ‘419’ in this country! It made a lot of young guns to take notice of the extreme possibilities in advance fee fraud. We daresay it glamourised the entire fraud thing!

Of course he didn’t pull this off alone, even if he was the ringleader. His accomplices were Emmanuel Ofolue, Nzeribe Okoli, and Obum Osakwe, along with the husband and wife duo, Christian Ikechukwu Anajemba and Amaka Anajemba. Mr Anajemba was later assassinated.

To tell you the magnitude of this heist it is reported to be the third biggest fraud/crime in banking history! It was only bettered by the Nick Leeson’s trading losses at Barings Bank and the looting of the Iraqi Central Bank by Qusay Hussein.

How Was This Fraud Uncovered?

Mr. Nwude impersonated Paul Ogwuma, then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and successfully convinced Mr. Sakaguchi to “invest” in a new airport in the nation’s capital, Abuja, in exchange for a $10 million commission. In August 1997, the Spanish Banco Santander wanted to take over the Banco Noroeste Brazil. The fraud was uncovered after a December 1997 joint board meeting, in which an official from Santander inquired about why a large sum of money, two-fifths of Noroeste’s total value and half of their capital, was sitting in the Cayman Islands unmonitored. This lead to criminal investigations in Brazil, Britain, Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United States. To guarantee the sale to Santander, the Simonsen and Cochrane families, the owners of Banco Noroeste, paid the $242 million bill themselves. However, Banco Noroeste collapsed in 2001. (culled from Wikipedia)

So What is Emmanuel Nwude up to now or rather What is going on with Him?

He was convicted by the courts after a prolonged legal battle (after all with that kind of man a man can hire the best lawyers and try to twist the legal process)

The latest now is that Emmanuel Nwude had filed an appeal against his conviction and seizure of his assets in the Lagos Division of the Appeal Court.

Nwude’s conviction had followed a plea bargain he entered with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, wherein he agreed to forfeit his two companies, Emrus Nigeria Limited and African Shelter Nigeria Limited to make a “restitution of $110m” to the victim of the crime.
Nwude was also said to have agreed to forfeit a number of landed properties in various locations within Lagos and in Abuja, some vehicles, in addition to corporate stocks belonging to him and his two companies.

The convict, however, filed a notice of appeal through his lawyer, Dr. Dapo Olanipekun (SAN), praying the appellate court to set aside his conviction and sentencing respectively.

This last Thursday at the court Nwude, through his lawyer, argued that the sentence given to him was unknown to law and not contained in Act establishing the offence.
Olanipekun argued that Nwude was made to forfeit some assets that he acquired before the offence was committed.

The court reserved judgement on the matter and the new date for that has not been disclosed.

So apparently Mr Emmanuel Nwude is very much alive and kicking for his freedom!

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