Meet Emmanuel Nwude , One of History's Biggest Frauds' Person Who Sold a Fake Airport to an International Bank. There have been ...
Meet Emmanuel Nwude, One of History's Biggest Frauds' Person Who Sold a Fake Airport to an International Bank.
There have been scams in the past, but it seems strange to sell an airport to a client from another country without first going to the airport to verify the deal and make sure it is legitimate.
Emmanuel Nwude Odinigwe, who was better known as "Owelle of Abagana," pulled off one of the biggest banking scams ever. His fraud is the third biggest in the history of business in the whole world. People think that Nwude is one of the smartest crooks who ever lived.
Qusay Hussein's theft of the Iraqi Central Bank and Nick Leeson's trade losses at Barings Bank are bigger banking scams than Nwude's.
Emmanuel Nwude Odinigwe's $242 million scam was top-notch. Nelson Sakaguchi, who was in charge of Banco Noroeste in So Paulo, Brazil, fell for Nwude's tricks.
Nwude had to wear the clothes of a powerful Nigerian in order to commit this huge crime. At that time, Paul Ogwuma, who was then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was the easiest character for him to take on.
Emmanuel Nwude Odinigwe was easy to fool because he was the Director of the Union Bank of Nigeria at the time. So it will be hard for Nwude to take on the traits of any banker.
Nwude needed more people to help him pull off the fraud than just Paul Ogwuma's identity. So, he used the skills of Emmanuel Ofolue, Nzeribe Okoli, and Obum Osakwe, as well as Christian Ikechukwu Anajemba and Amaka Anajemba, a husband and wife team, to make sure the process went well.
As Paul Ogwuma, Nwude convinced Sakaguchi to "invest" in a new airport in the nation's capital, Abuja, in return for a $10 million commission.
The whole deal was worth $242 million, of which $191 million was paid in cash and the rest was paid between 1995 and 1998 as interest.
Sakaguchi took the bait, and Banco Noroeste lost a lot of money because of it.
In 1997, Banco Santander, a Spanish multinational company that provides banking services, made plans to buy Banco Noroeste Brazil. During a joint meeting to help with the takeover, a big hole was found. The vacuum looks so big that everyone took a good look at it.
It was found that a huge amount of money was just sitting in the Cayman Islands without being used. This fund makes up about half of the bank's cash and two-fifths of its total value.
Because of this, a criminal investigation team was set up in each country where the people concerned live. Brazil, Britain, Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United States are the countries. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a new anti-corruption group, went after Nwude in Nigeria.
Nelson Sakaguchi was caught at the John F. Kennedy airport in New York and sent to jail.
and sent to Switzerland to stand trial on charges related to setting up bank accounts there as part of the fraud.
But the Simonsen and Cochrane families, who own Banco Noroeste, paid the $242 million to smooth things over and fix the damage. One might think that this would be enough to save the situation, but in 2001, the bank went bankrupt.
Nelson Sakaguchi, on the other hand, was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and sent to Switzerland to face theft charges there.
In 2002, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was made by the Nigerian Parliament at the request of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In 2004, the EFCC arrested Nwude and his partners and charged them with 86 counts, including bribery and trying to get money from the Abuja High Court without being honest about it. All of them said they were not guilty. But Judge Lawal Gumi said that an attempt was made to pay court staff.
Years later, Gumi threw out the case. He said that the crime didn't happen in Abuja because it happened in Lagos, which was miles away from his authority.
Nwude and the other people with him were arrested in front of the building and taken to Lagos.
This case was one of the most important ones that the EFCC took on after it was set up. Nuju Ribadu, who was the head of the agency at the time, said that Nwude tried to pay him with $75,000.
This made Nwude's case even more complicated because he was now charged with trying to bribe a witness and taking a witness from the state.
Amaka Anajemba, who worked with Nwude, admitted to the crime. He was sentenced to two and a half years in jail and told to pay back $25.5 million.
After Sakaguchi's evidence, Emmanuel and one of his helpers, Nzeribe Okoli, pleaded guilty to the crime. He was then given a total jail sentence of 29 years, with Nwude getting five sentences of five years each, for a total of 25, and Okoli getting four.
All of Nwude's possessions were taken away at the same time. It went back to the person who lost it.
In 2006, Nwude came out.
After Nwude got out of jail in 2006, he filed a lawsuit to get back his property. Some of the assets were bought before he did the crime, he said.
He was able to get $52 Million of it back, though.
Nwude is said to have told the judge in 2021 that he didn't know about the $242 million airport scam. He said that his lawyers, led by Dr. Chris Uche (SAN), convinced him to make a deal with the EFCC while he was in jail.
"I told him I wasn't responsible for the 242 million dollars," Nwude said. That I have nothing to do with this money and have no idea where it came from.
"The EFCC should check all of the transfers that went through my accounts, even though I have my friend, the late Christian Anajemba's (the husband of Amaka, his co-defendant), different bank accounts.
"As money came into my accounts, I gave it to one of my Indian friends, Mr. Naresh Asnani, who knows someone at a Swiss bank and does the exchange for me.
"When the money came in, he (Asnani) took his cut, and I'll take mine, and I'll give the big sum to Christian Anajemba,".
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