A nigerian Fraud star, Emmanuel Nuwde sells nigerian 'airport' to a Brazillan Bank at shs847 billion. The airport sold has never existed in the History of Nigerian. This bank fraud is the third largest Bank criminal case in the world.
Emmanuel Nuwde Odimigwe (popularly known as the Ouelle of Abumuga) is a Nigerian advanced fraud star and former Director of Union Bank of Nigeria.
He is known for defrauding Nelson Sakahuchi, a Director at Brazil's Banco Noraeste based in São Paulo, of $242 million(shs847 billion) with $191 million(668.5billion shillings) in cash and the remainder in the form of outstanding interest, between 1995 and 1998. He is allegedly connected to have fraud the money with his couple business counterpart Christian Ikechukwu Anajenba and Amaka Anajenba. The Christian Couple was later assasinated after the fraud. Its believed that Emmanuel decided to clean off his business counterparts to keep the money all to himself.
This fraud is still one of the biggest Bank looting in the history of human life. It stands after Nick Leeson's trading losses at Barings Bank, and the looting of the Iraqi Central Bank by Qusay Hussein, making it the third largest in banking history.
HOW HE PLANNED THE FRAUD
Emmanuel Nwude impersonated Paul Ogwuma, who was by then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and successfully convinced Sakaguchi, a then director at Brazil's Banco Noroeste, to "invest" in a new airport in the nation's capital, Abuja, in exchange for a $10 million(shs.3.5 billion) commission.
In August 1997, the Spanish Banco Santander(One of the big banks in Spain) wanted to take over the Banco Noroeste Brazil(Bank which Emmanuel frauded). 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 led 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.
As for Nelson Sakaguchi(the Director of the Brazillian Bank, Banco Noroeste who was frauded), he was later arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy airport and dispatched to Switzerland, to stand trial on charges relating to setting up bank accounts there as part of the fraud.
At the request of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was created by the Nigerian Parliament in 2002.
In February 2004, Emmanuel Ndude was arrested and charged in the Abuja High Court with 86 counts of "fraudulently seeking advance fees" and 15 counts of bribery related to the case.
Surprisingly, Emmanuel and his other allies pleaded not guilty. It was rumoured that they bribed the court staff. This rumour was started by Abuja High Court Judge Lawal Gumi, after he alleged that money was going around.
The defense team assured that "nothing would be done to bring scandal to the administration of justice."
Four Nigerian companies, Fynbaz, Emrus, Ocean Marketing and the African Shelter Bureau also faced charges and pleaded not guilty.
In July 2004, Judge Lawal Gumi threw out the case, claiming that since the crime did not take place in Abuja, he had no jurisdiction, and said that the proper place for the case would be the Lagos High Court.
The defendants were immediately rearrested after stepping outside the courthouse and the case was moved to Lagos.
In 2005, Emmanuel Nwude attempted to bribe Nuhu Ribadu, then head of the commission, with $75,000(262.5million shillings) cash. He was charged in connection with the attempted bribery in addition to the attempted kidnapping of a prosecution witness.
At this point, his life seemed to we ven get worse and worse.
In July 2005, Amaka Anajemba, one of those connected to the fraud admitted to helping Anajemba and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and ordered to repay $25.5 million(89.25 billion shillings).
During Emmanuel Nwude's trial, there was a bomb scare that caused the courthouse to be evacuated. The bomb was planted within the court building however it was unclear who planted the bomb.
Emmanuel Nwude and Nzeribe Okoli(another counter part) pleaded guilty after testimony from Sakaguchi in hopes of a more lenient sentence, and were sentenced to 29 years in prison collectively, with Nwude receiving five concurrent sentences of five years, totaling 25, and Okoli receiving four.
The entirety of Nwude's assets were confiscated to be returned to the victim and a $10 million fine was imposed to be paid to the Nigerian federal government.
Nwude filed a lawsuit to recover his seized assets after he was released from prison, on the grounds that some of the assets were acquired before the offense was committed.
He has already reclaimed at least $52 Million. As of May 8, 2015, the matter is being heard by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal.