'419' scammers stand trial
2004-02-04 20:44
Abuja - Six Nigerians accused of stealing $242m and bringing down a Brazilian bank in the biggest ever recorded case of "advance fee fraud" are to go on trial on Thursday, officials said.
Nigeria has become notorious as the home of the "419 scam", in which unsuspecting foreigners are duped into handing over money or bank account information in exchange for a false promise of sudden wealth.
Officials hope the trial will prove they are now serious about fighting fraud, and described it as their "most important case".
The classic sting - in which during 2001 a 419 gang forced the collapse of the Banco Noroeste of Sao Paolo, Brazil - remains the most spectacular of its type, and its discovery revealed a web of international financial intrigue, led by Nigerians but drawing in suspects of several nationalities.
"Apart from involving the single biggest haul of advance fee fraud, this matter has given birth to other trials, in as diverse and far away places as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Brazil and the United States," said Nuhu Ribadu, head of Nigeria's anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Abuja's High Court will hear how six Nigerians duped Banco Noroeste's head of international finance into making a series of huge payments in exchange for a false promise of a cut in a contract to build the city's new international airport.
Ribadu said much of the stolen money had been located and was now frozen in the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Tens of millions of businesses and households around the world have received faxes or e-mails from Nigerians or other Africans masquerading as corrupt officials or the sons and daughters of deceased dictators, offering shares in hidden fortunes in exchange for simple administrative assistance.
Victims are sucked in with promises of fabulous wealth, then tricked into supplying bank account details or advance legal fees. International law enforcement agencies believe that billions of dollars are siphoned out of western banks by this method every year.
Dubbed "419" after the section of the penal code outlawing it, the crime has combined with Nigeria's already woeful reputation as a haven for public sector graft to give the west African nation a reputation as one of the world's most corrupt places.