419 'scamster' loses assets
2003-08-26 08:48
Johannesburg - The suspected leader of a 419 scam protested his innocence on Monday morning, while the Assets Forfeiture Unit attached his assets.
"I cannot defend myself because I'm a black man. Why me?" asked Tony Jody Uche, 36, a Nigerian who is apparently in South Africa illegally.
Unit members attached his double storey home in Duncombe Avenue in Mondeor, south of Johannesburg, as well as two bank accounts containing R300 000, 12 cellphones and computers. His luxury car and another he also bought cash, were not to be found.
Uche says he's a legal South African who would have paid income tax last year if the police hadn't arrested him.
He, his South African "wife", as well as five other Nigerians have been charged with fraud and money-laundering amounting to at least R500 000.
They apparently conned a Marokko man of R450 000 after he apparently thought a 419 fraudulent letter was credible. According to this letter, the businessman had "to help the son of an important Sierra Leone person" to transfer an amount of about R190m in a bank account in South Africa to an overseas account in exchange for 30% commission.
Detectives of the Johannesburg unit against organised crime arrested the suspects in November last year. They have to appear in Benoni magistrate's court on October 20.
Police found a 2003 colour calendar from the Nigerian "Royal Committee of Friends" in Uche's home on Monday. The photographs of all 14 committee members who are apparently linked to the 419 letter fraudulent scheme, appear on the calendar.
The officer in charge of the investigation says the committee holds regular meetings.
The head of the Assets Forfeiture Unit, advocate Ouma Rabaji, says the national prosecution authority has obtained 10 court orders since August last year to seize assets of suspects involved in the 419 letter fraudulent scheme. "The suspects are all Nigerians and about R7m is involved."