In a series of events that is
credited as the largest financial crime in the World History, Emmanuel Nwude, a
director at Union Bank, defrauded Nelson Sakaguchi and the Brazilian Bank,
Banco Noroeste Brazil of the sum of 242 million dollars with a scheme that, in
retrospect, seems like something out of an episode of impractical jokers.
According to a Newswatch
editorial dated Monday, July 07, 2003, Emmanuel Nwude was, at the time he was
caught, one of the wealthiest Igbo businessmen in Nigeria.
Popularly known as the Owelle of
Abunuga, Nwude is said to have owned a 10-storey building in the heart of
Lagos. In a manner consistent with his wealth and flashy luxury, he lived on
the top floor of the building while the bottom floor housed a commercial bank.
Every metre of space in between those two floors was dictated to his private
concern, Euro-holdings.
Nwude was said to own buildings
across Nigeria and cities in the United States.
Anyone who wondered about his
wealth would have found a simple convincing response. Nwude owned millions of
shares as the singular largest equity holder in Union Bank. Unt6il 2001, he was
also a member of the board of directors of the bank.
It was in this capacity that
Nwude pulled off one of the most daring and outrageous schemes that the world
has ever seen.
According to Nuhu Ribadu, who was
EFCC’s chairman as at the time of his conviction, the swindle took place over a
four year period, starting in 1995.
His main tactic was
impersonation. Nwude posed as the CBN governor at that time, Paul Ogwoma.
His accomplice, Ikechukwu
Anajemba posed as Rasheed Gomwalk who was the CBN’s Director of International
Remittance. Anajemba’s wife, Amaka posed as Gomwalk’s wife, completing the
unholy trio.
Ikechukwu Anajemba died in 1998,
as the proceeds of the scam were finally delivered, leaving his wife to take
his share.
Together, the trio and a host of
ancillary accomplices presented a proposition to the head of International
Finance at Brazil’s Banco Noroeste Brazil, Nelson Sakaguchi.
Using false correspondence and
Nwude’s access to confidential, high-level documents, they convinced Sakaguchi
that the Nigerian government was seeking investors to build an airport in
Abuja, the new capital.
If Sakaguchi could provide the
first investment of 242 million dollars, they said, he was entitled to a
commission of 10%.
The deal has not been presented
as a cooperate offering, so Sakaguchi did what he thought he had to do; he
illegally dipped into his bank’s funds and began to make a series of payments
to accounts around the world.
He and Nwude agreed that he would
pay some of the 242 million dollars as cash and the rest in some form of
facility.
Between 1995 to 1998, Sakaguchi
transferred 191 million in cash to Nwude and his accomplices. The rest was
conveyed as some form of outstanding interest.
During this period, Nwude and his
accomplices spent lavishly. Amaka , Anajemba’s wife, became known as a
socialite, erecting massive edifices in her hometown of Enugu and making
friends among Nigeria’s political class.
The fraud was only discovered
when the victim bank was the subjest of a buy-out by the Spanish bank,
Santander.
At a joint meeting in 1997, an
official from Santander inquired about why a large sum of money, two-fifths of
Noroeste’s total value and half their capital was sitting in the Cayman Islands
unmonitored. This discovery led to extensive criminal investigations in five
continents.
The effect on Banco Noroeste was
fatal. The owners had to pay the missing 242 million dollars out of their
pockets for the purchase to go ahead, but that narrow escape did not secure its
future. In 2001, Banco Noroeste collapsed.
Nwude and his accomplices enjoyed
their loot for years, but in 2003, a trail created by years of reading the fine
print and making connections from the Cayman Islands landed in Lagos.
Newswatch reported that Nwude was
picked up early June 2003 at his residence in Ikoyi, Lagos. Seven of his exotic
cars were also taken to the premises of the EFCC on 15, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.
A series of trials began with the
Central Bank of Nigeria and the newly created Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) on one hand and Emmanuel Nwude and his accomplices the other.
In February 2004, Amaka Anajemba, Emmanuel Nwude, Emmanuel
Ofolue, Nzeribe Okoli, and Obum Osakwe, with Ikechukwu Anajemba post-humously
mentioned, were all charged in the Federal High Court, Abuja with 86 counts of
“fraudulently seeking advance fees” and 15 counts of bribery related to the
case.
They all pleaded not guilty.
Their trial only got more eventful. By early 2004, it almost appeared that the
judicial bureaucracy had brought the trial to a stalemate. In a report dated Tuesday,
July 20, 2004, the BBC reported that the presiding Judge, Lawal Gumi declared
that the elements of the crime had not yet taken place in Abuja, and as such,
he lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case.
Nwude and his accomplices were
released only to be re-arrested outside the court and taken to Lagos.
The next year, with the trial
nearing a definite conclusion, underhanded tactics began to play out.
Nwude allegedly tried to bribe
the EFCC head honcho, Nuhu Ribadu with 75,000 dollars in cash. He was charged
with additional counts for his trouble, in addition to a five-count charge for
an incident where a prosecution witness was almost kidnapped.
In September 2005, a bomb scare
during his trial caused the court-house to be evacuated and the trial
adjourned.
Resolution finally came in its
first form when Amaka Anajemba admitted to helping her husband. She was
sentenced to two and a half years in prison and ordered to repay 25.5 million
dollars.
Weeks after, Sakaguchi, the
object of Nwude’s fraud offered first-hand testimony in a Lagos high court.
With little room to manoeuvre,
Emmanuel Nwude and Nzeribe Okoli pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
They had conceded grounds in hopes of getting a lenient sentence. That did not
seem to matter much; both were sentenced to 37 years in prison collectively.
According to Reuters, Emmanuel
Nwude was sentenced to 25 years and Nzeribe Okoli to 12 years for their part.
Reading his final judgement,
Justice Joseph Oyewole was reported saying : “ The activities of the accused
persons not only led to the collapse of a bank in a foreign country but also
brought miseried to many innocent people.”
The next Monday, according to
IRIN News, EFCC chair, Nuhu Ribadu made the refund of 17 million US dollars to
William Richey, a lawyer representing the defunct Banco Noroeste.
Nwude’s assets were confiscated
and he was charged with paying a fine of 10 million dollars to the National
Government.
Emmanuel was released in 2006.
In the months later, he
instituted many Fundamental Rights cases against the government for the
recovery of some of his property, on the grounds that he had acquired them
before the fraud.
More than a decade after his
release, Nwude presently sits in one of the cells at the creatively-named
Arkham Prisons, Gotham City in Anambra State, and awaiting trial for murder.
On August 19, 2016, about 200
people attacked the town of Ukpo in the Dunukofia area of Anambra State,
ostensibly as part of a land dispute with the neighbouring Abagana , where Nwude still enjoys heavy clout.
The Anambra Police Command
arrested him as one of the sponsors of the attack, charging him on 27 counts of
murder, attempted murder and terrorism. The matter is currently before a High
Court in the state.
Source: pulse.ng, ourpage9ja.
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