Nigerian e-mail scammers jailed

By Reuters

Published: November 21, 2005, 10:01 AM PST

LAGOS-A court has sentenced two men to a total of 37 years in prison for their part in defrauding a Brazilian bank of $242 million, the biggest scam in Nigerian history, newspapers reported on Saturday.

The sentencing of Emmanuel Nwude to 25 years and Nzeribe Okoli to 12 years follows negotiations in which they agreed to plead guilty to 16 of the 91 original charges, and to forfeit assets worth at least $121.5 million to the victims of the scam.

A third fraudster, Amaka Anajemba, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in July after agreeing to return $48.5 million to the Sao Paolo-based Banco Noroeste, which collapsed after the theft.

"The activities of the accused persons not only led to the collapse of a bank in a foreign country, but also brought miseries to many innocent people," Justice Joseph Oyewole was reported as saying.

The fraudsters obtained the money by promising a member of the bank staff a commission for funding a non-existent contract to build an airport in Nigeria's capital Abuja.

Scams have become so successful in Nigeria that anti-sleaze campaigners say swindling is one of the country's main foreign exchange earners after oil, natural gas and cocoa.

These are the first major convictions achieved by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which was established in 2003 to crack down on Nigeria's thriving networks of e-mail fraudsters.





Previous Next Typically fraudsters send out junk e-mails around the world promising recipients a share in a fortune in return for an advance fee. Those who pay never receive the promised windfall.

Ranked the world's sixth most corrupt country, according to an index by Transparency International, Nigeria has given new powers to the EFCC, which is prosecuting about 200 fraud and corruption cases.

The antifraud agency has arrested more than 200 junk mail scam suspects since 2003. It says it has also confiscated property worth $200 million and secured 10 other convictions.

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