Peace to you!
My story has been well known to the internet community:
The story begins with a pleasant idea of partnership and release of a compensation fund with a Nigerian Muslim who wrote a letter to me on December 24, 1994, asking me to participate in a joint venture to be established in Pakistan with a capital of US$ 30.5 Million.
He wrote, I am Malam Sheikh Ahmed, Deputy Chief Accountant in NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Company. I along with my Chief Accountant have decided to resign from civil service and start business in Pakistan we request in the name of Allah and Muslim Brotherhood to help us to transfer an amount of US$ 30.5 Million in your bank account.[Because the Nigerian government did not allow to open accounts in foreign countries]. We have got every instrument to get this transaction completed within 48 hours. We plan to come to Pakistan to establish a joint venture in your country. [The infrastructure would be provided by you]. Your share will be 30%; we will own 60% and the rest 10% will be set aside for ancillary expenses . . .
If you agree with our proposal, please send your bank particulars. Please keep this strictly confidential. All correspondence shall be by fax.
I sent the documents received from Nigeria to the Nigeria High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, for scrutiny but did not get any response despite several reminders, I had a little knowledge about Nigeria and the people. As a Muslim I answered their call for help being unaware of their real intentions. I accepted their proposal in Good Faith. A fax message was received on 24-2-1996 , thanking me for accepting their proposal and I was asked to send US$ 10.000 (Ten Thousand US dollars) to cover the expenses of Telegraphic Transfer, Auditor Fees and Attorney Fee. I was given a foreign-based bank account number for this payment.
COMMERZ BANK AG
LONDON BRANCH, COMMERZ BANK HOUSE
23 AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON EC2N 2EN
FOR ONWARD CREDIT TO ABC MERCHANT BANK LTD
AC/160-121450/10-USD BENEFICIARY H. B. UMAR
AMOUNT US$ 10000.00 (Amount sent on 29 Feb 1996)
I was asked to fax the copy of the remittance advice to fax #234-1-4924212 and advised to use only the same number in future. They wrote,
You being the beneficiaries of this fund have to pay such charges levies and fees as you will be called upon to remit to various off-shore accounts and be rest assured that you would be compensated later. We do not want to raise suspicion by paying from here.
Signed
Sheikh Ahmed
24-2-96
After that he sent fax messages for certain payments from time to time. He had marvelous convincing power and the urgency for those payments was so meticulously fabricated that there seemed not a grain of doubt. That evil genius extorted US$51,381.00 through bank remittances. The remittances were made through Standard Chartered bank, The Mall, Lahore, Pakistan from my Bank account in Pakistan
COMMERZ BANK AG
LONDON BRANCH, COMMERZ BANK HOUSE
23 AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON EC2N 2EN
FOR ONWARD CREDIT TO ABC MERCHANT BANK LTD
AC/160-121450/10-USD BENEFICIARY H. B. UMAR
AMOUNT US$ 10000.00 (Date 29 Feb 1996)
BYBLOS BANK, BELGIUM S.A. LONDON
7 BERKELEY SQUARE, LONDON W1X 6LB U.K.
FOR ONWARD CREDIT TO A/C NO: 9743- USD
BENEFICIARY: IKE G. KANU
AMOUNT US$ 2000.00 (DATE: 16 JULY 1996)
BANQUE FRANCAISE DE LORIENT
50 CURZON STREET, LONDON W1Y 7PN
A/C NO: 14636743 OF PACIFIC SECURITIES
BENEFICIARY: GEORGE UCHENNA
AMOUNT: US$ 6000.00 (DATE: O9 SEPT 1996)
LONDON TRUST BANK
30 UPPER GROSS VENOR STREETS
LONDON W1X OAH
A/C NO: 60127020 USD OF BROAD BANK LTD
BENEFICIARY: GEORGE UCHENNA
AMOUNT: US$ 3500.00 (DATE: 29 SEPT 1996)
CITI BANK PRIVATE BANK
41 BERKELY SQUARE, LONDON W1X 6NA
PEG A/C 2118246 FOR FINAL CREDIT TO A/C NO: 305738018
BENEFICIARY: NNAMDI KANU
AMOUNT: US$ 2000.00 (DATE: 26 NOV 1996)
COMMERZ BANK LONDON
10/11 AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON EC 2P 2JD
A/C NO: 1231240/10 OF CHARTERED BANK LTD
BENEFICIARY: EDET E. BASSEY
AMOUNT: US$ 4000.00 (DATE: 09 APRIL 1997)
NATWEST BANK PLC
106 FINCHLEY ROAD, SWISS COTTAGE BRANCH, LONDON
A/C NO: 140-00-04153499
BENEFICIARY: O. A. TAIWO
AMOUNT: US$ 2.800.00 (DATE: 19 MAY 1997)
NATWEST BANK PLC
106 FINCHLEY ROAD, SWISS COTTAGE BRANCH, LONDON
A/C NO: 140-00-04153499
BENEFICIARY: O. A. TAIWO
AMOUNT: US$ 6150.00 (DATE SENT: 28 AUG 1997)
CITI BANK NA, 25 MOLESWORTH STREET, LONDON SE1 37EX
A/C NO: 5530636 FURTHER CREDIT TO A/C NO: 20212012
BENEFICIARY: MADU CHINEMERE
AMOUNT: US$ 5680.00 (DATE SENT: 12 FEB 1998)
THE ACCOUNTS GIVEN UNDER PERTAIN TO U S A
CITI BANK N A, FITS, 111 WALL STREET, 19TH FLOOR, ZONE ONE,
NEW YORK NY 10043, USA
A/C NO: 36112469
BENEFICIARY: GODWYN AKA ESQ
AMOUNT US$ 4251.00 (DATE: 08 APRIL 1996)
WASHINGTON MUTUAL BANK, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA
A/C NO: 2198018042
BENEFICIARY: AUSTIN ACHONU
AMOUNT: US$ 5000.00 (DATE: 20 MAY 1998)
He asked me to reach London for further deliberations. I waited for him from 25 April to 29 April 1996. He did not turn up. Again he used his extraordinarily convincing power by putting forward lot of excuses to satisfy me for his failure to join me in London.
On 14-3-1998 he asked me to send five fancy wrist watches: two for ladies and 3 for gents to be offered to the staff of the then Governor, CBN Chief Paul Ogwuma, for helping release the fund.
Here is where the criminal made a big mistake. He provided his wife's address for the dispatch of those watches. That address helped me track him down in Ikeja-Lagos, and discover his real name - Gerald Kanu.
After a period of silence he sent an e-mail, in June 2000 to proceed to London as he had made a very secure arrangement for the amount. I was asked to contact one Bill Morgan and pay to him 3,000 Pounds Sterling to arrange the transaction before his arrival in London. I reached London on 6 July, 2000, paid the amount to Bill Morgan and waited for him up to 1 August, 2000. He did not turn up. He did not reply to my phone calls and emails.
MY DECISION TO GO TO NIGERIA
When the scammer lost contact with me for quite some time. I got suspicious and visited the Director General (Africa) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs located in Islamabad, Pakistan. After hearing my story, he advised me to visit Abuja and forward a petition through our High-Commission. On June 25th, 2001, I traveled to Abuja and submitted my petition to the Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan, requesting him to forward it to the Nigerian authorities and Special Fraud Unit in Abuja. In turn, he advised me to go see the scammer in an effort to reach an amicable agreement. He stated that he would only file the petition with Nigerian authorities if the scammer and I failed to reach an agreement.
MY ORDEAL IN NIGERIA
When I visited the house (by following the address given to me for the dispatch of watches through courier) of Mr. Gerald, his wife came down out of the flat and out of the main gate to find out who I was and where I came from. She admitting that she was the wife of Mr. Gerald Kanu, and after I told her who I am, she ran back to her flat and told her husband to flee. Then she came back down to the taxi-cab where I was waiting and threatened to have me eliminated [assassinated] if I did not leave Nigeria immediately.
I was a sick old man. I made the trip to Nigeria against medical advice in hopes of recovering my money for the last days of my life. I was directed by my High Commissioner at Abuja to go to see that criminal for an amicable agreement, without any police protection, and that proved to be a hazardous undertaking. Having been threatened with assassination and warned to leave Nigeria immediately, I could not contact my High Commissioner and had to run for my life. I took the threat very seriously.
Some God-fearing Nigerian Muslims gave me refuge and escorted me safely to the airport for my departure to Pakistan. The stress involved in trying to regain my losses aggravated my illness, which in turn ran up further expenses that cut into my retirement fund. Bank Remittances with transfer charges, Communication (Phone, Fax, Internet charges), Gifts, Two Voyages to London along with related travel expenses: (Boarding, lodging and transport)travel to Nigeria and related expenses plus the robbed amount- all added together come to US$ 458,000.My complaint was lodged with SFU-ABUJA, through High Commission of Pakistan, on June 29, 2001. It was addressed to CSP Sotonye LeRoy Wakama. No update has been made available to me, directly or through my embassy, as the officer lost contact with me after September 21, 2001.
After all this years of molestation, intimidation injustice and lost and after all the application I sent to the Nigerian Government and the United Nations, I received a call from my Bank on the 9th of July 2012 that the total sum of $10Million entered my account from United Nations Office in LONDON as a compensation fund approved by the Nigerian Government though the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
It was only this morning I was informed that the West African Government mapped out in 2008 compensation fund for scammed beneficiaries and the names on that list includes your name and I have below the contact information of the man in charge of the compensation fund payment below:-
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru
Email:
ashirugbenga@email.com
Muhammed Khan
