Posted by by tayo elebijo on
An American ,Mr. Timothy Hassen, has become the latest victim of an advance fee fraud involving N980 million by a woman who presented herself to the American as one of the daughters of late dictator, General Sani Abacha.
An American ,Mr. Timothy Hassen, has become the latest victim of an advance fee fraud involving N980 million by a woman who presented herself to the American as one of the daughters of late dictator, General Sani Abacha.
The woman, later identified as Linda Ozoamaka by detectives from the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), had introduced herself to Mr. Hassen as a daughter of General Abacha to convince him to part with about $7million.
The Abacha's fake daughter, believed to be presently hiding in London, had allegedly in 1999 presented a proposal to the American, intimating him that the late General left $100billion in a coded account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and asked Hansen to contribute about $7million towards getting the money out of the CBN vaults.
According to EFCC detectives, Linda Ozoamaka promised the American 30 per cent of the $100billion on the condition that Mr. Hassen supplied his letter head paper with which she would write the CBN for the release and his account number to which the loot was to be transferred.
Quoting a report lodged with the EFCC, detectives said that Ozoamaka later requested for $5 million, which she claimed, would be used to bribe some top officials of the CBN to get the money out of the bank and ultimately out of the country.
On receipt of the money, she was said to have traveled to Ghana where she lodged at an hotel and lived like a queen.
Ozoamaka, according to the EFCC officials, demanded another $2 million from the American under the pretext that the $5 million earlier requested was not enough to secure the release of the $100 billion from the CBN.
The American, it was learnt, made the fresh payment, into a London account on the instruction of Ozoamaka.
Linda Ozoamaka later returned to Enugu State with her loot and built a hotel, which she allegedly named the Golden Tulip Hotel after the one she stayed in Ghana.
Detectives working on the case, Saturday Independent learnt, had already seized the hotel in Enugu State in addition to some posh cars.
EFCC spokesman, Mr. Osita Uwaja, confirmed to Saturday Independent that the International Police (Interpol) had already been informed and are on the trail of Linda.
Mr. Uwaja also disclosed that a Lexus Jeep, a Mercedes Benz car and a Honda car had been impounded from the premises of Linda Ozoamaka in Enugu.
He said only the Honda car was brought to Lagos while the Lexus Jeep and the Mercedes Benz car are in the custody of the New Haven Police station in Enugu.