Posted by By DULUE MBACHU on
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) A court convicted a Nigerian woman of helping defraud a Brazilian bank of $242 million in the West African country's biggest international fraud case.
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) A court convicted a Nigerian woman of helping defraud a Brazilian bank of $242 million in the West African country's biggest international fraud case.
Amaka Anajemba was convicted Friday, sentenced to 2{ years in prison and ordered to give up $25.5 million in cash and assets including houses in Nigeria, the United States, Britain and Switzerland to help repay the bank.
According to court papers, Anajemba helped her late husband in a fraud ring that tricked a top employee of the Brazilian bank into siphoning millions to overseas accounts on the promise of $13.4 million kickback from a bogus Nigerian airport contract.
In all, Banco Noroeste of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was reportedly fleeced of some $242 million over seven years until 2001.
Four men have pleaded innocent in the case.
Nigeria has earned global notoriety as a base for criminals arranging ``advance fee'' or ``419'' scams, named after the section of Nigeria's criminal code that prohibits the schemes. The Brazilian bank case is the biggest ever publicly disclosed in Nigeria.
Among the best-known scams are e-mails proposing to share portions of dead African dictators' ill-gotten estates in exchange for an advance payment to help move the money overseas. Scammers keep the fees while victims, who are often reluctant to reveal their role in the scam, receive nothing.