The Unbelievable Story Of A Nigerian Yahoo Yahoo Boy Who Sold A Fake Airport For $242m (PHOTOS)

The story of Emmanuel Nwude who committed the largest fraud in the country by selling a non-existent airport to a Brazilian for $242 million between 1995 and 1998. The rise of internet fraud commonly known as 419 is one phenomenon Nigeria has come to be associated it. Before internet fraud became a global issue, Nwude had committed one of the biggest scams in the world.
Specifically, his fraud was the third largest banking scam in the world after the Nick Leeson’s trading losses at Barings Bank, and the looting of the Iraqi Central Bank by Qusay Hussein. How was Nwude able to carry out this jaw-dropping scam and convince Nelson Sakaguchi who was the director of the bank to part with so much money for the purchase of an airport? Nwude was a former director of Union Bank of Nigeria and this position made him privy to some links, information and documents that other persons would not be aware of.
He impersonated the then governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Paul Ogwuma, and connected with Sakaguchi informing him of a mouth-watering deal of Nigeria’s plan to build an airport in Abuja.

Nwude, pretending to be the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, told Sakaguchi that he stood of chance of pocketing $10 million commission when the deal passed through. Sakaguchi paid $191 million in cash and the remainder in the form of outstanding interest. Nwude’s accomplices were Emmanuel Ofolue, Nzeribe Okoli, and Obum Osakwe, along with the husband and wife duo, Christian Ikechukwu Anajemba and Amaka Anajemba, with Christian later being assassinated.
The criminal gang was able to convince the director of the Brazilian bank to part with the money. How did Sakaguchi find out he was a victim of one of the largest scam in the world?

In 1997, the Spanish Banco Santander wanted to take over the Banco Noroeste and a joint board meeting was held in December of that year. Officials of the Spanish bank noted that half of the Brazilian bank’s capital was at Cayman Islands unmonitored. This raised questions as this was two-fifths of Noroeste’s total value.
Investigation began and was carried out in Brazil, Britain, Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United States. Although the sale of the Bank still went on as the owners of the bank paid $242 million bill, the nak still collapsed in 2001.