Michael Oke. on Thu, 20 Feb 2003 01:47:02 +0100 (CET)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

[Nettime-bold] URGENT


FROM:  Mr. Michael Oke

                Executive Director, Bill & Exchange

                Universal Trust Bank 

                Lagos, Nigeria.

 

 

 

I am Michael Oke, Executive Director, Bill and Exchange at the FOREX (Foreign Exchange) Department of the Universal Trust Bank. I know this will come as a surprise to you, because you do not know me, neither do you have any inkling what this is all about. I, therefore, appeal that you forgive me for infringing on your privacy. But I also pray you find time to read through this mail, carefully and diligently. Do not jump into conclusions, as I know you are likely to think because, ordinarily, that this may look absurd. 

 

In my department, we recently discovered a dormant but very liquid account with a total of $12.1 Million (Twelve Million, One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) only, belonging to one of our expatriate (foreign) customers who died along with his wife and two children in a tragic plane crash on the 15th of November, 1998.  Due to the inadequacies in our information systems in the country, we did not know about the ill fate of our dear customer until recently when families of other victims of the crash forced the government to make the concerned airline to publish the manifest of that ill fated flight and pay some compensation to their next-of-kin. Ironically, our bank was designated the paying outlet for the compensation, and it was during this process we discovered that Engineer Bill Carr and his entire family was affected. From all available documents at our disposal about him, his registered next-of-kin was his first son, who also died in the crash. Ever since then, w!
e have been making very frantic efforts at reaching his other relatives, but to no avail.

 

By the rules of our bank and the federation’s statute on financial institutions, after four years, if the money remains unclaimed, the bank is under obligation to turn in 85% of the sum to the National Planning Commission, while the remaining 15% will be paid to the Educational Trust Fund of the government in the particular state where the account owner last worked.

 

It is exactly three months more than 4 calendar years since this incident happened and yet, no one has come forward as Carr’s relative. The only contacts we were able to establish were his Nigerian domestic staff  whom we have thoroughly interviewed, to see if we could get useful information about his relatives. From our findings, Bill Carr came to Nigeria with his pregnant wife in 1976. They delivered their two sons here in Nigeria and were never visited by their relatives other than one person who came December 29, 1983 and had to scamper out of Nigeria January 2,1984 because of the December 31, 1983 military coup and its attendant confusion. Though they were said to be Irish-Americans, they later became dual citizens of their native country and Nigeria, before their unfortunate death.

 

Now faced with these realities, other senior officials of my department and I have decided to propose to you, our desire to register you as a relative of Bill Carr and subsequently accept your application as a claimant and beneficiary of Bill Carr’s assets.

 

The onus of proof is on us, and we shall ensure that every thing is done to make it sail through. The most imperative thing is for you to have faith in this and be committed to it.

 

If you are positively disposed to this, the first step to take is to quickly write a formal letter to our bank by fax and email, notifying us about your relationship with Bill Carr. After that had been done, you would be required to request for permission to file for the claim of Bill Carr’s assets in our custody. Your application must be backed up with a Sworn Affidavit from any Federal High Court in Nigeria, which must be avowed to by the head of Bill Carr’s known domestic staff, who must affirm all your claims and confirm meeting you in person, once before, in the company of Bill Carr, who at that time, introduced you as his cousin (claiming that you were the one that visited in 1983).

 

In your application, you must indicate your full names, place of work, post held, address, private telephone and fax numbers, as well as the name and address of the bank and the account number you would wish the money remitted to.

 

Upon receipt of your response to this mail, I will let you have a draft of an acceptable application, to enable you apply quickly. As for Bill Carr’s domestic staff that would swear to an affidavit in your favour, we shall handle that as well.

 

The whole process shall be done in consonance with the laws of the state, so as to ensure that everything is hitch-free and safe at the end of it all. This has nothing to do with the government of Nigeria or any government agency. It is strictly a private sector affair. Note that almost all approvals we need are to be obtained within the bank.

 

To compensate every stakeholder, we have agreed to give you 17% of the entire sum; 15% to all Bill Carr’s surviving domestic staff; 5% to Bill Carr’s Lawyer (whose consent must be obtained by the bank before any remittance can be made); 3% shall be used to make refunds for all the expenses incurred during the process, while my colleagues and I who are behind this will take 60%.

 

This is a sincere and straight forward proposal. We are not forcing or begging you to be part of it. We want you to ruminate over it before writing back. Like I said before, it might be too good to be true, but this is not only realistic, it is achievable.

 

I hope you will give us the benefits of the doubt.

 

Warm regards,

Michael Oke. 

 

_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold