Naija guy 419's American businessman and collects $1m

 

A Nigerian, Taiye Ogboyomi, was last Thursday charged before a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for allegedly duping an American of $1m.

The American businessman, Mr. Brandon Benson, narrated in graphic details before the court how Ogboyomi, obtained the money from him under false pretence.

The American, who is the President of Pipeline North Energy Inc, USA, was brought into the country by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to testify in a case of Advance Fee Fraud brought against the suspect.

Our correspondent gathered that in his testimony before the court last Tuesday and Thursday, the American businessman said that Ogbonyomi, who claimed to be the Chairman of Energy Spread Network Limted, had sometime in 2006 contacted and told him that he was a crude oil marketer with large quantity of crude oil for sale.

A source at the EFCC said, “An agreement was subsequently signed online by both parties for the sale of 1.985 million barrel of crude oil. This made the victim send the first instalment of $229,000 and another $ 5,000 on November 6, 2006 into the accused company’s domiciliary account with First Inland Bank Plc.

“The payment was said to be for Charter Party agreement.

“Ogbonyomi demanded the payment of $159,000 for documentation at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation. This the suspect said was to enable him to obtain Certificate of Origin, Certificate of Quantity, Bill of Lading, Cargo Manifest, Tanker Village Report and Master’s receipt of documents.

“When the documents were eventually sent to the American businessman, he was further convinced to wire $425,000 to the fraudster who claimed the fund was for the warranty of title. That was shortly before another $180,000 was sent to the accused to seal the deal bringing the total sum lost to the fraudulent transaction to $989,000.”

Our correspondent gathered that investigations by EFCC showed that the entire documents sent to the victim were forged by the suspect to make the business transaction look genuine.

Ah, see me trouble. Ben Stiller already has some serious source material to gather for the 419 movie he's about to make.

Article courtesy of Naija's PUNCH