The Nigerian that sold an Airport that doesn't exist

 Emmanuel Nwude is one people who have done the largest fraud in history. You will be amazed that this fraud was done when there wasn't internet banking. 

Emmanuel Nwude was the former director in one of Nigeria’s largest banks. You will agree with me that he has knowledge on banking and finance. However, he used this knowledge he had to pull off one of the largest fraud in history in the year 1995. 

He also had an accomplice. He manipulated Nelson Sakaguchi who was the Director of a Brazilian bank known as Banco Noroeste and used him as a pawn to achieve his aim.

Based on the fact that Emmanuel had a high rank in his ministry, he had the contact of Nelson Sakaguchi. He called him and told him that there was an airport that Nigeria plans to build at Abuja. 

Mr Sakaguchi fell for Emmanuel's trick and he disbursed an amount of $191 million instantly to Emmanuel for the ongoing project which isn't even real at all. Emmanuel was successful with the scam and Mr Sakaguchi received a commission of $10 million.

Nobody discovered the fraud until the year 1997 when Spanish Banco Santander wanted to take over Banco Noroeste and were conducting investigations. During the course of the investigation, they discovered that half of the bank's capital was in an unmonitored account. Their investigation started from Brazil and led them to Nigeria.

The Democratic government in Nigeria then established EFFC in the year 2002 to curb financial crimes and restore the country's image. In the year 2004, the Head of EFFC then charged all those who committed this fraud to court. One of the accused plead guilty and he was given a two and half year sentence and was ordered to pay $25.5 million. 

During the course of their trial, it was said that bribery, attempted kidnapping and using of bombs were used to try to disrupt the proceedings in court. All this were added to the charges of Emmanuel Nwude and he was sentenced to 5 years in jail and all his assets were seized.

After 5 years, he gained his freedom and filed a case to reclaim some of his assets that were not acquired in an unlawful way. He was able to reclaim $52 million of his asset.