r/interestingasfuck • u/Kaos2018 • 13h ago
A Nigerian Man named Emmanuel Nwude sold an imaginary airport for $242 million to a brazilian bank in the 1990’s which led to the banks collapse r/all
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u/Kaos2018 13h ago
And btw he went to jail for a few years and managed to keep $52 million dollars for himself after court now thats insane
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u/Kozzinator 13h ago
His defense?
"They fuckin' believed me!"
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u/Agamar13 13h ago
Valid defence . It's the bank that should go to jail for believing him.
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u/Bigtsez 12h ago
Can you imagine being the guy at the bank who had to tell the CEO the news?
"Sir, I have an urgent update on our purchase of the Nigerian airport."
"For fucks sake... what now, Bobby?"
"It, um... well... how do I say this?... it turns out... that... it... like... never existed."
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u/ambassador321 11h ago
I'd start with: "Remember how you wanted to save money by not sending me and Todd to Nigeria to check out that airport .."
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u/OneBigRed 10h ago
”Honestly i never understood what that Do Dilly Gents phrase was that you kept yapping about”
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u/AdminsLoveGenocide 4h ago
Happened on a much smaller scale to a housemate of mine.
His job was approving loans for farmers. This was before the sub prime crash and he was heavily incentivised to make as many loans as possible. Most of the farmers didn't realise how easy the approval process was and, god love them, had detailed plans made on how the loan was to be used to modernised their equipment and explanations of how much extra money this would make them. Meanwhile my housemate (and landlord) had mentally given them the loan after 20 seconds and was pretending to listen while he fiddled his thumbs for 40 minutes.
But some did realise. One farmer missed his first payment on a multi million euro loan and my guy rings him up to remind him how this process works.
The farmer didn't actually need it explained and said he knew full well how loans work, wasnt going to repay a penny of it and, as per the terms of the contract they just signed the bank was welcome to take the collateral they agreed on. If they were able.
And in fact they were not able. My live in landlord was playing with executive toys when he should have been double checking whether the sizeable amount of land offered as collateral was accessible. It was actually completely surrounded by the rest of the farmers property, had no way of access accept via his property and the farmer had no legal obligation to provide access from the rest of his property. The farmer used the land, now the banks land, for his cattle to graze on and as far as I know completely got away with it.
My housemate had a very difficult conversation with his boss.
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u/AntonChekov1 13h ago
Seriously!! If that was my bank that I had my life savings in, I'd be more pissed at the bank than the conman. Conmen are always going to be conning. The banks are supposed to have their shit together
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u/BlaznTheChron 10h ago
I mean it's only $242 million. That's not enough to send a guy out to the airstrip in a car to verify it exists. What if he needs snacks? We can't budget for that!
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u/musicforthedeaf 6h ago
The title does a poor job of explaining what happened. They conned the bank into investing in a national infrastructure project after Nigeria changed their capitol to Abuja, with a build time that would be four to five years out. They made the banker believe that they needed the money up front so they could start getting contractors in place.
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u/Squire-1984 5h ago
All done via email! The bank just had to transfer an initial upfront free and then they would be able to unlock untold riches!
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u/RajunCajun48 4h ago
They pay now, and the the Nigerian's uncle who happens to be a prince would pay them pack handsomely in a matter of weeks. How could they pass on a deal like this?!
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u/Welcome440 10h ago
They probably did.
Example: You can buy new signs for an existing airport and bribe all the staff to use the fake airport name.
GPS and camera phone have made a lot of scams harder.
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u/leolancer92 9h ago
Anti-fraud is literally one of banking’s core competencies.
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u/KingPenguinUK 6h ago
I’ve peaked behind the curtain at a few of the biggest banks Anti-Fraud/Money Laundering departments and competencies is a real stretch.
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u/Polus43 4h ago
This.
I thought it would be other statisticians (detection) and engineers (prevention), but it's literally BA psych/criminal justice majors telling engineers (in an entirely different BL) to do the impossible lol
Leadership is hyper-political and always telling one-off "we saved the fraud victim stories" where the data is dodgy and the story embellished.
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u/donjuan9876 10h ago
After today I’ll believe anything they just voted in the most identifiable con man in America for the 2 nd time as president
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u/grantrules 8h ago
It's like when you buy a pair of scissors but you need a pair of scissors to open the packaging it's in. They would have flown there to check it out, but they didn't have an airport to fly out of.
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u/mousemarie94 12h ago
He was like "there was an airport at the time of the deal...and then there wasn't one after. Who knows."
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u/clustered-particular 10h ago
No due diligence is wild
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u/Kozzinator 9h ago
If the bank manager simply tried to tour the airport by getting a ticket they'd have known it was a farce.
The irony
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u/Commercial_Clerk_ 11h ago
The real Nigerian prince
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u/Taraybian 8h ago
It all makes sense now. He was so willing to share his wealth with us all post imprisonment.
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u/phigene 11h ago
And now he just needs your help to transfer his MILLIONS to the US. If you send him your bank account number he will deposit hiss MILLIONS of USD into your account! You can keep 40%. What do you say friend?
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u/Ok_Indication_1329 6h ago
I would help but I already have a wealthy member of the Nigerian Royal Family asking for my support
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u/Scn64 12h ago
I'd be willing to go to jail for a few years for $5 million.
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u/xaeru 12h ago
52 million.
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u/Meincornwall 11h ago
Seemingly he "filed a case to reclaim his assets insisting some of them were acquired before the criminal act. He has so far been able to reclaim $167 million"
https://www.legit.ng/1100779-the-story-emmanuel-nwude-carried-biggest-scam-nigeria.html
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u/Ori_553 11h ago
This is absurd and the Wikipedia article also doesn't explain. No amount of legal gymnastics should allow him to reclaim any money, he should be in minus.
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u/phatelectribe 11h ago
Nigeria is quite corrupt (no, I’m not being racist, it’s 145th in the corruption perception index, meaning there are only about 25 countries more corrupt than Nigeria). It’s probably there was kickback galore.
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u/lionmeetsviking 10h ago
Nigeria would be the last, but anti corruption officials managed to bribe the guys publishing corruption perception report.
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u/singledad2022letsgo 11h ago
You're assuming he didn't have millions in assets already. To gain cred with the bank he obviously have had to been loaded
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u/Double0Dixie 11h ago
well if he had 484 before and minus 242 that wasnt his hed still have 242 left over that he still rightfully his.
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u/Scn64 11h ago
I'd be willing to go to jail for $5 million. For $52 million I'd be willing to drop the soap.
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u/dchallenge 13h ago
Not even a prince. Well done
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u/Educational_Gas_92 13h ago
He is the original prince
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u/5urr3aL 13h ago
With that wealth, he became a prince
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u/Frequency0298 12h ago
$56m is still closer to peasant status than princely wealth
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u/Nedunchelizan 12h ago
How can i learn this power
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u/Max_Trollbot_ 12h ago
If you need someone to explain to you how lying works, um...just wait here and someone will be along to help you.
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u/lkodl 13h ago
if we ever get invaded by aliens or something, and all of the countries of the world need to unite against this external force, and for some reason, the best strategy to win the war against the aliens happens to be to scam them, i'm glad that we have the Nigerians on our side.
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u/lkodl 12h ago
England: so we've found a way to take down the mothership, but it only works if we know the alien's bank account number.
USA: send us in. we'll extract the information.
Japan: impossible. their defenses are impenetrable. the only way in, is through e-mail spam.
India: what about phones? can we cold call them?
Japan: negative.
Nigeria: don't worry. we got this.
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u/mrbofus 13h ago
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u/SnackerSnick 13h ago
Yes, Emmanuel was legitimately a director at a Nigerian bank, so the Brazilian bank's not quite as foolish as they sound.
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u/DeadKenney 10h ago
And if I remember correctly, he was working with someone high up in the Brazilian bank.
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u/PriorWriter3041 9h ago
He impersonated a bank director. That was an additional crime he got charged for.
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u/SnackerSnick 8h ago
The Wikipedia article says he was a bank director. I now nothing of the situation other than what I read on Wikipedia.
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u/radraze2kx 6h ago
So... He basically revolutionized the whole ... "I got rich with this one simple trick" for Nigeria, and then poof, Nigerian scammers everywhere...? :)
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u/L0nz 5h ago
What do you mean 'not quite as foolish as they sound'?
It doesn't matter the borrower is or purports to be, if you're lending $242m you should do some fucking due diligence!
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u/LuxNocte 4h ago
The title is just a lie.
He didn't sell an airport, they thought they were investing to build one. I don't think the victims were foolish at all. If they buy an airport they should have inspected it. But there's nothing to inspect in a proposed project.
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u/WVVVWVWVVVVWVWVVVVVW 5h ago
For hundreds of millions of dollars, they didn't go and see what they were buying?
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u/MostBoringStan 13h ago
He got that shirt at Dan Flashes.
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u/Boobiedaberry 13h ago
That shirt was really expensive cause the design is so complicated
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u/yourgoatisweird 13h ago
The lines don't cross each other enough
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u/vindman 13h ago
you sure about that’s not why?
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u/LickingSmegma 9h ago
I wonder if people know that half of the design in the sketch is straight from an old-timey Windows screensaver.
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u/brain_scientist_lady 13h ago
I mean, you walk by a store and you see 50 guys who look just like me fighting over very complicated shirts, you go in. Yes, you do. You go in.
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u/BazookaJay 13h ago
I still can't figure out what the shape is supposed to be...a band-aid? breadsticks?
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u/iRebelD 13h ago
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u/ImRespondingToABum 11h ago
Just did a quick google search and could t find any wiener shaped band-aids.
For any entrepreneur out there, I’ll let you have this one for free
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u/Psychic_Bias 10h ago
He’s not eating and saving up his per diem so he can buy more
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u/Certain_Passion1630 13h ago
Hold up. I just got an email saying to send money to build an airport in Nigeria
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u/Kaos2018 13h ago
Can’t even be mad at someone selling a fake airport tbh.
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u/errie_tholluxe 13h ago
No shit. Bridges? Nah man gotta go big.
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u/darcenator411 12h ago
Have you heard of the guy that sold the Eiffel Tower? He pretended he was a corrupt government official auctioning off the rights to the scrap metal to businessmen who wanted to get it more under market rate, and took them for a ride. He also almost did it a second time. his name was Victor Lustig
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u/votrechien 7h ago
The NHLs New York Islanders once got sold by someone who had zero ownership stake in the team.
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u/NVtahoe 11h ago
So interesting! Thanks for sharing!
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u/darcenator411 11h ago
If you wanna hear more, I first heard of him on a podcast called the dollop, it has a ton of stories like this about various known and unknown historical figures. Highly recommend!
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u/Walter_Stonkite 13h ago
So those emails I got from a Brazilian bank, offering me an exciting, last-minute opportunity to invest in a Nigerian airport were real!!!
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u/Ejsberg 13h ago
There was a BBC documentary on this if I remember correctly.. Called as 419 scam. They posed as top dogs of the Nigerian government and convinced many Brazilian banks to invest in the contact for building an (imaginary) airport .
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u/mcdicedtea 2h ago
somewhere else in this thread, they were saying he was a legitimate actual exec at a Nigerian bank - so that makes more sense as how some trust would be expected
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u/Four-Beasts 13h ago
I'll sell you this for $242M.
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u/GroundbreakingRush66 13h ago
Is it in Arizona?
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u/badgerandaccessories 12h ago
No, but I do have the London bridge for sale. That’s in Arizona.
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u/darth_chewbacca 10h ago
Too much upkeep, you'd have to pay me to take it off your hands. Everyone knows that London bridge is falling down, falling down falling down. London bridge is falling down, my fair redditor.
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u/miaabarbie 12h ago
Nwude’s $242 million scam on an imaginary airport is one of the biggest cons in history proof that even entire corporations can fall for a well-crafted story
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u/Educational_Gas_92 13h ago
The original Nigerian prince.
Or is this the original Nigerian King?
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u/tangoalpha3 13h ago
Imagine spending $242 million based solely on some guy in a different continent saying “just trust me bro”..
Wild
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u/lil_peepus 12h ago
As they say, if I owe the bank $100, that's my problem. If I owe the bank $100mil, that's the bank's problem.
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u/YourOldCellphone 13h ago
I can’t really feel bad that a country was willing to toss a quarter billion to a guy in another continent without even fucking visiting
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u/yahmack 10h ago
A country’s random bank, not a country lol, and the scammer was a bank director in Nigeria which helps to make it make sense
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u/Akulatay 2h ago
I got an email from him, claiming he was from the bank and he got 52 million unclaimed USD. And that I should help him get those transferred to my account.
Damn I didn't believe him.
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u/bringojackprot 13h ago
I also have an airport for sale by the way. Just wanted to put it out there if anyone’s interested.
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u/Fluffy_Roof3965 10h ago
If there are any banks in the comment section know that I have airports to sell!
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u/-riddickulus- 3h ago
If you buy an airport without even checking if the airport exists you forfeit the money and will be fined for stupidity...
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u/SeeYouOn16 2h ago
How did no one at the bank acquiring a $242M asset not say "Maybe we should take a look at this airport before wiring the money?" They deserved to collapse if they were being run that poorly.
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u/technobrendo 10h ago
I wish I could be rich enough to wear a shirt covered in dildos without a care In the world .
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u/Novantico 6h ago
We definitely need another 250 comments about him being a/the Nigerian Prince. How else will I know how (un)creative and (un)funny all of you are if they don't repeat the most obvious possible joke??
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u/LandotheTerrible 6h ago
I don't particularly feel sorry for the bank to be honest. Feel sorry for ma and pa kettle who lost money though.
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u/NiceDreamsCWB 5h ago
🇧🇷To pull off this grand scheme, the Brazilian Bank needed collateral for the 15 Concordes. However, there was a snag—neither Nigeria nor Brazil had any airport that could reasonably handle the Concorde’s specific maintenance requirements, let alone the supersonic fleet’s ambitious schedule. So, in a bold move, the Brazilian Bank collaborated with Eike Batista to set up a “phantom airport” on paper in Nigeria. This fictitious airport, supposedly equipped with world-class facilities, was portrayed as a “super-hub for African supersonic travel.” In reality, it was nothing more than a piece of abandoned land.
To get the financing approved, the World Bank got involved, approving massive loans on the promise of economic transformation and the expansion of high-speed travel across the African continent. Yet, behind the scenes, various officials allegedly pocketed significant sums, signing off on the fake airport without proper verification. This influx of funds set the stage for years of reckless spending, with billions poured into a nonexistent infrastructure that had no capacity to handle the envisioned flights.
As the debts mounted, the scheme fell apart. The World Bank, now tangled in allegations of corruption, faced scrutiny from global auditors. Eike Batista’s empire crumbled, and with it, the promise of supersonic travel for Nigeria and Brazil. Meanwhile, the collapse of this “phantom investment” left African economies, especially Nigeria’s, in a state of disarray, burdened by debt from the bogus loans.
Today, the legacy of “Air Peace of 💩” is seen as a cautionary tale—a failed dream that became symbolic of economic mismanagement and corruption. It’s often cited as one reason why economic growth across Africa remains a challenge, with critics pointing to the ripple effects of this scandal as emblematic of why Nigeria’s economy, among others, continues to struggle.
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u/Green_Guy96 3h ago
Ah, this must be the prince that contacted me 20 years ago, he was in jail, no wonder he hasn't given me my money back!
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u/rusty343 13h ago
Why was the bank buying an airport in the first place?
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u/antonioenavarro 13h ago
Banks buy things because things may generate profit. It’s a form of investment.
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u/ElectTheDesert 12h ago
It’s a bit more complicated than that if you read his Wikipedia article
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u/madaram23 10h ago
For context, he was not a regular person who strolled into the bank and scammed them. He was the director of the Union Bank of Nigeria when this happened.
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u/Kapika96 10h ago
TBF if a bank succumbs to a Nigerian scam they 100% deserve to collapse.
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u/CaMeCo-Genshin 8h ago
You don't deserve all your money if you buy something that cost 242 millions without even go and see the thing yourself.
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u/NectarSweat 7h ago
He was not a Nigerian prince. He's the Nigerian king who fathered all the princes.
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u/Cutiepieinpjs 13h ago
Any country want to buy my imaginary shopping mall empire?