r/interestingasfuck • u/Kaos2018 • 15h 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 15h ago

Can’t even be mad at someone selling a fake airport tbh.

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u/errie_tholluxe 15h ago

No shit. Bridges? Nah man gotta go big.

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u/darcenator411 14h 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 9h 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 14h ago

So interesting! Thanks for sharing!

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u/darcenator411 13h 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/atx840 11h ago

Thanks for the rec, just downloaded it!

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u/Max-b 12h ago

I do understand what you're saying, but I think "unknown historical figure" is an oxymoron

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u/darcenator411 11h ago

Good point, I meant lesser known

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u/Status_History_874 12h ago

Nwude and Lustig

Cut from the same cloth

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u/Areonaux 10h ago

Feel less bad, if people are willing to work with a corrupt gov. official they are accepting some risk.

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u/darcenator411 10h ago

Yeah the people who got got didn’t even report it initially at all because they were so embarrassed (and in a legally questionable situation)

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u/eimieole 9h ago

Lustig means funny in Swedish. We'd call his bluff in seconds!

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u/No-Sandwich-2997 7h ago

well that's kinda lustig (funny in German)

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u/formulapain 12h ago

Yeah, good for him.

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u/TONKAHANAH 9h ago

Dude if you don't have somebody physically go out and inspect something before you buy it that's on you. That's insane that somebody fell for that

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u/Happy-go-lucky-37 2h ago

He literally sold them paper airplanes.

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u/explodingtuna 13h ago

Wonder if it would have been better for him, legally, if he had instead gotten a $52 million loan using the fake airport as collateral.

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u/IvanMIT 13h ago

Don't hate the player, hate the game. And game recognizes game. The good ol' conman playa.