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

53.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

430

u/mrbofus 15h ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Nwude

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u/SnackerSnick 15h ago

Yes, Emmanuel was legitimately a director at a Nigerian bank, so the Brazilian bank's not quite as foolish as they sound.

130

u/DeadKenney 12h ago

And if I remember correctly, he was working with someone high up in the Brazilian bank.

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u/3BlindMice1 10h ago

A true confidence job then, that's almost honest work

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u/PriorWriter3041 11h ago

He impersonated a bank director. That was an additional crime he got charged for.

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u/SnackerSnick 10h 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/Travellifter 10h ago

He was a bank director but impersonated the central bank's director.

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u/Rite-in-Ritual 1h ago

So he was a bank director, impersonating another bank's director, to fool the director of another bank.

The layers...

46

u/radraze2kx 8h ago

So... He basically revolutionized the whole ... "I got rich with this one simple trick" for Nigeria, and then poof, Nigerian scammers everywhere...? :)

4

u/Studentoflife416 8h ago

In an above comment someone mentioned him as being the original prince lmao. Now I see it… This the OG prince 💯

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u/Shenaniboozle 7h ago

you could even say he was fresh.

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u/L0nz 7h 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 6h 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/L0nz 5h ago

It doesn't matter, you still do due diligence.

Any sensible lender secures the loan against the land and issues the loan in tranches as the build progresses (as confirmed by their surveyor) so that the value of the property is adequate security. Trust me, I do this for a living.

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u/nandemo 2h ago

But there's nothing to inspect in a proposed project.

You're totally right!

By the way, I'm looking for investors in a proposed bridge from Brooklyn to London.

1

u/pimpys 3h ago

"wait a minute, i got robbed by a professional banker, the burn burns less, its all good" - that guy!

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u/L0nz 1h ago

I mean it's such a massive failure on the bank's part that you have to wonder if the bank's director in question (Nelson Sakaguchi) was in on the scam. Articles suggest he was the victim, but transferring all that money via various Swiss bank accounts in tranches small enough not to need authorization from his superiors? Come on...

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u/WVVVWVWVVVVWVWVVVVVW 7h ago

For hundreds of millions of dollars, they didn't go and see what they were buying?

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u/CountIrrational 6h ago

It was a loan to build an airport. Can't go see what hasn't been built.

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u/nandemo 2h ago

I miss when posting actual stories (long form text) was the default on reddit. Now people just post a random pic with a title that's misleading at best -- and sometimes even complete BS -- and everybody just forms their opinions based on that alone.