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In Nigeria today, the term or name 419 is no new thing as Nigeria has the highest number of scammers or fraudsters, which Nigerians love to refer to as 419. In past and recent times, however, there have been lots of arrests made and stories told and heard about 419 people who have duped lots of people off their money, hundreds of thousands, millions, but depict learning of all these stories, no fraudster in the history of Nigeria has been able to beat Emmanuel’ s record. Why is that? Who is he? Who did he dupe? Was he ever apprehended? All these are what we are going to be telling you now, but first, who is this fraudster? Born in Nigeria without his date of birth and the exact town he was given birth in, Emmanuel Nwude Odinigwe, also known as the Owelle of Abunuga, is a former Director of the Union Bank of Nigeria and a Nigerian advance- fee fraud artist. Between 1995 and 1998, he defrauded Nelson Sakaguchi, a director at Brazil’ s Banco Noroeste in So Paulo, of $242 million: $191 million in cash and the balance in the form of unpaid interest. Emmanuel Ofolue, Nzeribe Okoli, and Obum Osakwe, as well as Christian Ikechukwu Anajemba and Amaka Anajemba, were among his collaborators.Former Director of Union Bank of Nigeria, Emmanuel Nwude Odinigwe between 1995 and 1998, he perpetrated a con on an unsuspecting Brazilian named Nelson Sakaguchi, who was the director of a bank called Banco Noroeste. To begin with, Nwude was in a prominent position; he was the director of Union Bank of Nigeria, which gave him access to connections, knowledge, and paperwork that others did not. Mr. Sakaguchi was notified of Nigeria’ s plans to construct an airport in Abuja. He requested a US$242 million investment. To sweeten the deal for Sakaguchi, Nwude promised the Brazilian bank’ s president a $10 million commission fee. The agreement was accepted. Sakaguchi paid $191 million in cash and the rest in the form of outstanding interest while waiting for the building of the fictitious Nigerian airport to be completed. Nwude and his band of like- minded con guys were finally exposed by technology, which ratted them out. Despite the lack of a physical airport, which was promised to take several years to approve before being built, the money trail began to spring up in 1997. An investigation ensued as to who owned this suspicious money, yet it wasn’ t until 2004 that Nwude and his gang were brought to trial before Abuja High Court on 86 counts of ” fraudulently seeking advance fees” and 15 counts of bribery related to the case.According to IRIN News, EFCC head Nuhu Ribadu refunded US $17 million to William Richey, a lawyer for the defunct Banco Noroeste, the following Monday. Nwude’ s assets were seized, and he was charged with owing the National government a ten- million- dollar fine. For most people who watched the trial through the pages of newspapers and on television, the victory was fleeting. In 2006, Emmanuel Nwude was released. In the months that followed, he filed numerous Fundamental Rights lawsuits against the government, claiming that he had purchased some of his property prior to the scam. Nwude is currently awaiting trial for murder in one of the cells of the imaginatively titled Arkham Prisons, Gotham City in Anambra State, more than a decade after his release. Nwude was rumored to hold properties in Nigeria and the United States. He was also said to be a key donor to the People’ s Democratic Party and a close associate of former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar, according to News Watch. In Conclusion: Nigeria is in a precarious position as a result of Nwude’ s deception. With advanced free fraud in the 1970s and 1980s and internet scams in the digital age, it’ s simple to see why Nigeria has such a terrible reputation in the world community, and Nigerians are regarded first and foremost as entrepreneurial scammers. Fraudsters, 419ners, or scammers never have a happy ending as they are always on the run for crimes they have committed. We are relieved that the authorities were able to apprehend Mr. Emmanuel, and we hope that others of his ilk will be discovered and apprehended as well. Thanks for reading.