The Scam Falls Apart
Emmanuel and his crew almost got away with the scam. But, things began to unravel when Banco Santander, a Spanish bank wanted to takeover the Brazilian bank in August 1997. The takeover meant that thorough investigations of the Brazilian bank’s financial statements was conducted. During this period many board meetings between the two banks took place and in December 1997, top officials from the Spanish bank questioned why almost half of the Brazilian bank’s capital was sitting in an unprotected account in the Cayman Islands.
As this discrepancy could not be sufficiently explained as there was no new airport in Abuja, formal investigations were initiated. Criminal investigations also had to be carried out in multiple jurisdictions which included Brazil, Nigeria, Switzerland and England. In an effort to ensure that the sale of the Brazilian bank still went through, the owners of the bank had to pay the missing $242 million from their own pockets. Despite this, the Brazilian bank eventually collapsed.
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