A retired Italian banker who was a victim of a Nigerian scam is suing a wholesaler in Singapore for the return of $1,1-million, news reports said on Tuesday.
The Nigerians were said to have conned Vincenzo Comboni, an Italian citizen, into depositing the money into the company’s account, the Straits Times said.
The hearing in Singapore’s High court was scheduled to continue on Tuesday.
Shankar’s Emporium, a large wholesale exporter of consumer electronics, has claimed the money it received was for goods issued to Nigeria-based customers who commonly settled bills through such third-party remittances.
Justice Kan Ting Chiu heard on Monday how the Swiss-based Comboni responded to an unsolicited e-mail message from a man named Frank Nsugbe, who said he had $20-million deposited in South Africa and needed someone to help invest the cash, the report said.
Comboni flew to Johannesburg in January 2004 and sealed a deal with Nsugbe to manage the $20-million in return for a fee. He received a deed indicating the $20-million had been deposited with a security firm in South Africa.
Three months later Comboni received a call from a man purporting to be from a Canadian firm, saying Comboni needed to put up an insurance bond before the money could be released.
The Italian followed the instructions and made three deposits totalling $1,1-million into a bank account operated by Shankar’s Emporium.
The $20-million was never released to Comboni and the fraud suspects disappeared.
Hapreet Singh Nehal, Comboni’s lawyer, said Shankar was fully aware that the system of third party remittances it received on behalf of Nigerian customers ”was riddled with fraud”.
Shankar’s insisted it had accepted the cash as payment that was due for goods it had supplied to Nigerian customers on the instructions of a firm it has been dealing with since 1999. – Sapa-DPA