Nigerian Connection man arrested in Berlin

From Schockwellenreiter via AdvobLAWg: here is a link to the German-language press release from the Berlin police President, of 9th October, which I quote in summarized form:

bq. A 28-year-old Nigerian had 50,000 euros confiscated by the customs when he entered Germany from Switzerland recently. This was done because the man was receiving state welfare assistance and it wasn’t clear how he came to have the money. On the afternoon of 8th October, he went to the police in Berlin to reclaim the money.

bq. During the questioning, he gave his address, and a search of his flat in Friedrichshain was immediately carried out. The investigators found a large number of indications that he was involved in a large-scale fraud.

bq. The Nigerian, according to present knowledge, told at least 30 people from various countries that he wanted to have large amounts of money taken out of Africa. He promised his victims about 30% of the sums (which amounted to many millions of dollars) if they would remit to him money for fees, transport and deposit of the sums with security firms. All this was done by cashless transfer, so there was no personal contact with him. As far as is known, he used a fake South African passport to collect the money. To keep his victims happy, he sometimes sent them fake cheques. In the few cases where there was personal contact, he took large sums of money from his victims for a chemical. He claimed that the money had been coloured black to disguise it for transport, and this chemical would remove the colour. One victim from Bavaria alone (oh dear!) transferred over 200,000 euros to memebers of the Nigerian Connection from 1995 on.

bq. This Nigerian is part of a world-wide network that causes damage in the amount of many billions (i.e. thousands of millions) of euros every year. He already has a conviction for fraudulent transfer (Überweisungsbetrug) and is receiving unemployment benefit. He will be brought before a judge today (that is 9th October) for an arrest warrant/committal order.

Here is a humorous site on replying to the Nigerians.

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