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In May 2006, police received a complaint from a second-hand car dealer that he had been given a briefcase containing blackened US currency notes by some Nigerians for safekeeping and had been cheated of a sum of US$ 2,100.
CAD Investigations disclosed that sometime in May 2006, four Nigerians had conspired with one another and come up with a scheme (commonly known as the Nigerian Scam) to cheat potential victims in Singapore. They are:
Alao Adebola Afeez
Izekor Osaro Brown
Adedibu Hakeem Adeshina
Dennis Kluvert Uyed
Alao acted as a middleman in the scheme. He first befriended the victim and indicated that he had contacts who were interested in exporting second-hand cars from Singapore to Tanzania. Arrangements were made for the victim to meet up with Izekor and Adedibu, acting as Tanzania businessmen interested in buying cars from the victim.
After negotiating the purported car deal, the victim was told that the funds in buying the cars were held in the South African Embassy in Singapore in the form of blackened United States currency notes. The victim was requested to pay a sum of US$ 2,100 (approximately S$ 3,400) to the diplomat from the South African Embassy, a role played by Dennis, to facilitate the release of the funds. Believing that it was true and to secure the business deal, the victim paid the money. Subsequently, an arrangement was made for the victim to hand over a sum of S$3,400/- to the diplomat as demurrage charges for the shipment of goods.
The syndicate also conducted two demonstrations on the cleaning of the blackened US notes to the victim. They further requested him to come up with another sum of money to clean all the blackened notes contained in the briefcase. At this juncture, the victim sensed that he could have fallen prey to the infamous Nigerian Scam and alerted the police on the matter. The four accused persons were then arrested during a raid conducted by CAD officers.
All four accused persons were charged in court and convicted for abetment by conspiracy to cheat and immigration related offences.
They were sentenced to imprisonment terms from 14 months and 2 weeks to 15 months. Alao and Dennis were also ordered to 4 strokes of canning.
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