Standard Life House,
30 Lothian Road,
Edinburgh EH1 2DH
Good day,
I am Stewart Barculo, Staff Standard Life Bank Limited.I am contacting you
concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed under our banks
management Seven years ago.I would respectfully request that you keep the
contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the
information you come by as a result of this mail.
I contacted you independently of our investigation and no one is informed
of this communication. I would like to intimate you with certain facts
that I believe would be of interest to you.In 2000, the subject matter;
came to our bank to engage in business discussions with our private
banking division. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of
Fifty million united states dollars,which he wished to have us turn over
(invest) on his behalf.
I was the officer assigned to his case, I made numerous suggestions in
line with my duties as the De-facto chief operations officer of the
private banking sector, especially given the volume of funds he wished to
put into our bank. We met on numerous occasions prior to any investments
being placed. I encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime
ratings. The favoured route in my advise to customers is to start by
assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers and 2000
managers of alternative investments. Based on my advice, We spun the money
around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our first
months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this point
at over ten million United States Dollars, this margin was not the full
potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on
investments.
In mid 2001, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to
make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in here in the united
kingdom. He directed that I liquidate the funds and deposit it with a
security firm. I informed him that STANDARD LIFE BANK LIMITED would have
to make special arrangements to have this done and in order not to
circumvent due process, the bank would have to make a 9.5 % deduction from
the funds to cater for banking and statutory charges. He complained about
the charges but later came around when I explained to him the complexities
of the task he was asking of us. Cash movement across boarders has become
especially strict since the incidents of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate
and made the funds available to the security firm. I undertook all the
processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions to the letter
and had the funds deposited with the security firm.
The Security Firm is a specialist private firm that accepts deposits from
high net worth individuals and blue chip corporations that handle valuable
products or undertake transactions that need immediate access to cash.
This small and highly private organization is familiar especially to the
highly placed and well-connected organizations. In line with instructions,
the money was deposited with the security firm.
The deceased told me he wanted the money there in anticipation of his
arrival from Norway later that week. This was the last communication we
had, this transpired around 25Th February 2003.In June last year, we got a
call from the security firm informing us that the inactivity of that
particular portfolio.This was an astounding position as far as I was
concerned, given the fact that I anaged the private banking sector I was
the only one who knew about the deposit at the security firm, and I could
not understand why the deceased had not come forward to claim his deposit.
I made futile efforts to locate the deceased. I immediately passed the
task of locating him to the internal investigations department of STANDARD
LIFE BANK LIMITED.Four days later, information started to trickle
in,apparently our client was dead. A person who suited his description was
declared dead of a heart attack in Canne, South of France.
We were soon enough able to identify the body and cause of death was
confirmed. The bank immediately launched an investigation into possible
surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to come
forward to claim his estate. If you are familiar with private banking
affairs, those who patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but
also some levels of detachment from conventional processes. In his
bio-data form, he listed no next of kin. In the field of private banking,
opening an account with us means no one will know of its existence,
accounts are rarely held under a name;depositors use numbers and codes to
make the accounts anonymous.
This bank also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to
them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the
account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private
banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most
cases leave wills in our care, in this case; the deceased died without a
testate. In line with our internal processes for account holders who have
passed away, we instituted our own investigations in good faith to
determine who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation
has for the past months been unfruitful.We have scanned every continent
and used our private investigation affiliate companies to get to the root
of the problem. It is this investigation that resulted in my being
furnished with your details as a possible relative of the deceased.
My official capacity dictates that I am the only party to supervise the
investigation and the only party to receive the results of the
investigation. What this means, you being the last batch of names we have
considered, is that our dear late fellow died with no known or
identifiable family member. This leaves me as the only person with the
full picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the
deposit and the late beneficiary of the deposit. According to practise,
The Security Firm will by the end of this financial year broadcast a
request for statements of claim to STANDARD LIFE BANK LIMITED, failing to
receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to
STANDARD LIFE BANK LIMITED.
This will result in the money entering the STANDARD LIFE BANK LIMITED
accounting system and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the
private banking division. This will not happen if I have my way.What I
wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practise but I want you to
understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking world who
finds the internal politics of the banking world aberrational.
The world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for
those who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You
should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I
propose.There is Fifty Million Dollars deposited in a security firm, I
alone have the deposit details and they will release the deposit to no one
unless I instruct them to do so. I alone know of the existence of this
deposit for as far as STANDARD LIFE BANK LIMITED is concerned,the
transaction with our late customer concluded when I sent the funds to the
security firm, all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are
just customer services and due process. The security Firm has no single
idea of what's the history or nature of the deposit. They are simply
awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that comes
forward.
This is the situation. This bank has spent great amounts of money trying
to track this man's family; they have investigated for months and have
found no family.
The investigation has come to an end.
My proposal; you share the same surname With our late client; I am
prepared to place you in a position to instruct The security Firm to
release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt
of the deposit,I am prepared to share the money with you in half.
That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them
release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50.I would have gone
ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a
straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit. But on the
other hand, you with the same very name as the original depositor would
easily pass as the beneficiary with right to claim. I assure you that I
could have the deposit released to you within a few days. I will simply
inform the bank of the final closing of the file relating to the deceased
I will then officially communicate with The Security Firm and instruct
them to release the deposit to you. With these two things: all is done.
The alternative would be for us to have The Security Firm direct the funds
to another bank with you as account holder. This way there will be no need
for you to think of receiving the money from The Security Company. We can
fine-tune this based on our interactions.I am aware of the consequences of
this proposal. I ask that if you find no interest in this project that you
should discard this mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive and
destructive. If my offer is of no appeal to you,delete this message and
forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my career because you do not
approve of my proposal.
You may not know this but people like myself who have made tidy sums out
of comparable situations run the whole private banking sector. I am not a
criminal and what I do, I do not find against good conscience, this may be
hard for you to understand, but the dynamics of my industry dictates that
I make this move. Such opportunities only come ones' way once in a
lifetime. I cannot let this chance pass me by, for once I find myself in
total control of my destiny. These chances wont pass me by. I ask that you
do not destroy my chance, if you will not work with me let me know and let
me move on with my life but do not destroy me. I am a family man and this
is an opportunity to provide them with new opportunities. There is a
reward for this project and it is a task well worth undertaking.
I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you
refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows
of this situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has
planted you into the centre of relevance in my life.Lets share the
blessing.If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through
this email account stewartbarculo11uk@yahoo.co.uk If you give me positive
signals, I will initiate this process towards a conclusion. I wish to
inform you that should you contact me via official channels; I will deny
knowing you and about this project.
I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official phone lines
nor do I want you contacting me through my official email account. Contact
me only through the numbers I will provide for you and also through this
email address. I do not want any direct link between you and me. My
official lines are not secure lines as they are periodically monitored to
assess our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality
Management Policy.Please observe this instruction religiously.
Please,again, note I am a family man, I have a wife and children. I send
you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences,
but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that
success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold.
This is the one truth I have learn ed from my private banking clients. Do
not betray my confidence.
Kindly send your response to my private email address
stewartbarculo11uk@yahoo.co.uk
I await your response.
Stewart Barculo
