Good day,
I am Michael Leyden, a staff of Private Banking Services at the Bank
of China (BOC) United Kingdom. I am contacting you concerning our
customer and, an investment placed under our banks management 4 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 2002, the subject matter; ref: bb/boc/bank/0012 came to our bank to
engage in business discussions with our Private Banking Services
Department. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of 8.35
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 Services Department, 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 favored route in my
advice 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 10 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 2004, he
asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to make an urgent
investment requiring cash payments in Europe. He directed that I
liquidate the funds and had it deposited with a firm.
I informed him that the bank 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 borders has become
especially strict since the incidents of 9/11. I contacted my
affiliate in and had the funds available. I undertook all the
processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions to the
letter and had the funds deposited in a security consultancy firm, the
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 . He 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 9th October,
2004.
In January 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
managed the private banking sector I was the only one who knew about
the deposit , and I could not understand why he had not come forward
to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to locate him I
immediately passed the task of locating him to the internal
investigations department of the bank of china. Four days later,
information started to trickle in, apparently he 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; he died intestate.
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. The investigation did not ever
yield any result 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. 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
practice, the firm will by the end of this financial year broadcast a
request for statements of claim to BOC, failing to receive viable
claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to BOC. This
will result in the money entering the BOC accounting system and the
portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the Private Banking
Services Department. This will not happen if I have my way.
What I wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practice 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 US$ 8,370,000.00 deposited , 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 BOC is concerned, the transaction with our
deceased customer concluded when I sent the funds to the firm, all
outstanding interactions in relation to the file are just customer
services and due process. 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; I am prepared to place you in a position to give
instruction for the release of 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. 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 customer I will then officially
communicate with 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 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 firm. 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 won't 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 center of relevance in my life. Let's share the blessing.
If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through this
same email account. 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 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 learned from my private banking
clients. Do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, send
me your response on this email michlydenn@yahoo.com.cn immediately to
enable us commence this line of discussion.
I await your response.
Michael Leyden
