From: Mr. David Palmer - davepm500uk@yahoo.ie
Good day,
I am David Palmer, staff of SMITH & WILLIAMSON Private Banking.
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 Thirty 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 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 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 SMITH & WILLIAMSON 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 managed 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 SMITH
& WILLIAMSON. 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 Cannes, 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 sCannesd 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 practice, The Security Firm will by the end of this financial year
broadcast a request for statements of claim to SMITH & WILLIAMSON, failing to
receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to SMITH &
WILLIAMSON. This will result in the money entering the SMITH & WILLIAMSON
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 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 Thirty 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 SMITH & WILLIAMSON 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
me 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. Lets share the blessing. If you find yourself able to work
with me, contact me through this email account davepm500@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 learned from my private banking clients. Do not
betray my confidence.
Kindly send your response to my private email address davepm500@yahoo.co.uk
I await your response.
David Palmer.
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