Standard Life House,
30 Lothian Road,
Edinburgh EH1 2DH
Good day,
I am Stewart Barculo, Staff of 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
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 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 ste_barculo03uk@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
ste_barculo03uk@yahoo.co.uk
I await your response.
Stewart Baculo
