From: Kevin Colglazier - ken.colg@yahoo.com
With due respect,
I am Kevin Colglazier of Standard Bank,London branch, United Kingdom. I am
contacting you concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed
under our banks management three years ago, and 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 am contacting 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 the year 2004,the
subject matter; came to our bank to engage in business discussions.He
informed us that he had a financial portfolio of Ten million United States
dollars, which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf.
I decided to treat his case personally; I made numerous suggestions in
line with my duties as the de-facto Chief investment officer of the bank,
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 primeratings. The favoured 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 One
million United States Dollars, this margin was not the full potential of
the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments.
In November 2005, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed
to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Finland.Where he
said, he is investing with a Firm that is building a housing estate
outside Helsinki for the government of Finland. He directed that I
liquidate the investment and deposit the funds with a security firm. I
informed him that Standard 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 boarders has become especially strict since the
incidents of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate and made the funds available
to a security firm. I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed
his precise instructions to the letter and had thefunds 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
Customer 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 2006.In June last year, we got a call from
the security firm informing us about 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
Customer had not come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts
to locate the Customer. I immediately passed the task of locating him to
the internal investigations department of Standard Bank 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, in Southern part of France. The body was identified and the cause
of death was confirmed. The bank immediately launched an investigation
into possible surviving next of kin to alert them 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, after investigating the last batch of names
forwarded to us as possible relatives, we have come to the conclusion 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 year
broadcast a request for statements of claim to Standard Bank, failing to
receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to
Standard Bank. This will result in the money entering the Standard Bank
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 that 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 Ten 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 Bank 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 come
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 instruct the
security Firm to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving
relative. Upon receipt of the deposit I am prepared to share the money
with you. That is,I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have
them release the deposit to you and share the proceeds with you in a
percentage we will arrive at taking into consideration our individual
level commitment.I would have gone ahead to ask that the funds be released
to me,but that would have drawn a straight line to me and my involvement
in claiming the deposit. But presenting you as a relative with the right
to claim the deposit as a next of kin will mask my involvement and
participation in diverting the deposit for personal use.You will get all
the documents needed to effect this claim immediately you notify me of
your acceptance to claim this deposit for our mutual benefit.
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. This 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. Iam 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 luck 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 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 the numbers I will provide for you and also through this
email address. I do not want any direct link between you and myself. My
official lines are not secured 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.
Sincerly,
Kevin Colglazier
