A former Citibank executive accused of fleecing his rich mates for $7 million claims he was bled dry by African officials who charged him endless fees to unlock a big fund in their country.
Details of the Nigerian scam emerged in the High Court at Auckland yesterday in a taped interview between Graeme Kenneth Rutherfurd and a secret officer from the Serious Fraud Office.
Rutherfurd, aged 57, has denied 19 counts of using a document, three of obtaining by false pretences and one each of theft and forgery.
He told the officer that problems started in 1997 when a man named Davidson Onyeka asked him to manage $US30 million ($65 million) that a Nigerian petrol firm had paid for engineering work. The Nigerians wanted to shift the money overseas to a tax haven because of the troubled domestic situation.
Rutherfurd was told his expenses would be paid and he would receive a 1 per cent management fee each year. However, the Nigerians could not afford various taxes that had to be paid before the money could be transferred overseas.
Rutherfurd said he initially spent $US600,000 of his own money plus some of his father's cash in the belief that it would be repaid with interest. Then he started looking to his rich friends.
Rutherfurd is alleged to have creamed millions of dollars from up to six men over the next few months by offering safe and lucrative investments in Europe and the United States that never existed.
Instead, he admitted that much of the money went on the "never-ending" series of fees that included Nigerian Inland Revenue Department taxes and national deposit insurance.
"My resolve was hardened by my absolute conviction that the Nigerian scheme was genuine."
Rutherfurd said that in January 1998 he took the first instalment of $US2.685 million from Tauranga investor Paul Adams to meet several large taxes that were due.
In February, a man called Chief Stanley Edozie fell ill and Rutherfurd was forced to deal with another man who, on reflection, "was probably running a scam to extract money from us."
Rutherfurd had left Citibank two years before the Nigerian deal started, citing a sore back.
He also said he was addicted to strong painkillers he was taking for his back, which clouded his normally cautious judgment. When he became used to the drugs he realised the money would not be recovered, and tried to kill himself with an overdose.
Nigeria scam bled me dry: accused
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