Dear Friend,
I am Frits Seegers, Chief Executive at Barclays.I am contacting you
concerning a deceased customer,and an investment he placed under our banks
management.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 contact you independently 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 2004, 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 2.35 million British Pounds Sterling, 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 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 4
million British Pounds Sterling, this margin was not the full potential of
the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments. In mid
2005, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to make an
urgent investment requiring cash payments.He directed that I liquidate the
funds and have it deposited with a security firm.
I informed him that Barclays 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.
I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed his precise
instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited with a security
consultancy firm. This security firm is an especially 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 them.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 25 th February 2006.
In June last year, we got a call from the security company informing us of
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 company, and I could not understand why our client 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 Barclay. Four days later, information started
to trickle in, apparently our man 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 confirm all of this including cause of death.
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 even 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; our now deceased client died in
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 quite clear now that our dear fellow died with no known or
identifiable family members. 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 company will by the end of this year
broadcast a request for statements of claim to Barclays, failing to receive
viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit to Barclays. This
will result in the money entering the Barclays 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 sit upon certain chairs and oversee certain portfolios. You should have
begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose. There
is 2,350,000.00 deposited in a security company.
This bank has spent great amounts of money trying to track the deceased"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 furnish the
necessary details 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:
When the bank simply nominate you as the next of kin and the deposit to
you.We share the proceeds 50/50.
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 a tidy sum 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 chance 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.
If you give me positive signals,I will give you the relevant details and
initiate this process towards a conclusion.
Please, again, note I am a family man,I have 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.I
await your response.
Sincerely,
Frits Seegers
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