Wang Yan

Good Day,
I am a staff of Private Banking Services at the
Bank of China (BOC). I am
contacting you concerning our customer and, an
investment placed under our
banks management 3 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 2004, the subject matter; ref:
bb/boc/bank/0012 came to our bank to engage
in business discussions with our Private Banking
Services Department. He informed us that he
had a financial portfolio of 8.375million 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 Services Department, 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 10
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 2005, he asked that the money be
liquidated because he needed to make an
urgent investment requiring cash payments in
Europe. He directed that I liquidate the funds
and had it deposited
with a firm. I informed him that the 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 borders has become
especially strict since the incident of 9/11. I
contacted my affiliate in and had the funds
available.
I undertook all the processes and made sure I
followed his precise instructions to the letter and
had the funds deposited in a security
consultancy firm, the 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. 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 9th October 2005.
In January this 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 ,
and I could not understand why he 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 the bank of china.
Four days later, information started to trickle in,
apparently he 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; he died intestate.
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. The investigation did
not ever yield any result 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.
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 firm will
by the end of this financial year broadcast a
request for statements of claim to BOC, failing
to receive viable claims they will most probably
revert the deposit back to BOC. This will result
in the money entering the BOC accounting
system and the portfolio will be out of my hands
and out of the Private Banking Services
Department. 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 US$ 8,375,000.00 deposited, 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 BOC is
concerned, the transaction with our deceased
customer concluded when I sent the funds to
the firm, all outstanding interactions in relation
to the file are just customer services and due
process.
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; I am prepared to place you in a
position to give instruction for the release of 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.
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 customer I will then officially communicate
with the 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 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 firm. 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 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. Let's share the blessing.
If you find yourself able to work with me,
contact me through this same 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
this email address. I do not want any direct link
between you and me. My official lines are not secure
lines as they areperiodically 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.
Best regards,
Wang Yan