My name is Mrs. Zheng Suifen and I am a staff of Bank of China, here in
Hong Kong attached to Private Banking Services, I am contacting you
concerning a customer and an investment placed under our banks
management; as a matter of fact it was roughly 5 years ago. I would
respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail private and
also to kindly respect the integrity of the information you come by as a
result of this email. I contacted 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 and benefit the
both of us.
At the very beginning of 2010, the
subject matter 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 $20 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
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, and however 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
600 traditional stocks, bond managers and 200 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 with interest included, stood at this
point at over US$27, 712,068.00, this margin was not the full potential
of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments
and in trading market the lower the risk the lesser the profit.
Towards
the end of 2011, 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 have it transfer to a firm in
Europe. I informed him that our 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 an 8.9% 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 incidents of 9/11 but nevertheless I
contacted the firm in Europe and had the funds transfer to mainland
Europe, I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed his
precise instructions. 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.
After
about a week I got a call from the security firm 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, 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 our bank. Four
months later, information trickle in from British homeland security,
that he was apparently dead, a person who suited his description was
declared dead of a heart attack in Norway; we were soon able to gather
more information and the cause of death was confirmed. With this
information at hand I inform the security firm to return the transfer
back to our bank in Hong Kong.
Then my 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 for several months were futile. 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 decision to obtain your contact
details and contact you, being as a foreigner, as a potential benefactor
of the estate even if you are in no way affiliated with this individual
(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, with
you being a foreigner, I have considered the fact that our dear late
fellow died with no 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 normal practice, after all investigation has been done and
there is no one to come forward and make claimed, the portfolio will be
left dormant and as a result of the protracted inactivity of the
portfolio, and by the end of the current financial year a broadcast
request is been made for statements of claims to our bank by the Chinese
government, and failing to receive viable claims we will most probably
revert the deposit back to the Chinese government. This will result in
the money entering the Chinese government treasury. This will not happen
if I have my way.
What I wish to relate to you
might be a 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. On
this moment there is US$27, 712,068.00 deposited, I alone have the
deposit details and my bank 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 the finance firm is concerned, the transaction with our
deceased customer concluded when the funds was return back to sender (my
bank), all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are just
customer services and due process. This bank has spent great amounts of
money trying to track the family of the deceased; they have investigated
for months and have found no family but however the investigation has
officially come to an end in 2012 and since then the portfolio have
remain dormant and it is now on the edge of been turned to the Chinese
government.
My proposal; I am prepared to place
you in a position whereby an instruction is given to officially release
the deposit to you as the closest surviving associate, and all
etiquette shall be done in accordance with the rule of banking law, I
certainly can guarantee you that, by the common law, the power of
bequeathing is coeval with the first rudiments of the law, and this
power has been extended to all. There is no ruling which prevents an
inheritance from being so exhausted by legacies as to render it unworthy
of the heir's acceptance; basically all persons of sound mind are
competent to bequeath and devise real and personal estate, excepting
infants, with all this I would say we have the clear advantage to carry
out a smooth and perfect operation whereby the paper work shall be
coordinated in such a way that your status as a sole beneficiary is
confirmed. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money
with you in half and no more; that is: I will simply nominate you as
the next of kin and have them release the deposit to you; afterwards we
share the proceeds in two equal parts.
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 as a foreigner would easily pass as the
beneficiary with the rights to claim, I assure you that I could have the
deposit released to you in a few days. I will simply inform our bank of
the final closing of the file relating to the customer, and instruct
them to release the deposit to you; with these two things: all is done.
We
can fine-tune this based on our interactions, I am aware of the
consequences of this proposal and I ask that if you find no interest in
this project that you should discard this mail. I ask also, that you do
not be vindictive or destructive, if my offer is of no appeal to you,
delete this message and forget I ever contacted you; please do not
destroy my career because you do not approve of my proposal. You may not
know this but people like me who have made tidy sums out of comparable
situations run a 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 and I hope you understand, because
for once I found myself in total control and face to face with 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, please let me know, and hence
move on with my life, but do not destroy me; I am a woman with family
and this is an occasion 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 will bless you and plant you into
the center of relevance in my life, let’s share the blessing.
If
you find yourself interested to work with me, please do respond to my
email positively, then I will initiate this process towards a quick
conclusion. It is necessary to inform you that under no condition should
you contact me via official channels; I will simply deny knowing you
and about this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me
through our official lines neither 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 are periodically monitored to assess our level
of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management policy, do
observe this instruction religiously. Please note that I am a woman;
happily married with three children.
I send you
this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences
might be, 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. If we can be of one accord I shall have the
pleasure of meeting you, after this task has been completed.
I await your response with interest, to enable us proceed with the project.
Yours Sincerely,
Zheng Suifen