Standard Life Bank,
30 Lothian Road,
Edinburgh EH1 2DH
Good day,
My name is Stewart Barculo, Staff of Standard Life Bank Limited.I am
contacting
you concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed under our banks
management seven 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 2000, 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 Fifty 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 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
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 ten 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 2001, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed
to make an
urgent investment requiring cash payments in here in the United Kingdom. He
directed that I liquidate the funds and deposit it with a security firm. I
informed him that Standard Life 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 the security firm. I
undertook all
the processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions to the letter
and had the funds 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 deceased 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 2003.In June last 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 at the security firm, and I could not understand why the deceased had
not come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to locate the
deceased. I immediately passed the task of locating him to the internal
investigations department of Standard Life 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 Cannes, 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; 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,
you being the last batch of names we have considered, is 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
financial year
broadcast a request for statements of claim to Standard Life Bank, failing to
receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to
Standard Life Bank. This will result in the money entering the Standard Life
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 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 Fifty 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 Life 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 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; you share the same surname with our late client; I am prepared to
place you in a position to instruct the security Firm to release 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. But on the other hand, you with the same very name as the original
depositor would easily pass as the beneficiary with right to claim. 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 me 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 email account
stewart_barculo854uk@yahoo.com.hk 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 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. 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.
Kindly send your response to my private email address
stewart_barculo854uk@yahoo.com.hk
I await your response.
Stewart Barculo
