Three foreign nationals have been found guilty, after a 23-day trial, of involvement in a multimillion dollar counterfeit bank draft fraud run from an office in Dublin. A jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court found Thomas Anthony O'Brien, an English national, had set up a fraudulent finance company, World Wide Clearing and Finance (WWCF), to defraud German and American businessmen of millions of dollars.
Two other men connected to WWCF, Raymond Folkes and Christian Obumneme, were convicted of handling forged multimillion dollar bank drafts. All offences occurred between February 1st and March 3rd, 1999.
The court was told Obumneme had tried to swallow a forged $55.5 million cheque when arrested by members of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation in March 1999.
A fourth man, Mr Obiora Uzodike (29), of Oakcourt Avenue, Palmerstown, Dublin, was cleared of all charges.
A fifth man was cleared earlier by direction of Judge Patrick McCartan who remanded the three convicted men in custody for sentencing tomorrow.
The court was told that WWCF, which operated from an office at Lower Baggot Street in Dublin, was connected to a sophisticated fraud ring run from Nigeria. Nigerian criminals had already taken £402,000 from a German businessman, Mr Heinz Althoff, who gave evidence in the trial. The jury also heard evidence from an American businessman, Mr Terry Smith, who was enticed to Dublin by the gang.
Witnesses from the Companies Office gave evidence that WWCF had been set up by directors using fictitious names and addresses. Accomplices in Nigeria had contacted many businessmen around the world and told them they could make tens of millions of dollars by allowing massive dollar transfers into their bank accounts.
When the businessmen came to Ireland, they were told that they would have to pay millions of dollars to receive the payments into their accounts.
The convicted men are: Christian Obumneme (35), a Nigerian refugee applicant of Prussia Street, Dublin; and English residents Thomas Anthony O'Brien (61), of Kent Walk, London SW9, and Raymond Folkes (38), of Dunstans Road, London, SE22. O'Brien was convicted of conspiring with others to defraud Mr Smith of $2 million by offering him a forged $32,000,000 bank draft.
The jury cleared Folkes and Mr Uzodike of a similar charge. O'Brien was also convicted of conspiring with others to defraud German businessman Mr Althoff by offering him a forged $55 million bank draft.
Folkes and Mr Uzodike were cleared of similar charges and the jury failed to reach a verdict against Obumneme. The jury found Folkes guilty of having a forged bank draft at the WWCF office and found Obumneme and O'Brien guilty of having a forged $56.5 million bank draft in College Green, Dublin.