Page 180 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

payment depriving the true owners of the amount of the cheques. I
explained to her that this was a legal financial liability of a Collecting
Banker. I asked her to call the customer immediately as I needed to be
sure how they got these cheques.

Fortunately, the customer came down to meet us next day morning. I
asked them how they got hold of such large number of small amount
cheques and one hugely large amount cheque. The customer disclosed
that they had their buyers from Nigeria who gave these cheques to them
along with 50% payment of goods bought. They (our customer) banked
in the cheques in their account with our bank. On receipt of amounts in
their account, they withdrew the amount, deducted their 50% remaining
bill and paid the balance to the buyers.

I explained to them that the cheques appear to be stolen in transit and
endorsements appeared to be forged. The buyers were not genuine and
there seems to be a racket of which they had become a conduit to collect
the amounts and pay to the fraudsters. The customer disputed our
suggestion and claimed that there was no problem so far three times in
the past and they should be paid the amounts of cheques as they had
already released the goods to buyers on 50% payment. We explained to
them that if they insist on payment, then bank needs to handover the
case to police for further investigation of this international banking fraud.
Then the customer came round and asked for our advice for their
protection.

We instructed the Junior Manager in-charge of the Deposit Department
handling the account of the customer where cheque amounts had to be
credited, to put the payments on hold when received and block the
account. Instructions were given not to allow any withdrawals against
these amounts of cheques.

Now we had to act fast as flash to contact the banks in USA through our
correspondent bank for the largest amount cheque of USD 350,000 to

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