Ramirez and Salazar are accomplices now working through SAMANO SA DE CV, a shadowy company registered in Mexico as a marketing company.
A shadowy syndicate of international fraudsters specializing in smuggling, blackmail, extortion and money laundering scams are behind alleged involvement of some top Nigeria government officials in a deal to sell about 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s crude in 2015, documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES have shown.
Mr Oyewole said the discussion with the officials involved the payment of five per cent whistleblowing compensation for information furnished them. He said the Nigerian officials reneged on the agreement. A sealed indictment against him in a case filed on March 29, 2016, before the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas named Mr Ramirez and his wife, Bebe Ramirez of being behind a fraud syndicate that swindled people of millions of dollars through various mail and wire fraud schemes between 2010 and 2013.
Although registered as a trading firm dealing in “all kinds of supplies, equipment, merchandise and goods in general” as well as “professional and consultancy services to government and private entities, court filings showed SAMANO has been involved in more scams than trade. He was indicted for operating a foreign fraud scheme counterfeiting a U.S. Federal Immigration programme used to defraud several nationals, including Nigerians, of more than $3 million.
The document showed the Ramirezs used the proceeds of their fraudulent schemes to “purchase luxury cars, pay off civil judgments, refund other investors who demanded that their funds be returned, enriched themselves while failing to obtain permanent residency status through the EB-5 Visa Programme for the majority of the investors.”
The charges against them were made after repeated complaints from senior government officials and top businessmen in the country, some of who had fallen victim to the plot of the syndicate and lost huge amounts of money. Mr Ramirez is as well facing two separate criminal trials both at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in charge No. FCT/HC/CR/147/2016, and at the Federal High Court, Lagos in Charge No: id/2763/2016, both respective charges preferred against him by theAn interim Nigerian police investigative report on Messrs. Ramirez, Salazar and their Nigerian accomplices exposed their criminal activities in Nigeria.
Mr Saleh, who provided information and document that nailed them, told the police that shortly after he was introduced to Mr Ramirez, he started bringing different business proposals and introducing different companies to him. Again, Mr Saleh said the Commodore told them that the Chinese government already indicated interest to buy the crude.
The report further established that “There are suggestive influences that the suspects are skilful fraudsters/schemers who do not have any verifiable legal business in operation in Nigeria.” SAMANO claimed to have contacted the authorities in Nigeria through its representative, Mr Ramirez, who said he later got in touch with his friend, Hamman Saleh, “to investigate and obtain authorization” from the Nigerian government to participate in the sale of crude oil.
Mr Ramirez stated that he was invited again by Mr Saleh to come for a meeting with Mr Umar with further proof of their claims. They claimed all efforts to get the reward they were promised was rebuffed by the NNPC, resulting in their decision to sue the NNPC in Mexico or London.
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