From: Sean Weir <weirsean07@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 10 May 2021 11:43:06 -0700
Subject: Dear Hutton Griffith

From Mr. Sean Weir (Bidvest Bank SA)

I hope you are doing well. My name is Mr. Sean Weir and I am a staff of
Bidvest Bank , here in South Africa attached to Private Banking Services, I
am contacting you concerning a customer and an investment placed under our
bank's 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 2015, 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 $19 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
accessing 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$29, 566,272.00, 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 2016, 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 trickled 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(Bidvest Bank SA).

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 the right to claim the estate, this investigation for several
months was 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 Bidvest Bank , and failing to receive viable claims we will
most probably revert the deposit back to the South Africa government. This
will result in the money entering the South Africa 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.
At this moment there is US$29, 566,272.00. 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 were returned 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 2017 and since then the portfolio have remain dormant and it is
now on the edge of been turned over to the South Africa 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 one's 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 centre of relevance in my
life, let share the blessing.

If you find yourself interested in working 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.

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 to proceed with the
project.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr. Sean Weir
(Bidvest Banking. Officer)