Received e-mail from Mbeki March 2009.
Responded via e-mail March 2009.
Response from Mbeki: None (pending?)
Attention:
My name is Mr. Zinfy Lucas Mbeki I am South African man by birth and resident in Spain.
I am a sale and account manager in a financial consultancy firm here Madrid. My Company is mandated to source for reliable investors in the World over to invest available funds in profitable business ventures.
This is why I am making this urgent contact with you and your associates, some prominent individuals in Marbella the Andalusia region of Spain made these funds available to my firm and the available fund is in US dollars amounting to millions, because of the heat they are now facing from the law for the unauthorized sales of states properties, the city mayor and deputy mayor amid allegations of money laundering is now under house arrest, for property development offenses including building on land protected from development, manipulation of public tenders, and the acceptance of bribes as well as schemes to alter the price of municipal services.
In this sleaze scandal, which hit the southern Spanish resort city Marbella in spring 2006,and they know their chances of not going to jail is slim they have asked my firm to act swiftly on their behalf in other for them not to lose out completely and save something for their family members.
Depending on your experience and proposal you will forward to us, we will determine a suitable amount to remit to you to kick off the business you intend to invest in. You will manage this business without interference for a period of three years, after which, the profit on investment will be shared after taxation.
The investment areas are not limited and may include new businesses or injection of funds into an existing firm that, of course, is profit oriented, bearing in mind that you are not authorized to invest in public Companies or Government agencies.
You can incorporate a firm fully owned by you based on the laws of your Country or invest this money in a private Company as a shareholder. You can equally trade stock or export and import goods as may be profitable. Fresh funds may also be invested to enlarge the business if the prospects are good.
All these are without any liability to you as this is a risk that the fund owners are ready to take, you will be required to make urgent contact with us to finalize arrangements on how to move the agreed funds into a fresh account you will open with the bank where I have lodged the funds and sign related documents that will authorize you to manage this money on our behalf. A draft agreement will be forwarded to you to enable us fine-tune all gray areas and ensure a smooth take off.
Please, reply to this mail and I will forward more information to you all we need is to ascertain your credibility, resourcefulness and experience.
I earnestly await your response.
Regards,
Mr. Zinfy Lucas Mbeki
Dear Mr. Mbeki,
Let me say that I, Esther Lustig II, am remarkably flattered that you, ostensibly the controller of a major financial corporation, would choose someone like me to manage company funds using nothing but my personal bank account. With a mixture of sadness and assurance, I must report that I am presently entrusting all fiduciary matters to a kind, wrongly-deposed Prince from Nigeria. I would tell you the details, but they are too harrowing.
Mr. Mbeki, upon further exploration of your offer, I feel obligated to warn you that I fear you have fallen victim to a confidence scheme known as “The Spanish Prisoner.” Have you actually met your indicted superiors? In these trying economic times, entrusting strangers with your remaining shares is just risky business. I hope you didn’t use your entire college fund to support these shysters, because I would like to propose a counteroffer.
With a name like Zinfy, how on earth are you not a dandy? Zinfy is the most mercurial name I have ever heard. You shouldn’t be managing a trust for a bunch of future convicts. You should be wearing an elegant cutaway while riding your velocipede to the nearest haberdashery. I believe in the confluence of cosmos, Zinfy, and your proposal this morning cemented the once fleeting notion that we were meant to be together. We’ll move to a small town outside the Swiss Alps and open a chalet for hungry locals and a few tourists.
Imagine our lives together. By day, we will race jet skis down the slopes in matching Fair Isle sweaters and by night, we will toast frothy mugs of cocoa in front of an open fire. (Yummy!) We will discuss the finer points of song and cinema, including “The Spanish Prisoner” which, I believe, is one of David Mamet’s best films. Steve Martin is the bad guy! (Bitchin’, right?) It’s okay if we never fully consummate our relationship. We can be like Elsa Lanchester and Charles Laughton. Mull it over. I earnestly await your response.
Sincerely,
Esther
