For the record: 419 or moral standards up-side-down (part 1)

419 is the short form to describe scam business. Standing outside my old office next to the GOIL petrol station at the Circle, Accra, George Cooper bumped into me claiming to have seen me at Kantamanto market located close by too uncertain to approach me needing my assistance. Sitting across me he opened up disclosing to be a soldier from Liberia that had found in the rubble of a bank in Monrovia a small safe containing USD 25 Mio. left behind by the CIA as a means to bribe officials. The war confusion made it possible for him and his brother to process the money but as it was chemically treated not to allow the naked eye to see real banknotes but give anyone finding the money the impression of burnt paper.

Few days past, a phone number from Liberia appeared on my phone. His brother called updating me he was about to board a UN helicopter to Accra having successfully bribed the pilot. A few hours later George Cooper called confirming that the money had safely landed. Two days passed we met in the darkness of Hotel Britannia around Circle. Outside at a table, George Cooper pulled out a small plastic bag, let me choose a dirty paper, put it into the bag and added a liquid said to be a highly precious chemical dangerous to use.

The dirty paper turned out to be a USD 100 note eventually giving to me and my wife as a token of trust. Days followed I was called at nights to his Hotel in secretive manoeuvre not for me ever to identify the way to the location. I was faced with his brother presenting a long silver metal container declared to hold USD 25 Mio. as a safe. I was asked to choose one dirty paper to convince me of everything is honest. The liquid was applied to another note that appeared clean. I was asked of USD 25.000 which would be needed to buy from the Chemical Department of the US Embassy. Papers with the CIA logo and many explanations about the handling of the notes were presented to me. I was hooked to go as far as possible to see behind the 419 business.

I used excuses to delay the process. We meet several times more filled with small talk making George Cooper put pressure on me by saying his brother had left the country for Nigeria as they fought over the delay. We met one more time in Executive Lodge Greda Estate. He came with a "specialist" flown in from South Africa where days prior he had cleaned the money by creating bundles of layers of one clean USD note, necessarily new once only, followed by a dirty note and so on. This technique only requires chemicals worth USD 12.500. With his entry pass, George Cooper could get the chemical once I gave him the requested amount of money. I looked at him for the last time being astonished how he could not see that I knew his intentions thinking of white people to be naive.

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