NIGERIA: Nigeria has become notorious for its "advance-fee fraud", a financial scheme also known as "419" which lures the greedy and gullible into losing large sums of money. Declan Walsh reports
But now a landmark court prosecution to stamp out the swindle has itself become subject to corruption allegations.
This week the trial started in Abuja of three Nigerians accused of swindling $242 million (€190 million) from a Brazilian bank over four years.
On the second day of hearing Chief Justice Lawal Gumi warned that someone involved with the case - as yet unnamed - had attempted to bribe court officials.
"I want to sound a note of warning that under no circumstances should money be passed around to induce the court," he was quoted as saying by the state-run News Agency of Nigeria.
The case is the largest-ever such prosecution in Nigeria. The five defendants, who have pleaded not guilty, stand accused of swinding $242 million from the Sao Paolo-based Banco Noroeste between 1995 and 1998.
They allegedly persuaded the bank's head of international finance to transfer the money into accounts around the world in return for a cut of a lucrative construction contract worth $10 million.
The discovery of the fraud has triggered criminal investigations in Switzerland, Britain, the US and Brazil, said Mr Nuhu Ribadu of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The case highlighted the "truly global network of fraudulent individuals" involved, he told the BBC.
Nigeria is the world's second most corrupt country, after Bangladesh, according to a corruption watchdog, Transparency International. It is particularly famous for advance-fee fraud, known locally as "419 scams" after the article in the penal code that outlaws them. Many people in Ireland have been approached by the fraudsters; some have fallen for the con.
Typically fraudsters e-mail or fax individuals across the globe offering huge rewards in exchange for facilitating a shady business deal or financial transfer. The con artists often represent themselves as close relatives of a deposed or deceased dictator, such as Congo's Laurent Kabila or Liberia's Charles Taylor.
Following lengthy correspondence victims are persuaded into handing over their bank account details, or paying out never-ending "commissions" to facilitate the deal.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has started to counter Nigeria's unsavoury reputation by giving strong powers to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which is bringing the current prosecution.
Since it was established in May the commission has arrested over 200 people and started about 30 court cases, although it has yet to secure a conviction.
Among those indicted was a parliamentarian from Nigeria's House of Representatives.
Western firms have also been subject to allegations of sleaze in Nigeria.
The US Justice Department is investigating allegations that a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil services firm once run by Vice-President Dick Cheney, paid kickbacks to secure a natural gas project in Nigeria.
The French electronics giant Sagem has been implicated in a separate prosecution in which five officials, including three former ministers, are accused of accepting bribes totalling over $1 million to secure a $214 million government contract.
Meanwhile in Kenya, police are investigating whether the former military dictator, Sani Abacha, used a local bank to spirit $100 million out of Nigeria.