ATTN: SEEKING HONEST ASSOCIATE Pardon me for contacting you through this medium and in this manner without any prior introduction. This is due to circumstances beyond my control. I had to bribe the prison attendants to secretly allow me open an email address from the computer in their office. My name is Alhaji Mohammed Sani Abacha, the eldest surviving son of the late Nigerian Head of State, General Sani Abacha. I am currently in detention on the orders of the current Nigerian government at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons, Lagos on what is to me, on political grounds. You would have read some of the news recently of how the present government claims that my late father looted their treasury before he died. Well, you can see some of them at the following websites: http//news.bbc.co.uk; www.bobminton.org. Since the assumption of power by the present civilian government in Nigeria, my entire family has known no peace. The present government has set out to humiliate and persecute my late father's family and associates for both real and imagined sins' of my late father. They have confiscated all the assets they could lay hands on, frozen the family's bank accounts both here and abroad and generally emasculate the members of my family. All these victimization and more have left me, my siblings and most especially my widowed mother in a very difficult situation in the battle for survival. In view of this experience and in order to avoid further decimation of the family's fortunes, my mother and I have decided to entrust a reasonable part of the family's hidden funds under the care of a trustworthy foreigner for safekeeping. Her major problem is that while I am in detention my mother's movements and access are restricted since she is virtually under house arrest and constantly monitored. This explains my having to contact you through clandestine sources. Let me therefore inform you in the utmost confidence that before the freezing of certain key bank accounts in Nigeria, we were able through a technical arrangement to withdraw monies totaling US$45,000,000.00 (Forty Five Million U.S. Dollars Only) which was immediately moved out of the country through the help of some of my late father's close associates who are still serving in the present government. It is both my wish and my mother's that you assist us in the safekeeping of these monies. My mother will be able to discuss with you if the proper arrangements are made through our lawyer, Messr abdulsan and abdulsan & Co. (Legal Practitioners & Notaries Public). Note that all correspondence between us shall be through the lawyer, contact directly the most senior partner. CHIEF hamed bala(SAN) bala & bala & CO. (Legal Practitioners & Notaries Public) e-mail:hamed_808_bala@yahoo.com Tele phone; 234-80-33223121. I have arranged and agreed with my mother that 25% of the total sum will be for you for your kind assistance, while 5% of the total sum have been earmarked for expenses that might be incured both local and international in the course of the whole of the whole transaction, including calls made either by you or both. But please note that this request is contingent on your undertaking that you shall make the funds available to my mother on demand as a primary condition prior to the commencement of this transaction. This email address is my only source of communication. You can contact the attorney directly as all the information is already with him. Please keep me posted via email as I will be looking forward to your favorable response. Regards, ALHAJI MOHAMMED SANI ABACHA