Unwashed: Money-Laundering Scheme Here

Seattle-area businesses are being targeted by con artists operating out of Nigeria who are sending letters promising millions of dollars to participate in an illegal, money-laundering scheme.

The scheme offers the business a cut in the proceeds from overbilled Nigerian government contracts. In return, the businesses must provide the letter-writers with bank-account numbers, signed company letterheads and invoices and, later, a cash fee.

Some of the letters are written in comically formal and fractured English. One letter writer noted he had secured ``a certified power of Anthony'' to complete the transaction.

It's not known if local businesses have lost money in the scam, said Fran Dyer, a federal Treasury Department agent investigating the matter. Dyer said his office has received several complaints from local businesses that have received letters.

Officials of the Seattle office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they are aware of the scam, which is operating in other cities around the country. One San Francisco exporting company reportedly lost $30,000 when it answered one of the letters. Similar letters also have turned up in New York; Atlanta; Vancouver, B.C.; and Singapore.

The letters usually say that the writer is a government employee, or the relative of a government employee, and has become aware of a fraudulently inflated Nigerian government contract. The writer indicates that he has millions of dollars - the difference between the money paid contractors for a job and the amount the government made available for the job - that he wants to launder, and he offers a percentage of the money to the business for laundering it.

The business is asked to send blank, company letterhead paper signed at the bottom; signed and stamped blank invoices that can be used to bill the government, supposedly for work done on the contracts; the company's bank account number and its banker's address; and fax numbers.

The contracts usually are said to be worth between $14 million and $39 million. The businesses usually are offered about a 30 percent cut to take part in the scam, and the business is warned that the deal must be kept secret.

If the business complies, the money is supposed to move into its account on a certain date.

But the money never gets into the account. When the business calls to ask what's happening, the person who answers the phone says it has been discovered that a small Nigerian government fee, usually about 2 percent of the total, must be paid to make the transfer.

If the business sends the fee, that's the last it sees of its money.

The international origin of the letter, the need for secrecy mentioned in the letter and the huge amounts of money supposedly involved may cause otherwise skeptical people to consider the offer, said a local attorney whose clients have received numerous letters in the past few weeks.

If the same people received a letter from Boise, said attorney Joel Junker, an international-trade specialist at Graham & Dunn, ``they would toss it in the (waste) basket quicker than they would blink an eye.''

Charles Howard, president of a Kent-based ladder and ceiling-cover manufacturing company and one of Junker's clients, said he received a letter but wasn't tempted.

``For a few pieces of paper, it sounds like you're going to get awfully rich,'' said Howard, who was offered 30 percent of $22 million supposedly remaining from an over-billed contract to supply materials at a Nigerian airport. ``I'm sure a lot of people have gotten involved in it.''

Those who participate in the scheme may violate federal laws involving wire and mail fraud, Dyer said.