You Can't Make This Stuff Up

From ‘Nigerian’ Inheritance Scam Leads to Lawyer’s Suspension:

Early last month an attorney whose name I’ll spare you was suspended from practice for 12 months by his state’s lawyer disciplinary panel. Someone the lawyer had represented in a criminal case presented documentation indicating that he (the client) was the beneficiary of a large bequest. From a long-lost cousin. In Nigeria. 

You read that correctly. Believing, or hoping, that the paperwork was legit, the lawyer agreed to help his client secure the inheritance. For a 10 percent contingency fee – $1.8 million. Over the course of the next several days, the lawyer communicated with people he believed worked for the “Central Bank of Nigeria,” the “African Union” and the President of Nigeria.