Wellington, Dec 27 NZPA - A New Zealander posing as an international banker has been jailed for a multi-million dollar fraud in the United States.

Shaun Gregory Morgan, 32, was this week sentenced to five years' jail by Utah judge Dee Benson after he admitted running a fake bank over the internet, the Herald on Sunday reported.

Morgan did a deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which led to a string of charges being dropped in exchange for pleading guilty to one count of bank fraud. He also admitted attempting to cover his tracks with counterfeit cheques.

In the scam, Morgan claimed he was an officer for London-based bank First Mutual and had millions of dollars of credit available.

He claimed the company had offices in London, New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Utah and Delaware.

However, the bank was a fictional financial institution that existed only on a website he created.

Morgan said he offered an investment company $18.3 million but it had to deposit $3.5 million in Treasury bills and bonds with the company as collateral.

He then contacted the company to say he had to close the account for "compliance reasons" then offered it a cheque for $2.8m to cover its risk. The cheque turned out to be counterfeit.

Morgan has previously been implicated in a banking scam and Swiss banking authorities have banned him from using the word "bank" in connection with his businesses.

In 2004 Morgan also claimed to be running two banks in Auckland, but the Reserve Bank demanded he stop using the word "bank" in the titles of his companies. Pakistani media claimed Morgan and the companies were linked to the disappearance of $20m of a Turkish investor's money.

Auckland lawyer Brian Ellis said he recently discovered Morgan -- a former client -- had continued to use the Auckland address of his firm Ellis Law.

"I was horrified when I discovered he was using my address for purposes I imagined were nefarious. One of the problems in New Zealand is it is too soft and too easy to form companies here."

When visited by the police at the request of the FBI, Mr Ellis said he had no information to help -- other than showing proof he had told Morgan to stop using the address in his scams.