Among hardcore members of the northern soul scene, it was common to see record labels tattooed on their arms and necks: Ric-Tic, OKeh and Vee-Jay.

Okeh said the scam is one of many in Nigeria that are specifically designed to extract small sums from Nigeria's unemployed.

To some extent this mirrors the situation for OKeh, which also has a European head office, and a pointed slogan: “Global expressions in jazz.”