Dubai: A Chadian man has been jailed for six months after a court convicted him on Monday of counterfeiting $10 million (Dh36.78 million) in $100 bills which he possessed for trading purposes.
The Dubai Court of First Instance also ordered the 52-year-old Chadian accused, K.M., to pay a Dh10,000 fine.
The defendant, who worked as a car painter, earlier pleaded not guilty and accused the police of commissioning him to counterfeit the money.
"I am not guilty. That is absolutely untrue. I did not counterfeit the money… it was the police who asked me do it and bring them the money," the accused claimed when he appeared in court last month.
The Public Prosecution charged K.M. with counterfeiting a currency which is traded locally. According to the primary judgment, which is still subject to appeal within 13 days, K.M. will be deported after the completion of his punishment.
According to the charges, the suspect bought white paper and genuine dollars in $100 bills and then photocopied and printed the dollars on the paper.
When Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad stated the charges, K.M. defended himself saying: "Police asked me to bring it and I brought it."
An Emirati lieutenant testified in his prosecution statement that police seized three bags containing bundles of dollars in the defendant's possession.
"The bags contained bundles of $100 banknotes and which were tainted with a black substance. K.M. confessed that the money was counterfeit… he admitted that he counterfeit the money to make a living," the lieutenant said.
An Emirati sergeant stated during prosecution questioning: "I posed as a merchant who was supposed to buy the dollars from K.M. as part of a sting operation, I contacted the suspect and agreed to pay $200,000 [in genuine dollars] for every $1 million [of counterfeit dollars]," the sergeant claimed.
"He admitted to me that counterfeiting the money cost him around Dh12,000," the Emirati corporal claimed in his prosecution statement. Prosecution records quoted the defendant as saying that he bought the papers from Naif Souq, then photocopied them and cut them into the size matching $100 banknotes before he tainted them with the black substance.
