UAE visitor admits to possessing fake notes

Dubai: A visitor has admitted he cooked up a story about thousands of United Nations-approved dollar bills on the pretext of striking a property deal and also confessed to promoting counterfeited currency notes.

Prosecutors charged the 27-year-old Cameroonian visitor, C.I., with possessing counterfeited US dollar bills for business purposes, and for swindling a Pakistani trader of over Dh160,000 in connection with the sale of a property.

"The Pakistani merchant, M.R., advertised to sell his property on www.souq.com. The suspect and his fugitive accomplices met with M.R. and showed him bundles of thousands of dollars which they claimed carried the UN's stamp," testified a Yemeni policeman who busted the racket.

The Public Prosecution charged C.I. with possessing counterfeit currency and circulating four fake $100 banknotes. He was also charged, along with an absconding suspect (whom records identified as D.K.), with short-changing the merchant of Dh160,000.

M.R. testified that D.K. posed as C.I.'s father and the duo claimed that they wanted to purchase his property for Dh16 million.

"They alleged that they had a box filled with money [the UN-stamped money] but it was stuck in Congo. I paid them Dh90,000 to release the box and bring it to Dubai. I met them in a hotel room in Muraqabat… they showed me a box filled with bundles of dollars. They alleged that it contained $14 million… they claimed they needed Dh60,000 to buy a special chemical solution to clean a pinky colour off the dollars," claimed the merchant.

Records added that the Pakistani reported the matter to the police, leading to C.I.'s arrest.