UAE cops bust multi-million fake dollar racket

An accountant and a merchant were arrested in Abu Dhabi for trying to sell counterfeit dollar bills with an assumed value of $14 million (Dh51.4 million).

The two men were nabbed in a sting operation with one of them striking a deal with an undercover policeman during Eid Al Adha, said Lt Col Ali Saeed Al Nuaimi, deputy director general of Abu Dhabi Police CID.

But the bundles of “dollars” turned out to be mere wads of paper printed in black ink and cut to match the size of dollars.

With both men in the dock for the illegal activity that could fetch them sentences of up to 15 years in jail under the country’s law, they are blaming each other for the mess they are in.

The main accused JFM, 49, who tried to sell the bills to the undercover agent, has since accused his partner AMA,  a 40-year-old Arab, as the brain behind the con job and said he wasn’t even aware of the illegal nature of the deal he was striking.

As part of the investigations, the forensic laboratory has confirmed that the bundles of currency seized from the men are either counterfeits or paper painted in black.

The suspects said the black and white patterns on the surface of the “banknotes” were just colours to facilitate chemical analysis and could be removed easily to turn the paper into real money.

Based on a tip-off, police launched the operation with the undercover agent striking a deal to buy $4 million for Dh250,000. After agreeing on the deal, the accused trimmed the size of the deal to $2million for Dh100,000 to check the genuineness of the buyer.

Police seized tools the accused used to print the money along with the fake dollar bills of $100,000.

After GF fell in the police net, a watch was maintained on AMA who was arrested while he was en route to Al Ain. A stash of counterfeit dollar bills was found when police raided his house.

He however said the bills belonged to GF and he just did the safe keeping.

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