Another two 'black money' fraudsters to be arraigned

Following direct instructions from Acting Police Commissioner Raymond Zammit yesterday, the Rapid Intervention Unit Police arrested another two men from Cameroon in a hotel in Qawra who came to Malta with the intention to defraud innocent victims.

On Tuesday at around 11.00am the police raided the room and arrested the two men. In the room, the police found a suitcase containing foil, black paper money, ink, liquids in bottles, gloves, masks and an envelope containing blank white papers, the size of paper money with shades of the 100, 200, 500 Euro notes. They also found fake passports and other personal documents.

The men had ID cards and passports with different names and one of them used the same photo on different documents. One of the men used the name Elvis Minang Achu, 31 years old, on a French ID document and that of Bambe Cassana, this time 36 years old.

His accomplice used the name Serge Ronny Thiam, 27 years old and that of Johnathan Bagari with an French ID and a Camaroon document.

Both men arrived in Malta on last Monday on Air Malta flight KM467 from Orly airport in France. Since France is in the Schengen Area, the two men did not pass through passport control.

Both men will be arraigned in court today or tomorrow.

This is not the first time that the police made such arrest in connection with this scam known as ‘Black Money Scam’.

Yesterday two other men were remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to trying to defraud a Maltese man out of €250,000 in a ‘black money scam'. 

The Cameroonian and South African duo asked their victim for €250,000 in exchange for a briefcase full of banknote-sized paper dyed black, and claimed that they could not export the money due to laws in their homeland.

However, the victim is said to have informed the police of the scam, leading to the subsequent arrest of the accused.

In September, two other Cameroonians were also remanded in custody over the ‘black money scam’.