Two Fraudsters Arrested For Dealing In Fake Dollars

The police have arrested two suspected fraudsters who attempted to dupe a medical doctor by presenting to him a box containing fake dollars. The dollars were  purported to have been secured during the overthrow of the former President of Burkina Faso, Mr Blaise Compaore.

The suspects are Veron Mussan, 35, a Burkinabe, who claims to be a medical doctor, and Victor Kwame Wembey, 39, a cleaner.

One other suspect, identified as Peter Toure, alias Sheriff, believed to be the kingpin behind the scam, is currently at large.

Telephone call

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Ms Effia Tenge, said in February 2015, the medical officer (name withheld) received a phone call from an unknown number and the caller introduced himself as Peter Toure, popularly known as Sherrif and an aide to former President Compaore.

She said Toure claimed he was able to secure two safes containing $8.5 million and $6.5 million during the overthrow of the former Burkinabe President.

“The caller claimed he wanted to hand it over to an influential person. That was why he had called the doctor but the doctor suspected it was a scam and immediately reported to the police.”

Doctor feigns interest 

The doctor, she said, therefore, feigned interest in the deal and “arranged for them to bring the safes to him in Ghana”.

However, Toure told the doctor that he would have to pay a courier fee of $10,000 after the boxes had been delivered to him.

Ms Tenge said through intelligence gathering, the police arrested the two suspects while they were in the process of delivering the safes to the doctor at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, in Accra. 

The police then took the suspects and the heavy metal boxes which had been locked to the Accra Regional Police Command where it took the police about 30 minutes to open each of the boxes. 

To the surprise of the policemen, they found that the boxes contained brown papers and fake dollars which were concealed in a concrete mixture. 

Ms Tenge said the police had declared Toure, the prime suspect, a  wanted person.

“Efforts are being made to have him arrested. Meanwhile as investigations continue, the two suspects who are currently in police custody will soon be put before court,” Ms Tenge said.