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Police detain African con artist who ‘cloned’ money in Moscow

When people started to believe in the magic that they saw with their own eyes, they gave him a large sum of money

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Police detained a swindler who allegedly "cloned" money and gave his victims fake cash, Russian Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk told TASS on Sunday.

"The 45-year-old native of a Central African country was engaged in the so-called ‘money cloning’ using a tried-and-true scheme. In order to perform his ritual, he used a potential victim's bill, his own banknote of the same denomination, paper blanks and a chemical solution. Discreetly putting the two bills together, the swindler cast a spell and doused them with liquid, which he called magic. Then he showed the client that the sum had allegedly doubled," the spokeswoman said.

When people started to believe in the magic that they saw with their own eyes, they gave him a large sum of money. The "magician" was arrested in his Moscow apartment while attempting to steal 22 mln rubles (about $300,000) from another client.

A criminal case against the man has been launched under Articles 30 and 159 of the Russian Criminal Code ("an attempted fraud"). Police are carrying out the activities in order to identify possible accomplices and all episodes of the crime.