Two Liberian men have been arrested for stealing US$90,000, or about 3 million baht, from a Thai businessman by swapping counterfeit banknotes for genuine ones in a gold-selling scam.
Pol Col Pansa Amarapitak, chief of the Thong Lor police station, said investigators apprehended Solomon Varney Gaddeh, 32, and Yousouf Cherif, 50, while they were walking on the pavement of Udomsuk road in Bangkok’s Bang Na district on late Saturday night.
The arrest followed a complaint by the owner of an iron and gold ore importing company that two African men stole $90,000 in cash from him when he met them to buy 2kg of gold on Jan 2.
In his complaint, the businessman was approached by a foreign man identified only as Richard via Facebook. Richard offered to sell him gold bars weighing 2kg for below market price. The victim agreed to pay Richard $90,000 in cash when they met in the Ibis Bangkok hotel car park in Soi Sukhumvit 24.
In the car park, the Thai man met with Mr Gaddeh and Mr Yousouf. Richard, who did not show up, told the buyer on the phone that the two men were his minions, and asked him to drive them to an outdoor parking space a few hundred metres from the hotel, where the men would show him the gold bars.
There, the businessman checked the gold bars and found no irregularities. The fraudsters, who were in the back seats, asked to count the $90,000 in banknotes that the victim had put in a bag and placed it on the front passenger seat.
While counting the money, Richard video-called the Thai man to distract him, allowing his gang mates to switch fake dollar bills with the real currency.
The Liberians then returned the money bag to the buyer, pretended to have forgotten their passports and asked to get out of the car, saying they would return with the documents in five minutes – taking the gold with them.
After waiting for an hour with the two men not returning and Richard not reachable by phone, the businessman examined the banknotes and felt the texture of the bills, finding it was unusual. He later learned at a nearby bank that the money was fake.
Pol Col Pansa said the suspects confessed to deceiving the businessman but had already transferred the stolen money overseas. Police are investigating further, believing that there were three more accomplices involved in the gold scam.
