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SCMP Reporter

The first international conviction was secured yesterday for a cash cleaning scam in which victims believed dyed 'banknotes' could be turned into usable US$100 notes.

    The well-executed $5.3 million fraud, involving worthless pieces of black paper, travelled the world, touching down in Nigeria, Japan, Israel, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

  But yesterday the fraud crashed to earth for Hong Kong-based Nigerian businessman John Nelson, 29.

  Nelson was jailed for three years after being found guilty of five charges of obtaining property by deception and one count of attempting to obtain property by deception. He had denied the charges.

  Nelson conned several international businessmen after telling them he had a chemical which could clean blackened United States dollars which had been dyed for security reasons, the court heard.

  To stage the scam, Nelson posed, alternatively, as a Central Bank of Nigeria executive and a member of a wealthy Algerian group, the court heard.

  The victims were told if they bought the chemicals and cleaned the bills with the solution, they would get their money back plus a hefty percentage of what Nelson made.

  'The sums talked about were US$34.5 million [HK$266.55 million] to US$50 million, and a meeting would be set up with the trickster,' Judge Duncan Kilgour said.

  But the black dye was nothing more than glue and iodine, while the cleaning chemical was a common and inexpensive photographic developing solution.

  Between mid-June and July last year, Nelson posed as a banking executive called Idris Mohammed, the court heard. He convinced Hong Kong businessman Siu Shing-kwok to give him HK$850,300 to buy the cleaning chemicals after several meetings at a hotel.

  Nelson and two other unidentified men wheeled in the aluminium suitcase and into a darkened room, the court heard. They told the victims the chemicals were photo-sensitive and the banknotes would be destroyed if exposed to light.

  With one dim lightbulb burning, Nelson slightly opened the case to reveal what appeared to be a mass of stacked 'black money' and mixed it with the solution, the court heard.

  'What appeared was a genuine, if somewhat damp, US$100 bill,' Judge Kilgour said. The scam relied on the 'greed and gullibility of victims', he said.

  It was repeated with three Japanese businessmen and two other Hong Kong men.

  Jonathan Midgley, defending, said the victims had incorrectly identified Nelson several times and the police had got the wrong man.

  'But Mr Siu said he would recognise the defendant even if he was reduced to ashes,' Judge Kilgour said.

   After he was jailed, Nelson yelled out that his life had been threatened in prison.

  Judge Kilgour said he was safer there than in any other prison in the world.



Three years for Nigerian in dyed note scam