Phila. police arrest five in 'Black Money' scam

Police have arrested five men on charges of running a scam on local business owners, a scheme, known as "Black Money," that involves persuading the victim to hand over a large amount of cash.

Philadelphia police on Wednesday warned businesses against falling for the elaborate scam, which involves the con artists' claiming they possess large quantities of U.S. currency that has been smuggled into the country and dyed black so as not to be detected by customs. The con artists then offer to sell the dyed cash, which is actually paper, along with a chemical that can be used to wash off the dye.

"It's basically the bait and switch," said Philadelphia Lt. John Walker. "These guys are confident in what they do."

Police and members of the Secret Service arrested the five men involved with the scam on Nov. 18, following a sting operation at a restaurant in West Philadelphia.

Those arrested are Nagbe Saykagee, 30, of Upper Darby; Patrick Sanyeah, 27, of the 4600 block of Chester Avenue; Solomon Bility, 26, of Chester; Rovia Dousuah, 24, of Darby; and Isaac Johnson, 36, of the 2500 block of South Ashford Street. All are charged with theft, conspiracy, forgery, and related offenses stemming from the sting.

Police are also looking into whether the group may have scammed two other business owners in the city, Walker said.

"These people target places that are mostly cash businesses," he said. He added that some people might not come forward after they were scammed, out of embarrassment.

On Nov. 10, the men, who are Liberian, approached the owner of a restaurant on the 7500 block of Haverford. They told him they had $100,000 worth of "black money" from West Africa and offered to sell it and the cleaning products to the owner for $50,000, police said.

The owner suspected it was a con and called police, who set up the sting at the restaurant on Nov. 18. When the alleged scammers showed up, they brought packages of supposed "black money," which were actually stacks of black paper wrapped in plastic, police said.

The men demonstrated the "cleaning" process by opening a package and taking several real hundred-dollar bills from the stack, then "washing" them off to reveal the money. The men had planted a few real bills in the pile, Walker said, and coated them with some type of black polish.

Variations of the "black money" scam began surfacing about 10 years ago all over the world, police said. Sometimes, the con is run via the Internet, in which case the victim receives an e-mail informing him that he has come into a large sum of money, but that he must pay fees in order to claim it.