An African who calls himself "Jeff" and "a prince of a Nigerian tribe," was arrested by officers from the Ta-an Police Station late Wednesday night for allegedly conning nearly US$100,000 out of a Taipei resident by using fake US dollar bills.
Called by the Taipei resident, surnamed Lee, the policemen went to Lee's apartment, where the Nigerian man -- who was identified as Ezeogu Izucjulwu Edmonde by his yet-to-be-verified passport -- was talking with Lee about further payments for the purchase of chemicals which were to be used to restore some US$2 million in blackened bills to their original appearance.
The police search found Jeff's suitcase, which they said contained US$2 million in counterfeit bills.
According to Lee, he met Jeff -- along with another African named "Johnson" -- near the Taipei Grand Mosque on Hoping East Road several days ago. Lee said Jeff told him that he was actually an African prince who was in something of a predicament.
Although Jeff said he was in possession of US$2 million in cash -- funds that were part of a US aid package to Nigeria, he said -- he could not use the bills as they had been "cursed" and had all turned black. Jeff claimed that only by soaking the bills in a certain chemical solution could the bills regain their original color and then be spendable, Lee said.
Jeff told Lee was a golden opportunity for him to become a millionaire simply by spending US$150,000 to purchase the chemical solution, Lee said.
Lee paid Jeff US$93,500 over the past several days, but it seemed that the deal had stagnated. The US$2 million was to have been split among the three men, Lee said.
Feeling something was not right, Lee invited Jeff to his home while alerting police of their meeting.
Police are investigating the case and believe that Jeff and Johnson, who is still at large, are only part of an international crime ring looking for easy marks.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS