‘Black dollar’ fraud case postponed again

THE case against two men and a woman who allegedly defrauded an Eastern Cape farmer out of more than R300 000 through a “black-dollar” scam, was delayed once again yesterday for one of the accused to obtain legal representation.

A black-dollar scam entails conning people into believing that pieces of black or coated paper can be turned into bank notes by washing them with chemicals.

Benjamin Shammah and Michael Dave allegedly washed some of the notes in front of the farmer, which indeed turned out to be South African currency. The farmer then handed over cash. Shammah, 46, of Uitenhage, Dave, 42, of New Brighton, and Yolandie Jacobs, 30, of Central, appeared in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court yesterday.

The case was postponed to October 31 for the state to arrange legal representation on behalf of Shammah.

Dave and Jacobs are represented by private attorneys.

According to the charge sheet, Shammah and Dave befriended a 44-year-old Alexandria farmer, who cannot be named at this stage, and his employee in February 2015.

They then pretended to be former soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

They allegedly told the farmer they were in possession of R8-million, held in two safes, and a further R12-million back in the DRC.

They allegedly said the R8-million was in “chemically treated black notes which needed to be cleaned by means of a special chemical or solution”.

After washing some of the notes in the presence of the farmer and a worker on his farm, they allegedly said they needed to buy more solution in Port Elizabeth for R250 000.

Once the initial R250 000 had been handed over by the farmer, the accused then allegedly tricked him by telling him they needed a further R10 000 to secure the release of the first safe containing R4-million.

“The solution caused the blackened ‘currency’ to discolour during the washing process,” the charge sheet states.

The discolouring could then only be rectified “by the acquisition of certain crystals”.

They allegedly induced him to fund this with another R75 000.

The accused were arrested during a sting operation in November 2015.