How notorious fraudster exchanged fake $7,000 for N3.4m

A suspected fraudster, John Eze, has been arrested by the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, Lagos State, for allegedly defrauding a Bureau De Change operator, Ismaila Ali, in the Ikoyi area of the state.

34-year-old Eze had approached Ali sometime in January 2017, to exchange the sum of $7,000 for the naira equivalent.

Ali was said to have paid Eze N3,451,000, buying the dollars at the rate of N493 per dollar.

The duo reportedly parted ways after the transaction, which held inside the suspect’s LEXUS 470 Jeep with number plate, Lagos AKD 612 DA.

The bubble burst when Ali got to his office on Treadsmaqueen Street,  Ikoyi, where another customer was waiting to exchange naira for dollars.

As he brought out the money, he allegedly discovered that Eze gave him fake 74 pieces of 100 dollar note.

Ali told our correspondent that efforts to reach the suspect on a telephone number he gave him for future transactions were abortive, as the line was switched off.

He said, “I was in my office when he called and said he had $7,000 to sell. I told him we bought at N493 and sold at N496 per dollar. He said I should meet him in a bank at Falomo.

“I borrowed N2.6m from my colleagues and added my money to it to make it N3,451,000, the equivalent of the money he wanted to exchange. Out of apprehension, I told my apprentice to keep the money, while I meet him first so that if he had a weapon, he would not get any money from me.

“As I attempted to enter the bank, he called me that he was no longer there and I should meet him at another bank. As I approached the new bank he gave me, he called and said he was in his Lexus Jeep. He opened the door and I entered.”

Ali said the suspect told him his (Eze) wife mentioned him to him.

He said he became interested in the conversation when the suspect brought out the dollars.

“I counted them and saw they were complete and original. I called my apprentice to bring the money and he joined me in the Jeep. He sat at the back, while I sat beside the man in front.

“I advised that we should go inside the bank for the transaction, but he said he was in a hurry and needed to go to a construction site, where workers were waiting to be paid. He said we could do it in the Jeep,” he added.

Ali said as they were about to part ways after the transaction, the suspect received a call from a woman he claimed to be his wife.