A machine that turns taka to dollar!

They used to lure businessmen saying they have “invented” a machine that can convert taka to US dollars. If someone puts Tk 100 in it, they will get back $100 in return.

They called it “Magic Box”. Business was good, and three Cameroon nationals were doing it successfully for a while, until they finally got caught.

Rapid Action Battalion arrested them from the capital’s Dhanmondi and Bashundhara areas in the last two days on charges of fraudulence, said Mozammel Haque, commanding officer of Rab-4, in a press briefing at Rab media centre yesterday.

The arrestees are: Tchikamen Rodrigue, 31; Dongmeza N Guegni, 32; and Alexandre Mafeja, 48.

Mozammel said the arrestees used to introduce themselves as representatives of a big company. They also earned people’s trust with lucrative offers. At one point, they offered Bangladeshi businessmen the opportunity to convert local currency into dollars.

At first, they tricked people by “converting” small amounts and later took a substantial amount of money from them with promises to convert them accordingly.

Once they got the money, they disappeared, added the Rab official.

Rab also seized five such magic boxes, bank notes, foil papers and other equipment from their possession.