Two Georgian men were busted in a Myanmar airport with $90,000 of stolen cash hidden in their underwear which they had swiped from a local money changer, police said Saturday.
Officers said the middle-aged men, identified as Janjgava Revas, 64, and Narmania Malkhaz, 51, had made off with the money from a currency exchange office on Friday in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.
“They were found at the Yangon airport with the $90,000 in their underwear,” said a statement posted on Yangon police’s official Facebook page.
“They will have to face trial,” an officer said on Saturday, adding that the men were being held in the city’s main prison.
The duo allegedly duped the money changer into giving them the $90,000 before they had handed over the equivalent amount in Myanmar kyat.
“They told me they would come back with the Myanmar kyat,” Zaw Win, the owner of the exchange office, told a news reporter.
He said the Georgians, who were in Myanmar on tourist visas, left behind a case that they claimed contained the US dollars he had doled out for them and promising to return shortly.
But when he opened the case 10 minutes later Zaw Win realized the men had taken off with most of the money — the stacks of cash left inside the case were mostly one dollar bills.
Nigeria, through it foremost anti-graft body – Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has also been engaging in the recovery of hard currencies being stashed away by corrupt officials.
