Taking their lead from the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America, a gang of Africans based in Moscow succeeded in conning several Russian businessmen out of tens of thousands of pounds by posing as flamboyant African government ministers, according to police.
In the 1988 film which inspired the alleged scam, Murphy plays Prince Akeem from the kingdom of Zamunda. His deception is the other way round: Akeem poses as a fast-food worker in New York, so that he can escape an arranged marriage and find a bride who really loves him.
Four Africans have been charged with fraud and face up to six years if convicted. Prosecutors say they painstakingly copied the costumes and flamboyant mannerisms of Prince Akeem and his father, King Jaffe Joffer (played in the movie by James Earl Jones) to trick their Russian victims. The scam was said to be based on a tried and tested method usually employed on the internet. One of the gang would pretend to be the nephew of a wealthy minister, in one case the former deputy prime minister of Guinea-Bissau. He would explain that his uncle wanted to smuggle $22.5m (£12.5m) into Russia in an African diplomatic pouch, and was willing to give a cut to anyone who would help him. There was inevitably a catch; the victim would need to put up $43,000 in cash to bribe an African embassy in Moscow to take delivery of the pouch. |