World

Georgians caught with $90,000 of stolen cash in underwear: Myanmar police

Janjgava Revas, 64, and Narmania Malkhaz, 51, had made off with the money from a currency exchange office

Afp April 22, 2017

Myanmar police personnel arrive at a supermarket where three bombs exploded in Yangon on November 20, 2016. Three suspected handmade bombs exploded in a supermarket in southern Yangon on November 20, authorities said, although no casualties were reported. Security forces locked down the area with sniffer dogs after the blasts went off around 5:30 pm in Thakeyta township. PHOTO: AFP

YANGON: 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.

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"They will have to face trial," an officer told AFP 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 AFP.

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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.