Alleged ‘Black Money’ Scam Nets 2 Indictments

Two men who allegedly ran a “black money” scam in Cherry Hill were indicted Tuesday on multiple charges related to the crime, state Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced.

Nyondah L. Blay, also known as John Blay, 38, of Trenton, and Carl Jenkins, 36, of Philadelphia, PA, who had been arrested in February after allegedly trying to steal more than $75,000 from a victim, were each indicted on charges of second-degree conspiracy and second-degree attempted theft by deception.

Blay and Jenkins falsely claimed to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash that had been dyed black to avoid detection as it was moved from Liberia, authorities said, and told their victim the dye could be removed with the help of certain chemicals.

The two men asked their victim to front the cost of those chemicals—to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars—with the promise they’d pay back several times the value of that money once the dye was removed, authorities said. In reality, the black money was just worthless paper, Chiesa said.

Jenkins and Blay were arrested Feb. 1 in Cherry Hill after taking several thousand dollars from what they believed was an unsuspecting victim, authorities said, when it was actually a sting operation conducted jointly by the state Division of Criminal Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“This indictment should serve as a reminder: If a quick money-making scheme appears too good to be true, it probably is,” Attorney General Chiesa said. “And to con artists who seek to take advantage of New Jersey citizens, the sting operation in this case shows that you never know who is on the other end of the transaction.”

Both men could face up to 10 years and $150,000 in fines for each of the two counts against them.