'Black Money' Scammers Plead Guilty, Face Year in Jail

Two men who ran a 'black money' scam in Cherry Hill earlier this year have pleaded guilty to theft by deception charges and face just under a year in jail each, acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced Tuesday.

Nyondah L. Blay, alias John Blay, 38, of Trenton, and Carl Jenkins, 36, of Philadelphia, admitted before Superior Court Judge Michael J. Kassel in Camden County they tried to steal at least $500 in the scam, where they claimed to have hundreds of thousands in cash that had been dyed black and smuggled out of Liberia.

The two men tried to get $75,000 out of a victim in Cherry Hill to buy chemicals to strip out the dye, according to the indictment brought against them earlier this year, while claiming they would pay their victim several times what he fronted for them.

Blay and Jenkins were arrested Feb. 1 shortly after taking several thousand dollars from their intended target, who was actually part of a sting operation run by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Though both faced charges of theft and conspiracy, the plea deal they took has them pleading guilty to third-degree theft by deception charges; prosecutors are recommending Blay and Jenkins each be sentenced to 364 days in county jail.

Their sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 1 in Camden.