Three Taungup Twsp residents arrested in possession of counterfeit banknotes: report

By DMG 13 Jul 2022

DMG Newsroom
13 July 2022, Taungup 

Police arrested a man and two women with counterfeit banknotes in their possession near the village of Mee Chaung Hto, Taungup Township, following a tipoff, reported Rakhine Daily, an Arakan State media outlet affiliated with Myanmar’s military regime. 

Police seized 105 counterfeit banknotes of the K10,000 denomination from Ko Thant Zin Tun, 21, of Leik Kone Baung village, and 229 counterfeit K10,000 notes from Daw Mar Mar Win and Ma Khin Thida Lwin of Pada village, the report said. 

According to an initial investigation, the trio contacted a counterfeit banknote seller in Yangon via Facebook Messenger and subsequently travelled to the commercial capital, where they bought K5.3 million worth of counterfeit notes from the seller, paying K1.7 million in real money for the bogus bills.  

The Rakhine Daily report said the forgeries were apparent because the security thread on the counterfeit notes was not reflective, and the paper was of a stock similar to standard printer paper. The counterfeit notes were also 1 mm longer in length and 1 mm shorter in width, according to the report. 

Police have opened a case against the three under the Central Bank of Myanmar Law.  

On June 21, 35 counterfeit banknotes of the K10,000 denomination were seized from a depositor at an Ayeyarwady Bank branch in the Arakan State capital Sittwe. 

Fake Myanmar money is widely sold on social networking sites such as Facebook. In April, DMG reported that a growing number of advertisements had been posted on social media offering K1 million worth of counterfeit bills for K100,000 of real money.