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Monopoly money used to pay for €6 million jewels

Joshua Melvin
Joshua Melvin - [email protected]
Monopoly money used to pay for €6 million jewels
A Greek jeweller won't ever want to play Monopoly again. Photo: Dominique Faget/AFP

A Greek jeweller was left empty-handed and red-faced after selling over €6 million ($7.5 million) worth of jewels to two con men who paid him with a suitcase full of Monopoly money.

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A jeweller who thought he’d found a way to avoid the tax man on a €6 million sale, instead painfully learned the meaning of “Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.”

It started several weeks back when two people who claimed they were French contacted the Greek man to buy four “rare” rings and a necklace, French daily Le Parisien reported on Friday.

After some discussions online and over the phone, the trio decided to meet in Paris to do the deal. So it was on September 25th the men got together in a place on Rue des Mathurins in the 8th arrondissement.

The buyers came with a suitcase filled with €6 million in cash, which is not uncommon in deals for pricey antiques or jewelry where the parties want to avoid paying taxes.

SEE ALSO: Poker game with Monopoly money ends in death

At this point, the jeweller later claimed to police, to carry out his due diligence on the money.

He says he plucked one of the wads of €500 bills out of the case and took it around the corner to currency exchange for verification.

Once the veracity of the bills was verified, the jeweller says he headed back to the hotel and concluded the sale.

However then things took a turn for the worse from his point of view.

“After his clients left the jeweller checked the rest of the bills. That’s when he realized there was a problem. The majority of the bills bore the name of the famous game Monopoly,” an unnamed source told Le Parisien.

The jeweller then desperately tried to reach the buyers, but not surprisingly they didn’t pick up.

Instead he ended walking into the police station and recounting the whole sad story.

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