The trial of a woman accused of defrauding two Charlottetown men of more than $53,000 began Thursday with an elaborate description of how the alleged fraud occurred.

Marie Claire Mballa told a Charlottetown man she worked for United Nations, the court heard at her fraud trial.
(Police photo)

The trial of Marie Claire Mballa is unusual for P.E.I. because it is being conducted in French, with lawyers and judge brought in specially from New Brunswick.

The victims say Mballa tricked them into believing she could convert white paper into money.

One of the men testified in court Thursday he met Mballa at a Charlottetown bar last August. They ended up spending the night together and, the man said, Mballa made him a business proposition.

He testified that she told him she worked for the United Nations, raising relief funds for countries after disasters. She said it is very dangerous to transport money between countries, so the United Nations had a special process it used to turn money white. One chemical would make it look like plain white paper, and a second restored the colour to the paper.

Transformation demonstrated

The man said Mballa demonstrated this to her using a $20 bill and two pieces of white paper, apparently producing three $20 bills. The man said he was skeptical, but Mballa convinced him to withdraw $25,000 using his MasterCard.

They then met at local hotel, the man testified. The witness said he took special precautions, driving around to make sure they weren't being followed, and choosing the hotel himself without telling Mballa in advance where they were going.

At the hotel they made stacks out of the money, he said, alternating $100 bills with white pieces of paper. Mballa separated out $100 bills without a foil security strip, saying they would have to do those later. As they stacked, the witness said, each piece of paper was dipped in a powder to help speed the chemical reaction.

They wrapped the bundles with tin foil, and Mballa had him inject each bundle with special liquid in a syringe. Then she wrapped all the bundles into one package of tin foil.

The man testified she gave him the package and told him to take it home and stick it in the freezer for a few hours. He said she told him they could get back together later that night and add the second chemical that would restore the colour to the white paper, turning it back into money.

Testimony resumes Tuesday

But that's as far as the testimony went Thursday. The trial is moving slowly, because while it is being conducted in French, the day's testimony was in English, requiring that everything said by the witness, the judge, or the lawyers be translated.
 
The trial resumes Tuesday. The court has said it will take another four days to wrap up the testimony.