Water into wine? How about turning rubles into dollars.

A Moscow court heard that Hans Tabi Takang, a Cameroonian conjurer who has lived in Russia for 12 years, swindled his victims of around two million rubles (around €20,000), the state-owned Kommersant outlet reported.

In one case, the self-proclaimed magician deceived a woman whom he had convinced he could turn paper or rubles into U.S. dollars via a “special ritual.”

“To turn paper into money, you take a 5,000-ruble note, wash it with a special powder mixed with water, then use that liquid to spray the cash inside a suitcase, wrap the money in foil for some time, and after these steps, the bills are supposed to turn into $100 notes,” the woman said Tabi Takang told her.

After the woman handed over 500,000 rubles to Tabi Takang, the mendacious magic man took off with the money.

According to Kommersant, Tabi Takang said he understood the charges and admitted his guilt.

In a second case, Tabi Takang claimed he would collect special pieces of paper sent by his mother from Cameroon, ​​which he would transform into dollars after a “witchcraft ritual.”

The Russian ruble has been on a rollercoaster ride following sweeping economic sanctions enacted by the West after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

However, the ruble has recently become the world’s top-performing currency, according to Bank of America, owing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and its impact on the dollar, along with the Russian central bank’s high interest rates and strict capital controls.