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In the soup

The online exploits of a us couple have landed them in trouble. The husband and wife team of Donald and Mary Davis was selling "public' tracts in the Amazon on the Internet. They enlisted the support of Brazilian-born Joao da Cruz Veloso, a naturalised American, to allegedly sell bonds worth us $25 to $100 through a website called Rainforest Foundation, the name of pop star Sting's non-governmental organisation. Donors were told their money would buy parcels of protected land in the world's largest rainforest, where huge areas are being cleared by illegal loggers. The suspected fraud was brought to the knowledge of the police by a us trader who said he had donated us $1 million. A Brazilian court ordered their arrest and they were taken into custody. The police have also seized a stack of forged land documents.

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