Can you break a $1 million note?

Can you break a $1 million?

Not a chance. But the story is rich in audacity.

A man from the Ivory Coast is in police custody in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, after allegedly persuading a woman to try to exchange two phony $1 million  (NZ$1.41m) bills at the UAE's Central Bank.

Police say the suspect promised the woman a 30 percent cut after the bills were traded - presumably for US bills or UAE dirham. The suspect was identified in press reports on Sunday only by the initials A.B.

The phony notes feature the US$1 portrait of George Washington and are mostly black and white on the front.

The National newspaper quotes Rashid Mohammed Bursheed, the head of the organised crime unit, as saying the suspect claims he thought the bills were real.

- AP