Top 10 Most Notorious Counterfeiting Operations of the Last 100 Years
The U.S. Secret Service is charged with finding people who make fake money and try to pass it as real. Although most people believe the Secret Service were always the agency who protected the president, that isn�t the case. President Lincoln signed the document creating the Secret Service to arrest counterfeiters as well. Today, that remains the agency�s main purpose, but the duties have expanded to include protecting the president, dignitaries and heads of state from other countries, credit card fraud, financial fraud and schemes, and more. The need to fight the counterfeiters continues as strong as it was in Lincoln�s day. In fact, the number of counterfeiters are rising.
Making money is an essential part of the world in which we live, but some canny customers have decided to bypass the backbreaking toil and take the phrase �making money� literally. It seems that as soon as a civilization invents a currency someone will figure out how to fake it.
Unsurprisingly, governments tend to look unfavorably upon such crimes. In the 1600s the standard punishment was hanging, drawing and quartering for men and burning to death for women. We have become more enlightened in times since then, but people are still doing their best to fake money.
Alvos dos Reis forged contracts with the Banco de Portugal. He received banknotes from official printers. Therefore, his money was real. In 1925, he had pumped $1.7 million into the Portugal economy. When the scam was revealed, Portugal faced financial crisis that led to a dictatorship taking over the country.
2- Edward Mueller (America).
Edward Mueller did such a great job on his counterfeiting that he remained uncaught for a long time. He holds the record for the longest to go without getting caught. His genius was in going small. He opted to counterfeit $1 instead of $100 in New York. He was eventually caught after more than 10 years of getting away with it.
3- Bernhard Kruger (British)Bernhard Kruger was part of the Nazi currency counterfeiting operation. The goal of the counterfeiting was to destabilize Allied goverments� economies. The counterfeiting also was meant to bring in cash for the war. In the concentration camps, the Nazi counterfeiter funneled $6 billion worth of British pounds into the economy.
4- Mike DeBardeleben (America)
Mike DeBardeleben shopped in the malls in 1980s with his fake $20 bills. In the exchange, he would get real currency back. When he was identified, the country set a search upon him. He was caught and sex crimes were also closed when evidence against him was found.
5- Stephen Jory (Great Britain).Stephen Jory is known as Great Britain�s most infamous counterfeiter. He began his career by swapping cheap perfume with expensive pieces wdesigner labels. Although he admitted to counterfeiting $82 million worth of bills, the British government believes the number is higher. His counterfeits made up two-thirds of the number of fake bills in circulation between 1993 and 1998.
6- Arthur Williams (Chicago).
Arthur Williams � started counterfeiting at age 16 in Chicago. His mother�s boyfriend mentored him in the trade. For more than 10 years, he printed $10 million. He paid attention to the changes in the security features and adapted his system to include them. He employed automotive paint to create color-changing ink, favored newsprint paper for the U.S. Mint�s special paper blend and drew watermarks. The government caught him in 2002 and gave him three years prison time.
7- Wesley Weber (Canada).Wesley Weber created Canadian hundreds that were so close to the real thing, retailers refused to accept any Canadian hundreds. Because of his success, the Canadian government decided to change the look completely.
8- Anastasios Arnaouti (England) Anastasios Arnaouti � could have brought down two economies. The British counterfeiter had $4.1 million in 10-pound notes and $3.5 million in American hundreds when he was caught. He had dumped much more into circulation.
9- Albert Talton (US) Albert Talton decided to go simple and succeed. He counterfeited $7 million using an inkjet printer.
10- Pakistani Government
Pakistan creates fake Indian money and smuggles it across the border. This counterfeiting is related to terrorism and grudges against India.
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