LOS ANGELES – The leader of a counterfeiting ring that passed as much as $7 million in phony $100 and $20 bills on regional businesses, as well as credit unions and banks, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges this week.
Albert Talton, 45, confessed to the scheme and explained to U.S. Secret Service agents, after they raided his home May 8 and found what they described as a counterfeit printing plant, how he produced the notes on his home computer and a Hewlett Packard inkjet printer
Agents called the bogus bills, “one of the most successfully passed notes using inkjet technology and computers.” They found computer discs, paper cutters, large stores of paper, ink cartridges, printers, and $1.4 million worth of partially completed counterfeit bills and $162,000 of completed bills, when they raided Talton’s home.
Talton told the Secret Service he scanned genuine $100 bills into his computer in order to be able to manipulate the image. Then he would compress two pieces of newsprint paper together using a sticker-making machine, and reproduced the security threads and the watermarks the U.S. Mint has been affixing to new bills to thwart counterfeiters.
The counterfeiter used newsprint because it feels similar to real currency. The security features apparently were affixed to the paper before the image of the bill was printed on it so that the security features appeared to be under the print, as in genuine currency.
The phony bills were printed five to a sheet and hung in Talton’s garage, where they were sprayed with Aqua Net hair spray to prevent detection by the so-called pen method used by merchants.
The counterfeit $100s were sold to runners, people who would pass them off, at a price of six-to-one, in quantities of $6,000 to $10,000, meaning Talton was paid $100 for every $600 worth of bogus bills. Later, as he printed larger quantities, he lowered the price to eight-to-one. Talton told Secret Service agents he earned about $900,000 from the scheme.
Talton is scheduled to be sentenced in October.
Also arrested in connection with the scheme were: Troy Stroud, 41, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and distributing counterfeit notes; and three others who are scheduled to stand trial next month: David Goldberg, 35, Paul McCorry, 45, and Corey Nero, 38. A sixth suspect in the case, identified as Earnest Alexander, 40, is being sought by authorities.
