Rhonda Schwartz reports that master counterfeiter Frank Bourassa has been allowed to walk free after turning over a huge quantity of fake US $20 bills that authorities say are "not detectable by the naked eye." "I'm safe, absolutely," says Bourassa after paying a $1,500 fine in Montreal, Canada, and spending only a month and a half in jail after Canadian authorities agreed that they would not extradite him to the United States for prosecution. "They can't do nothing about that." Bourassa's fake $20 first showed up in Troy, Michigan in 2010 and US and Canadian authorities spent almost four years tracking the source to Bourassa. "To detect the counterfeit on this one is very difficult," says RCMP investigator Dan Michaud. Bourassa says he spent two years studying the details about currency security on the website of the US Secret Service to learn how to produce his fake money. Although special security features were added to US $100 bills in 2010, security features added to the $20 in 2003 have not been updated since then. US bills are "the easiest of them all" to counterfeit says Bourassa, because they are not printed on polymer. "Even third world countries in Africa have polymer bills already."
The RCMP and the US Secret Service raided Bourassa's home, but he still had a card to play because authorities did not know where the remainder of his special paper and fake twenties was hidden. In the end, Bourassa agreed to turn over the remaining fakes and paper in return for a deal his lawyer worked out with Canadian prosecutors that let him walk free. Bourassa regards his accomplishment as a complete victory over the United States government. "It was, like, screw you."
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 11 2014, @07:18PM
How much do you think he printed? Compared to the Federal Reserve?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing# United_States_QE1.2C_QE2.2C_and_QE3 [wikipedia.org]f ed-discount-idUSBREA0F1R620140116 [reuters.com]
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/16/us-usa-
For perspective:/ TRILJOEN.jpg [elsolet.net]u s_debt.html [demonocracy.info]
http://www.elsolet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/us_debt/
Who did the Federal Reserve give the money to?
(Score: 1) by Dunbal on Sunday May 11 2014, @07:43PM
"Who did the Federal Reserve give the money to?"
Themselves of course. So that they can lend it out to banks - their banks, since the Fed is basically a bank owned private cartel. They lend it out at near zero interest and give you mortgages at 5+ % interest. Then they use it to pay out of ATM's (pretty much the only way actual cash is dispensed nowadays) but of course they tack on service charges so the actual network is paid for. But the REAL money is in the derivatives they create and sell to "investors" (read - greedy people who want to get rich quick). So the money moves from bank accounts to derivatives and when the market tanks, it simply evaporates. That's the REAL shell game.
(Score: 1) by caffeinated bacon on Monday May 12 2014, @02:15AM
It's easier than that, They can take the low interest money and just buy treasuries that pay more for practically no risk whatsoever.