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: 3, Insightful) by dry on Monday May 12 2014, @12:16AM
Maybe the same reasons that America still has pennies and paper dollar bills? Mostly that Americans are conservative, in the proper meaning of conservative which is resistant to change and new ways of doing things.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by evilviper on Tuesday May 13 2014, @12:39AM
Do you just hate going through the drive-thru and getting back a bunch of half-cent pieces (1793 to 1857)? I know I'm much happier with an even total, so I get back two-cent coins (1864–1873) or a three-cent coin (1851–1889).
With big values, quarters are okay, but why an odd-numbered large coin? It makes so much more sense to give change with twenty-cent coins (1875–1878). But maybe I'm just "conservative" that way...
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dry on Tuesday May 13 2014, @05:35AM
What was the purchasing power of a 1/2 cent prior to the American civil war? And during the war paper money was issued, coins were rare and copper 2 cent pieces were a way to re-introduce small change without it being silver, and of course 3 cents was the price of a stamp, though the silver coin was much too small so thankfully they went to copper. 2 bits was a nice even 1/4 of a dollar as well.
Times have changed, a pack of matches are probably a quarter now, a chocolate bar is seldom under a dollar so small change is really small.
It's kind of funny that your examples have dates with a Euro sign inbetween, subconscious wishing?