Feds say Portland counterfeiters cheaply created bogus bills, put $70,000 in circulation
Updated: Apr. 09, 2012, 2:00 a.m. |
Published: Apr. 09, 2012, 1:00 a.m.
Bryan Denson | The Oregonian/OregonLive
View full sizeThe government named five Portland-area residents in an indictment that accuses them of a conspiracy to make, pass and sell counterfeit currency.
The compulsion for hard drugs pushed an inventive team of counterfeiters to produce high-quality bills with low-quality equipment, putting more than $70,000 of phony money in circulation in the Northwest, according to government court papers and recent testimony in Portland's U.S. District Court.
The crew used ordinary three-in-one printers, resume-quality inkjet paper and dabs of hair gel to construct bogus bills of excellent quality, prosecutors allege.
They went so far as to simulate watermarks on some of the paper notes and cannibalized security strips out of $5 bills to create authentic-looking $100s, according to government court papers.
Five Portlanders are accused of conspiring to create, deal and pass counterfeit bills at such busy retailers as Target, Albertson's, Fred Meyer, Safeway, Walmart, Nordstrom and Subway, according to an indictment handed up on March 28. Two unindicted co-conspirators were identified by initials only.
The case took form last summer, when retailers in the Portland area reported bogus bills spitting out of cash-counting machines or turning up in their tills.
Security managers and Portland-area police reached out to the U.S. Secret Service, which has worked to suppress counterfeit courrency since shortly after the Civil War. An agent from the Portland office, Adam Sale, collected surveillance video from stores, finding a familiar cast of characters passing the fakes.
What do you do when you suspect a counterfeit bill?
The U.S. Secret Service, which investigates the passing of phony currency, offers seven tips for people who suspect a bill they have just been given is a phony:
1. Do not return it to the passer.
2. Delay the passer if possible.
3. Take a good look at the passer and his or her companions. Take mental notes of their physical descriptions, and jot down the license plate number of any vehicle they might have used.
4. Telephone local police or the U.S. Secret Service. In Portland, those numbers are 503-823-0333 (Portland Police Bureau) and 503-326-2162 (Secret Service).
5. Write your initials and the date on a blank portion of the note.
6. Try not to handle the note. Carefully place it in a protective holder, such as an envelope.
7. Surrender the note only to a properly identified police officer or Secret Service agent.
Source: U.S. Secret Service
The suspects -- SomphalaVanh Sophanthavong, 34, Dung Ahn Nguyen, 39, Khonesavan Khim Savanphayphan, 27, and her twin sisters, Somamphone Savanphayphan and Phonephilom Savanphayphan, both 30 -- are accused of a conspiracy to create bills that were passed at groceries, clothing stores, restaurants and at least one movie theater.
Suspected ringleaders Sophanthavong and Nguyen also are accused of selling the fakes, aware they would be passed into general circulation, according to the indictment. The men dated two of the Savanphayphan sisters.
Drug addictions contributed
At least three of the suspected counterfeiters had serious drug problems, primarily methamphetamine, according to testimony taken at recent detention hearings. Two of the Savanphayphan sisters were freed while awaiting trial so they could be admitted to in-patient treatment.
Drug addiction and counterfeiting often go hand in hand, said Jon Dalton, resident agent in charge of the Secret Service in Portland. Proceeds from counterfeiting facilitate addiction, he said, and addicts sometimes buy drugs with counterfeit currency.
The suspects fed their habits on proceeds from an operation that required little more than a cheap scanner-printer-copier machine, a flat iron and hair gel, according to the indictment and recent court hearings.
They counterfeited $20s, $50s and $100s, making several bills a page on 8 1/2-by-11-inch copy paper, and they simulated water marks and security strips to fool busy retail clerks, the indictment alleges. Counterfeiters used hair gel to coat the bills, a technique that forgers sometimes use to defeat counterfeit-detection pens.
The Portland-based counterfeiting ring was a mobile operation, according to court records. They originally set up operations in a rental house on the city's northeast side. But they later took up their work at the Chestnut Tree Inn, on the city's southeast side, Tacoma's Emerald Queen Hotel & Casinos, and the Super 8 Motel in Lacey, Wash., according to the indictment.
Deportation not possible
Somphalavanh Sophanthavong, known as "So So," appeared before U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown on March 28 in hopes of persuading her to release him while he awaits trial. His lawyer, Benjamin Kim, hoped to get him into drug rehab for what he described as a serious meth addiction.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Asphaug argued that Sophanthavong's nomadic existence in Oregon and Washington made him a risk to flee, and that his relentless counterfeiting made him an economic danger to the community. Then there was the matter of Sophanthavong's murder conviction.
Sophanthavong and two other teens were burglarizing a Southeast Portland home on Aug. 1, 1994, when homeowner Joan Ann Borisch walked in and surprised them. One of the teens -- not Sophanthavong -- shot the 42-year-old nurse in the chest. Her teenage son found her corpse that evening.
For his part in the murder, Sophanthavong -- 16 at the time of the slaying -- was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years behind bars. Four years later, while locked up at Oregon State Penitentiary, he was convicted of supplying contraband. He got out of prison in October 2007.
Sophanthavong, a Laotian national, could not be deported because Laos and the United States have no deportation agreement. Instead, he was ordered to check in regularly with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. But this failed to stop his travels over state lines. He was convicted of forgery in Washington late last year, served a short jail term, then -- the government alleges -- resumed making counterfeit cash on both sides of the Columbia River.
"He has the ability to hide," Asphaug told Judge Brown.
Special Agent Adam Sale, the Secret Service's primary investigator in the counterfeit case, testified that Sophantavong had just threatened a fellow inmate that morning on the ride in to court from jail. Inside the transport vehicle, he threatened Ernest Williams, who appears to be the unindicted co-conspirator identified in court papers "E.W."
Brown said she was concerned that Sophanthavong would flee if she cut him loose, even if he were shackled with a GPS monitor. She ordered that he be held in jail. But she told lawyers she was willing to reconsider her decision if his lawyer presented her with a drug-treatment option that would ensure that he appears for trial.
Bryan Denson
Kate Mather