October 8, 2010
GLENWOOD SPRINGS MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PASSING COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY
DENVER – Frederick Provenzano, age 33, of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, pled guilty yesterday afternoon to five counts of passing counterfeit currency, U.S. Attorney John Walsh and U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Daniel Donahue announced. The guilty plea was tendered before U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn. Provenzano is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Blackburn on February 25, 2011. The defendant is free on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Frederick Provenzano was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on January 27, 2010.
According to the stipulated facts contained in the plea agreement, on January 15, 2009, the defendant passed a counterfeit $100 bill at a business in Glenwood Springs. Later, the clerk who accepted the note and then noticed it was counterfeit spotted the defendant at a concert at Two Rivers Park. Police were contacted and Provenzano was arrested. On the defendant’s person police found other counterfeit notes. Each of the notes had been “washed” which means the bill was originally a $5 US Treasury note that had the ink removed. The image of an authentic $100 bill or a $50 bill was then copied onto the paper of the $5 bill. The washing process, however, does not remove the imbedded likeness of Abraham Lincoln on the $5 bill. That likeness is visible if held up to a bright light.
After the defendant was arrested police conducted a lawful search of the defendant’s vehicle. They found items that could be used for counterfeiting currency. Further investigation revealed that during the time period before the defendant’s arrest, authorities had been made aware of other notes being passed in the Glenwood Springs area and other locations in Colorado. All of the notes were similarly washed. The defendant admitted to pursuing a total of 18 counterfeit notes between November 2008 and July 2009.
“No matter how creative counterfeiters think they are, they will get caught, and they will get prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh.
“The Secret Service will continue to aggressively investigate and pursue those who engage in the counterfeiting of U.S. currency,” said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Daniel Donahue. “This type of criminal activity not only has a harmful impact on local businesses and financial institutions, it also negatively impacts hard working people who are trying to make ends meet and cannot afford to be the victims of such unscrupulous criminal conduct.”
This case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service with substantial assistance by the Glenwood Springs Police Department.
Provenzano was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Brown.
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