COUNTERFEITER GETS 3+ YEARS IN PRISON FOR MAKING MORE THAN $25,000 IN BOGUS CASH
Felon Moved Operation to Various Hotel Rooms to Avoid Law Enforcement
EDWARD YOUNG, 46, of the Seattle area, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release for Manufacture of Counterfeit United States Currency. On three separate occasions in 2009 and 2010, YOUNG was connected to the manufacture of thousands of dollars of counterfeit currency. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez said YOUNG “had several opportunities to realize the police were looking for him. They confiscated his printers and equipment... but he went right back to it.”
According to records filed in the case, YOUNG escaped out the window of a Seattle hotel on December 14, 2009, when police arrived to serve a search warrant. Inside they found equipment for making phony bills, and some $12,000 in counterfeit currency. Two months later, on February 13, 2010, King County Sheriff’s Deputies located YOUNG in a Shoreline hotel. Again he had equipment for counterfeiting currency, and $10,609 in phony bills. Also found in each hotel room was a variety of drug paraphernalia. YOUNG was arrested on a federal charge on March 24, 2010. At the time of his arrest, he had about $2,000 in phony bills in his possession. YOUNG pleaded guilty May 25, 2010.
In asking for a sentence at the top of the guidelines range, Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Diggs wrote to the court that YOUNG has a 20 year criminal history with nine felony convictions for drug offenses, illegal weapons possession, burglary and assault. YOUNG “utilized other drug addicts to assist him in the creation of counterfeit currency.....(YOUNG) was the person who possessed the know-how and skills to make the fake money. The process of creating large amounts of counterfeit currency is not easy and requires a number of tools, yet (YOUNG) had mastered it. Many of his bills are nearly impossible to differentiate from true currency,” Mr. Diggs wrote to the court.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service with assistance from the Seattle Police Department, King County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Diggs.
For additional information please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorney’s Office, at (206) 553-4110 or Emily.Langlie@USDOJ.Gov.
