Bro probably got to bank millions since his fine was under 100K and 2 years in jail for counterfeiting is a breeze, the respect in jail would actually be pretty good and if word got around about the quality of his work, I bet he made new connections
it's crazy these white collar crimes have huge profits but only slap on the wrist punishments. 2 years for becoming millionare? this is INCENTIVE for criminals to try it, bcause the punishments are so miniscule if ever caught. that is IF ever caught. this is why most big business are agressive in breaking alot of rules, the white collar crimes is big rewards and low risk.
How could you not be? Most dealing is easy by comparison. But good fraud/scams? Those profits are huge, millions even billions can be made off a good fraud/scam. Most dealers just tryna eat and pay bills by comparison.
I lived in Knoxville for several years and actually remember some this on the local news. Pretty cool to see what became of of Mr. Turner, and to admit it really didn't lead to long-term success and ultimately cost him almost everything anyway. Keep truckin' man.
I'm not surprised that his bills were higher quality than the cartel ones. This guy was basically hand-making the bills, almost like an artisan counterfeiter whereas I assume the cartel stuff is mass-produced. As is usually the case, the small-scale hand-made stuff is better than the mass-produced stuff.
Yeah exactly my thought. He wasn't even making $2m a year assuming he had worked every single day of that year. The cartels will move that much in drugs in a matter of a week or two. Sure i imagine much of his process could have been turned into an assembly line of people to do, but its just not really scalable for an illegal activity to require so much manpower to create.
He also had a lot more opportunity to get feedback on his work. He's giving his bills everyday to cashiers who are used to working with dollars and are trained to look for counterfeits. Cartels are making counterfeit money a long way away from where the bills are ultimately being spent.
I’ve read the longest running counterfeiter in the US was just a guy in NYC. He’d make basic amounts of money (no $100s; too suspicious). He’d make, back in the day, like singles ($1). And just use it to buy a subway ticket, and get the change. Do that a couple times a day; there’s a crowd, everyone’s busy: the perfect situation. If this guy had done $20s nobody would’ve blinked.
@@Hopper_HouseExcept the real bills are mass produced. It's not about the scale of the operation. It's a matter of having the right tools and attention to detail.
i was thinking the exact same thing. dude should have went to work for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving...or even better, dude shoulda approached the Secret Service for a job helping them stop counterfeiting.
@@ahndeux nah. counterfeiting money is like really bad for everyone. i mean, every counterfeit messes with the money in your pocket....in everyone's pocket...it's really kind of a really shitty thing to do.
@@baltimoreluke Oh yeah? You made a great point. He printed about $1M over a few years. The government prints about $5.2 billion per day. You have to open up your eyes to which one is "really bad for everyone". I don't know if you noticed how much it cost to buy gas recently or how much it costs in the real world. That's why the government left him off. He did absolutely nothing compared to the bigger criminals out there -- the government. He actually had to work hard to make fake counterfeit money. The government just adds a few zeros electronically, and play the shell game with bonds and suddenly, the money exists out of thin air. I would say this guy had a much harder job to the point where even the secret service was impressed and wanted to learn how he did it.
If a dude can make passable fakes in a hotel room using only a laptop and an inkjet, how are you supposed to stop a hostile foreign country from counterfeiting?
This dude is super smart. He figured all of this out while unemployed and homeless. Had he grown up in a place with more opportunities, he could have been making a good living in a marketing department somewhere. Don't do drugs kids.
Arthur Jackson's a better counterfeiter, he even made a book about his story and how he literally did everything-- he definitely doesn't go into vague details like this.
Its always funny when the real end is the bad idea inside the good ideas. E.g. Silk roads creator only got got because he tried to have someone killed. He probably would never have gotten caught if he didn't.
What does doing drugs have to do with it? The more accurate statement would be "don't be born into a poor family, kids." Sure, he mentioned doing drugs, but he didn't do this stuff because of drugs. He did it because he was poor and couldn't get into a decent place in life. That's the way it goes...
Its not just drugs. Its lack of opportunity and guidance. Zip codes predict income better than any other marker. I hope the mint or some design company hired this guy.
Forever ago, I was at a gas station and paid with cash. The lady said it was counterfeit and she pulled out a stack of "counterfeit bills" and slapped it on the stack. I told her to give it back, but she said she couldn't do that. I was pissed. I asked her how, and she said she couldn't see something you are supposed to see. And I showed her she didn't know what she was talking about as I could see it. And I told her to give it back or call the police. So an officer came out and said it was real. And so she gave it back, but the whole ordeal took like an hour. So she had been confiscating people's money saying it was counterfeit. Though her explanation is someone took a counterfeit bill, and the owner said they'd be fired if they took another counterfeit bill.
@@kiwitrainguy I don't know how long they were doing that for. But at least on my day, it was a stack of money 2" tall. Though I've since mostly pay by debit card. Only have cash for when I feel like buying a lottery ticket, even though I know I'll never win. So I just play for fun sometimes.
From dumb truck driver who went unemployed, to arguably one of the finest counterfeiters who delivered the entire operation, from inception - placement, layering and integration. Legend
The fed reserve is a private operation, they use a method called quantitative easing and simply print money and circulate amongst their federal banks, who in turn provide additional liquidity to the banking system. Essentially it’s a debt system and it’s broken. The clever way to counterfeit is to mint older circulating notes, less security features on the notes and legally still tender. One would assume counterfeiting 1990s notes would be a wiser method.
@@stephenspeliades2941 that's not true. Taping a banana to a wall is not art. It's nonsense, and it's a bigger scam than any counterfeiter could ever hope to pull off.
As a DG manager, can confirm a vast majority of our stores do NOT accept $50s or $100s simply because so many fakes come through. In reality, I'd suspect almost everyone has accidently used a counterfeit bill without ever even knowing it.
I actually had a $20 once. Got it from an ATM machine but it was KINDA obvious it was a fake. Paper was okay but no strip, no watermark, no threads, no microprinting ... how the bank didn't catch it, I'll never know. Didn't try to use it - kept it around for a few years but I think I trashed it at some point in time.
@@earlysdaHe did his time…and he’s clearly an artist who’s not afraid to work hard. He just saw that he could make more money doing something illegal…like many young people might do. He was successful until he wasn’t and paid the price…this time with his time and his literal life took a hit. Pay a person what they’re worth and can afford to live on and they usually aren’t incentivized to do illegal things, unless they’re a career criminal and it’s all they’ve ever known. Locking people up indefinitely for essentially white collar crimes is not the kind of society I’d want to live in. The justice system aims to be fair in how they hand out sentences. The dude has to pay restitution, give a detailed account of his criminal operation, and has aided law enforcement in preventing future incidents of counterfeiting. You just wanna lock this dude up and throw away the key? Out of sight out of mind? Easy for you to say… Try offering real solutions and thoughtful feedback…otherwise you’re just trolling with your critical opinions… And you know what they say about opinions…
The minute the guy talked about getting involved with the drug dealer, I knew it was the way he got caught. Drug dealers will always drop a dime on their colleagues when they’re arrested. Should have paid the dealer with his clean money.
No, not necessarily because, whenever a person is continually committing crimes, it's just a matter of time when they get caught, regardless of who else is involved. That's what the law enforcement is for. That's what they do!
@@slimdude2011 as he explained, he had a very low risk of getting caught. His mistake was revealing his operation to someone with a very high risk of getting caught.
@@natashaonis Let's get down to reality here! It didn't matter if he revealed his illegal operation to someone else or not because, he would've been caught anyway. A criminal NEVER have a low risk of getting caught. There is no such thing! When a person is breaking the law, they are definitely going to get caught sooner or later. It's just a matter of time. Law enforcement have the resources to investigate and apprehend even the most intelligent, underground criminals whether if it's white or blue-collar crimes. How do you think Frank Bourassa (the world biggest counterfeiter) was caught? Even the criminal themselves doesn't know the person(s) who they're working with may be undercover FBI or DEA agents. So therefore, nobody can outsmart the law because, they are always two steps ahead of you. That's why crime (in general) doesn't pay because, everything that a criminal has accumulated illegally in their bank accounts, and possessions they have purchased with suspected drug or counterfeit money is seized, confiscated by law enforcement, and the Government and they will lose everything, in addition to incarceration. They are left with nothing but the clothes on their back.
The people who know the more people can tell. He took his time on the chin and improved, so he may have subconsciously wanted to get caught. Sometimes that’s the only way you’ll stop.
I'm 2 minutes in. And already, I am floored by Jeff's intelligence. He's clever, creative and determined. He is a perfect example of how our society is letting people down. Had the government supported his education, and helped him out when times were tough..... he could have possibly used his intelligence for better things.
so you're saying the gov is at fault? The gov already helped him immensely. He got his education for free. Thats several hundred of thousands right there. Who do you think taught him how to read and do all this? -the gov. And the gov already supports everyone who doesnt make a certain amount of money, especially if you got kids The only thing the gov didnt do in this case is just hand him over a million dollars to support his drug use, which is what you''re suggesting the gov should have done I dont know about you, but I aint gonna be paying taxes so that the gov can support someones drug habit. I aint working just so someone else can stay high on crack
It isn't the governments job to take care of people. I'm not sure where this mindset even came from. The federal government being involved in your life, in any form, is not a good thing, they are not your friend. That's a very slippery slope. Once you have a society dependent upon their government, they have total authority. See China or North Korea for reference. We as a society need to realize we're purposely being divided, distracted, & pushed to depend on government assistance more & more. Once we realize that, we can ignore all the division & distraction tactics and come together as one people to stomp out the corruption & greed so that we can all have much, much easier lives and so many people won't need to depend on the government in the first place. Its all one big ponzi scheme and no one sees it. I understand people all around the world need help but America shouldn't be the welfare office of the world. We the people need the money ourselves we pay in taxes and yet its being spent on everyone except us, which takes us back to coming together as one people to end the corruption & greed in DC & Wallstreet. We the people hold the power but they've done such a good job at dividing & distracting us that we've seemingly forgotten that & normalized depending on the government for assistance when if we would come together and end their BS once and for all then the majority of folks wouldn't even need that assistance in the first place. Corruption & greed are what have drove the prices so high here and yet instead of the people coming together to put our collective foot down and take back what's ours we just continue arguing amongst eachother and pointing fingers at eachother. It's absolute madness that we've gotten to this point and people still don't see it.
Was scrolling comments to see if there'd be anyone making excuses for him, and I didn't have to scroll far! 😂 Yknow, people have free will and sometimes people make bad choices because, at the time, they are bad enough to make them. Glad he's clean now though. But I don't see people like you blaming society for him getting clean and becoming legit. 🤔
@@10zlo The Scandinavian countries have plenty of safety nets and assistance for their citizens and so far they seem to be doing just fine. Better than us even. Your anarchistic spiel is delusional and laughably impractical. Anarchism in any form won't be possible for at least the next couple centuries. Come back with practical solutions instead of weak platitudes based in a complete lack of understanding about how the world works. Your thoughts are nothing new, and you're not the revolutionary you like to LARP as.
@@10zlo Literally the governments only job should be take care of people. I'm not sure what this mindset that the government shouldn't do anything came from. What's even the point of governments and countries then?
I love how a national fugitive that took years and the Secret Service to track down in printing counterfeit money now works as a production manager in a printing shop.
He actually had experience with graphic design while working at a sign company before he got caught! I'm pretty sure the truck he crashed was at the sign place.
Back in the 80's I found a fake $20. I had it in my pocket on the outside of a fold of cash. It felt different, like slick magazine print. I showed it to my wife who dealt with a lot of cash in a supermarket office. She laughed and said it so fake it was amazing it passed by anyone. She asked where I got it and I said at your store when I cashed my paycheck! We called a friend who was a cop in town. He came by and wrote down some things and took the bill. I was out $20.
Fun fact: intelligent people are more susceptible to addictions because they understand and feel on a deeper level how broken the world is. While dumber people have a Much easier time just ignoring it and getting distracted by things and just don't really grasp the true gravity of a lot of things.
@@bestieswithtestiesyes, people with higher IQ are more susceptible to addiction (at a young age) but there is absolutely no conclusions on why that is, based on all available studies, so everything you said about intelligent people knowing how terrible things are is bullshit.
I work in a large grocery store and train our cashiers. We train on spotting counterfeit bills. Our new employees wear badges that say “I’m new please be patient “. It’s also a magnet for people who want to pass counterfeit bills. Especially if they are young.
Yeah I definitely accepted some obvious and probably not so obvious counterfeits when I was a new cashier at a hardware store. Many of the contractors got paid under the table so we took a lot of big bills but we never got trained on what to do when we found a fake, just the basics of how to recognize them
This is so interesting. I’m a designer and was impressed with this guys tenacity and eye for detail. It’s great that he was able to turn his design skills into a legit job once he was out.
@@lisazinn866 Lisa. what do you mean? Do you think a person counterfeiting the currency is wrong? Why, because it dilutes the value of currency already in circulation? An individual person counterfeiting is a drop in the ocean compared to what the globalists do. They counterfeit TRILLIONS a year.
And yes, a lot of geniuses probably ARE criminals in 1 way or another lol. Theyre just smart enough to either not get caught committing crimes or they know theres no way to actually prove theyre involved in any criminal activities. Usually a genius will probably possess enough knowledge to at least somewhat know the law(s) surrounding the crimes theyre committing/committed, understand their rights, and recognize law when they're being done wrong by law enforcement. Thinking the other way around that actual criminals were geniuses...ehh idk about all that lmao 😂
I remember my dad used to cash his check at the liquor store, when i was younger. One day, he came home and gave my mother the money and she noticed that one of the $100 bills were fake. Boy was she pissed. Called the cops, lost the $100, and learned a valuable lesson. 😂
I heard of someone doing this and never get caught. They do it in a group. They don't make 100 bills, they do 20s, and they have a group of people working in high traffic stores, like Walmart, Costco as cashiers...etc. Someone would go buy something with fake bills in the morning, by the time at night, all fake bills would have been gone from the store. They did it so carefully that, before they give out the fake bills, these cashiers would look at the wallet of the customer when they pull out their cash, and see if they have a some more 20s in there, just to make it hard for people to know where the fakes are coming from.
Counterfit money has always fascinated me... It's a lot of work, be it bills or coins. Like the work this guy put in highlights just how much of an art it is for these things to be made by a government to begin with, so for him to dig into understanding how they're made is incredible.
In an alternative universe, Bryan Cranston played counterfeiter William White in hit show "Breaking Bills". His catchphrase was "Jesse, we have to print!"
@@Colorado_Native Even better he could've gone the average trump supporter route and just moved into a trailer in Alabama and signed up for food stamps and other government handouts. Wouldn't have to work a day in his life he can just coast off blue states tax money
Law enforcement tells everyone they catch "You the best we've ever seen" because most criminals think of themselves as masterminds and want to brag how smart they are. This is literally the first tool of tips and tricks officers use to get you to talk.
Smart DA to offer immunity for his wife. They knew he wasnt a bad guy really, and knew they could get cooperation by offering protection to what he really cared about
It's a failure of our society that we don't present bright individuals such as this man with opportunities to do something legal, productivity, and rewarding. We allow people to drown in unemployment, financial problems, and addiction.
Even intelligent people with countless opportunities available to them make mistakes and go down bad paths. It’s not as simple of a problem as you make it sound.
@@CrippledMercI agree, I mean he said he was in a bad time but he could have just down it enough to get by and then find something legal. It's tough tho having an almost endless revenue stream and also being addicted to drugs must have been really hard to give up making bills.
He said in another interview that he came from a middle class family that didn’t struggle. Where we start out in life doesn’t determine our path in life, granted it can make it harder or easier. This is true for people in upper class families as well.
We do, which is why now he works at a print shop. It's an interesting story but nothing he did was revolutionary or Mensa-worthy, and there are many print shop employees who could do what he did for much longer but choose not to. He made more money to compensate for the risk that they didn't take, and he did
I love stories like this. I bet if this guy made 20's and smaller bills instead of 100's, he'd never have been caught. 6 - 12 20's an hour is still $120-$240 an hour. Do that for a couple hours per day and you're living the life lol.
actually, the problem was his drug addiction. He was cashing thousands of dollars worth a day he said! Had he not had the drug problem, he could have stuck with just 1-2 bills a day at a range of stores in a range of areas & it never would have raised any red flags. 2 per day, 5 days per week is $1000 a week income, from 10 minutes work (plus the time in going to the stores, which is still far less than with your proposal). There was also that tv show with the mothers who found a laundering method of buying & returning items, if he did that, he could buy items worth a few hundred & get the money back in real cash, which would mean only a couple of purchases a week for the same amount. Even go on a holiday & buy a couple of laptops & iphones from a few different stores, then return them to different stores in the same chain, within the same area & then be gone & don't return to that area for another 5 years or so & no-one's going to have enough details to be onto him
Yeah that’s what I thought too but it would take a lot more time to launder 20’s at retailers. The return wouldn’t be enticing. The fact that he admits to only printing $1-2 million in 100’s shows he was relatively careful and smaller scale.
Man knows his stuff. Intaligo and Lithography are how counterfeit money has been made since the dawn of paper notes/Bank notes/certificates/stocks. I love printing on a 500 pound piece of limestone and you can definetly understand why people do it for the art.
Some time ago the engineering company I worked for got an assignment from a bank to detect counterfit money. The samples we got had all the fancy safety features, but the poor quality of the watermarks was a trivial indicator which bill was real and which was fake. Even if you'd never seen a real bill from that currency, the watermark would tell you whether it was fake or not. Watermarks in dollar bills suffer from a bad design as they have little contrast (compared to other currencies). Watermarks are - a.f.a.I.k. - impossible to fake, as it literally requires you to make the paper from scratch and these processes are kind of technical and kept secret. Maybe, if you throw a lot of money and time against it, you can solve it, but it is extremely unlikely you can do this 'out if your garage'.
US currancy is ALL bad design! Try to get hold of an Australian $5 note & see if you think anyone has ANY chance of counterfeiting that! (Aussie $1 $ $2 are coins, so you won't manage them either, $5 is the lowest note)
@@mehere8038 People do try and fake Aussie notes but the results are usually so mediocre, a blind person could spot them a mile away. I've seen fake $100 bills under normal lighting conditions, and they stand out like dogs balls.
This sounds like a man simply explaining a hobby and how he learned to do it well. Criminal or not, you have to admire that kind of passion and dedication!
I worked in a bank as a teller for a few years and got pretty good at detecting fake bills. I caught a more than a few! I wonder if any of these types got past me? When I found one I was not allowed to return it to the person which sucked, because they had to eat it and most of the time they were given the bill as payment. We then sent it off to the secret service which I always thought was weird. Why would the secret service be in charge of counterfeit currency instead of the federal reserve who issues the currency? I also find it ironic this dude was busted for printing fake money by a government that prints fake money on a scale the supernote printers can only dream of.
The only thing I could think of was because the secret service has their hands in everything. All trades where that those counterfeit bills would be present
Secret Service is in the Treasury department, nothing more to it than that. They're the feds who are ultimately in charge for any sort of currency crime.
The Secret Service doesn’t play with counterfeiters. We had a store contact us that the franchise’s stores in Miami had been hit by a group of counterfeiters. Our policy was for cashiers to never question the customer; so that job fell on me the manager. Luckily their bills were terrible; all the same serial number. Basic stuff. Just passed it back. But when the group left; 7-8 black SUVs showed up blocking their SUV in. Secret Service ripped that thing to shreds. Tearing out the panels; everything was broken down.
Moral of the story.. If you are going to be a criminal. Be the best criminal ever so that LEO's will knock time off your sentence if you consult for them.
Thanks for sharing your story Jeff. I learned something useful today. I'm glad you're doing well. Sorry to hear about your family issues. Crime really doesn't pay, people.
@@paulsimons769Well, he did own up to it. He didn't make any excuse. Didn't blame his wife or anyone else. Sure, he's a junkie and what he did was illegal. He paid for his crime and now is making a clean living. I'd say we can give him a second chance, don't you agree?
How poverty & desperate financial circumstances led him into commiting a crime speaks a lot of why we should have a system that takes care of the poor rather than putting people in prison
@@kw6833 All things aside government should support people with mental health issues, substance abuse issues rather than putting people in prison where people don't get to rehabilitate, studies have shown that most of these people go to the same old routine after getting out of there
@@TheChosen1inc yes not everyone is desperate, some commit crime out of habit & joy they find in it, BUT Majority of people in US prisons today are there cause the system failed them
@IAMAliIbrahim Guess what maybe if he didn’t make so many bad decisions early in life things would’ve turned out different! First of all why would he ever have a child before a career or being financially stable, There is a system in place to help people unfortunately that system is being abused and is now a career choice for people! Either way it was his own poor decisions that got him where he was, It isn’t anyone else’s responsibility to hold his hand and guide him through life!
@IAMAliIbrahim First of all I guarantee that you cannot back up that comment with any type verifiable statistics, They are there not only because they made a poor decision but continued to make poor decisions!
Happy he turned his life around. I always travel internationally with some cash. At the airport I'll exchange some money. This way when I take a taxi I can pay the driver, and I can grab a meal.... After that I mostly just use ATM machines. (Every single currency exchange I've ever gone to outside an airport has been completely crooked. They punch numbers in their calculator and show you.... it's never even close to the rate posted behind them on the wall. Banks are okay but often don't want to exchange money.) And of course in tourist areas a lot of businesses will accept U.S. Dollars. In Asia they pay less for older bills, and older style $50 bills no one accepts. I guess the super counterfeiter in Thailand that got busted well over ten years ago had made a lot of these and they're still in circulation. So if you travel with U.S. cash get your bank to give you only the newest bills.
You bank probably has a service for ordering foreign currency super close to the true mid-market exchange rate. Its best to grab cash before you leave your home country.
@@thesmallterror Banks in my country have all closed their services for travel cash. The largest banks don't even deal in cash at all anymore. Nothing to do with the world's situtation, just what we call "progress".
Yeah, I just get my foreign currency from an ATM now. I have a good bank that uses the actual exchange rate and reimburses me for the ATM fee. I keep a couple hundred Euro and UK Pounds at home so I have some cash when I get there, but I get the rest from local ATMs.
The best part about crime docs for fans at least is knowing the best criminals are still out there doing their thing. Just thinking about the amazing counterfeiters we will learn about years from now gives me chills.
They don't mention it here but counterfeiting isn't always just about the money. The reason we have a secret service for the treasury department is because if you get enough counterfeit money into circulation you can have an impact on an economy. That mattered a lot more when the US was a smaller nation but it was a way a foreign power could destabilize the country so it's really a matter of national security. I think some years back China actually attempted to do that on a smaller scale because we got FLOODED with chinese counterfeits for a while.
Basically inflation. That's what the fed and every other central bank does, create money, in order to transfer resources from the public to the institutions that create the new money.
I realized that the secret to making a million is saving for a better investment. I always tell myself you don't need that new Maserati or that vacation just yet. That mindset helped me make more money investing. For example last year I invested 80k in stocks and made about $246k,but guess what? I put it all back and traded again and now I am rounding up close to a million
Thanks for continuing updates I'd rather trade the stock market as it's more profitable. I make an average of $42,500 per week even though I barely trade myself.
YES!!! That's exactly her name (Deborah Davis) so many people have recommended highly about her and am just starting with her 😊 from Northern Ireland🇬🇧
@@NeverEnoughPyro40 Well, yeah. I’m only saying getting more drugs was his motivation for staying in the counterfeiting game, and I could tell right away from his demeanor he was into drugs.
I wonder why people don't counterfeit small bills like $1's and $5's. Sure, it's going to take a long time to make a considerable amount of money, but people don't really look for counterfeits in bills that small.
I spent about $80 a day on ink. To make roughly 100 bills… I.e. $10,000 in hundreds… if I was printing $1 bills I would only PROFIT $20. Not worth it at all…
So proud of this guy and where he came from to what he's doing now. Good on law enforcement to seek knowledge, a little bit on punishment, and use the skill/knowledge he had to be better overall. Very cool article, thanks Insider
Because the feds were involved. Local law enforcement is so political that regardless of the facts they have to seek maximum sentences. Criminal justice is just Criminal politics today far removed from any pretense of justice.
Most people doesnt realize their true potential. If this man could dedicate so much time and effort into any other legit job. I'm sure he would be very successful. Sad he had to walk this road...
I am so fascinated by the counterfeiting of paper money, idk why haha. I read that Art of Making Money book as well. Very interesting to hear this guy's perspective and story.
@TheFourFats First of all his story is a little fishy! How does an accident cause all of that? If he got into an accident he should’ve had healthcare and if he was working he should have been able to collect temporary disability! That is how your average American does it, But something tells me he didn’t have a pot to piss in especially choosing to have a child at the age of 19 and being broke!
I received a $100 from a bank earlier this year, I think it was marked as an older series (1996?) and looked slightly smaller when compared with a current "blue" $100 bill. But what really raised my alarm was that it looked like an inkjet print - pixelation, lack of definition. The bank took it back, replacing it with a "blue" bill. They said they had checked it and it had passed all their checks. 🤔
I love at the end of this video, he says he's working at a printing company. Like yes, of course he is. He's basically self-taught to the most restrictive and highest standards. What surprises me more is that he could find a printing job. An ex of mine had that technical trade skill from high school and did it for many many years. It was well paying too. But eventually all the printing trades in the city got bought out by bigger companies and also shipped overseas. This man is clearly intelligent because of his strategy in laundering money on the daily and at different places. Then he's got an unparalleled attention to detail for the counterfeits themselves. I think he'd be great for art restoration too. I'm glad prison got him off drugs, that is definitely a win. I'm glad he thinks of it that way. If he had been given the right educational and work opportunities, I don't think he'd have the drug problem nor be a counterfeit bill creator. That part is a shame. Great and interesting story.
He's so calm and indifferent about all this, he has to be a psychopath, so I'm sorry to tell you, psychopaths are calm AF to the point that if they aen't mask, their voices are damn near monotone and you won't see a single muscle of emotional expression on their face, except maybe an occasional sideways half-smile when they mildly like something. The use drugs to ALLEVIATE THEIR PERVASIVE BOREDOM, not because of a lack of education.
Given his intelligence it's not surprising he was an addict. Highly intelligent people are often more susceptible to addictions than others. They actually understand and feel on a deeper level just how broken the world is. While average people and dumb people have a much easier time just ignoring it and not caring and are totally content eating junk food and watching Netflix. Intelligent people are not so easily satisfied. Substance abuse is common among intelligent people. Thing is, because they're intelligent, they're just usually good at hiding/controlling it.
It's like the best crime to cooperate with the feds for. You're only giving up yourself so you don't have to fear any reprisal from other criminals. It's an impressive skill so they seem to just give you a slap on the wrist and then you're back on your feet afterwards.
This reminds me of a film called Mr. 880 (1950) about a poor old man who printed fake $1 bills to make ends meet. The film stars Burt Lancaster as The Agent and Edmund Gwenn as The Counterfeiter. Mr Gwenn was born in 1877 and played the role of Santa in Miracle on 34th Street (1947).
When i was a cashier in the mid 90s making 6.25 an hour every so often a counterfit would come in and id accept them. I didn't care but mostly because i didn't necessarily know right away that it was counterfeit but i didnt care either. Still dont
Imagine caring about the bottom line of a multi billion dollar corporation that underpays and overworks you. They won’t feel the tiny loss anyway from their enormous revenues.
@@miami-dadetransparency5253 tell the corporation to have integrity and honesty. Telling a starving man to starve and die with integrity is dishonorable
@@aaronhpa if the company offers you a job with an hourly pay that you agree to and they pay you for the hours you worked, what else do you feel you are owed?
I appreciate how this guy did wrong, admitted his mistakes, did his time and has moved on. I wish him the best!
Yea admitted it cuz he was caught lol
Did his time cuz it was only like 2 years
Bro probably got to bank millions since his fine was under 100K and 2 years in jail for counterfeiting is a breeze, the respect in jail would actually be pretty good and if word got around about the quality of his work, I bet he made new connections
it's crazy these white collar crimes have huge profits but only slap on the wrist punishments. 2 years for becoming millionare? this is INCENTIVE for criminals to try it, bcause the punishments are so miniscule if ever caught. that is IF ever caught. this is why most big business are agressive in breaking alot of rules, the white collar crimes is big rewards and low risk.
Now secretly works for the government spotting and investigating counterfeit dough. A win win for everybody.
Now lets see if Tre45on has as much integrity as this counterfeiter.
The fact that the drug dealer found out that the bill is fake and was like "I respect the hustle bro" says a lot about that guy
@@apaaaa giving fake money to your supplier is the dumbest thing one can do
How could you not be? Most dealing is easy by comparison. But good fraud/scams? Those profits are huge, millions even billions can be made off a good fraud/scam. Most dealers just tryna eat and pay bills by comparison.
Game see game
Sure it does, buddy.
Hey you’re that commie tuber
I lived in Knoxville for several years and actually remember some this on the local news. Pretty cool to see what became of of Mr. Turner, and to admit it really didn't lead to long-term success and ultimately cost him almost everything anyway. Keep truckin' man.
Finding the company outsourced by the treasury department and then looking up their patents was genius.
The answers are out there and he had good research skills.
Kind of obvious bro
@@bval2201 Sure. I'm sure you would have thought of it, mmhm.
@@bval2201lol, I bet you dont even know how to access the patent database, let alone interpret the blueprints. Calm down lil boy.
They should probably classify those if possible lol
I'm not surprised that his bills were higher quality than the cartel ones. This guy was basically hand-making the bills, almost like an artisan counterfeiter whereas I assume the cartel stuff is mass-produced. As is usually the case, the small-scale hand-made stuff is better than the mass-produced stuff.
Yeah exactly my thought. He wasn't even making $2m a year assuming he had worked every single day of that year. The cartels will move that much in drugs in a matter of a week or two. Sure i imagine much of his process could have been turned into an assembly line of people to do, but its just not really scalable for an illegal activity to require so much manpower to create.
He also had a lot more opportunity to get feedback on his work. He's giving his bills everyday to cashiers who are used to working with dollars and are trained to look for counterfeits. Cartels are making counterfeit money a long way away from where the bills are ultimately being spent.
Artisan is always better than mass produced
I’ve read the longest running counterfeiter in the US was just a guy in NYC. He’d make basic amounts of money (no $100s; too suspicious). He’d make, back in the day, like singles ($1). And just use it to buy a subway ticket, and get the change. Do that a couple times a day; there’s a crowd, everyone’s busy: the perfect situation.
If this guy had done $20s nobody would’ve blinked.
@@Hopper_HouseExcept the real bills are mass produced. It's not about the scale of the operation. It's a matter of having the right tools and attention to detail.
Can’t imagine anyone better to be the production manager of a printing company! Bravo sir! You turned it around and went straight. Respect!
@georgie535 You have got to be brain dead if you actually believe that this guy is the best this world has to offer!
The fact that he was so skilled what he did that he became a production manager for a printing company 👌
i was thinking the exact same thing. dude should have went to work for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving...or even better, dude shoulda approached the Secret Service for a job helping them stop counterfeiting.
And still making counterfeits under the table.
@@ahndeux nah. counterfeiting money is like really bad for everyone. i mean, every counterfeit messes with the money in your pocket....in everyone's pocket...it's really kind of a really shitty thing to do.
@@baltimoreluke Oh yeah? You made a great point. He printed about $1M over a few years. The government prints about $5.2 billion per day. You have to open up your eyes to which one is "really bad for everyone". I don't know if you noticed how much it cost to buy gas recently or how much it costs in the real world. That's why the government left him off. He did absolutely nothing compared to the bigger criminals out there -- the government.
He actually had to work hard to make fake counterfeit money. The government just adds a few zeros electronically, and play the shell game with bonds and suddenly, the money exists out of thin air. I would say this guy had a much harder job to the point where even the secret service was impressed and wanted to learn how he did it.
@@baltimorelukeyou must work for the government 😂
If a dude can make passable fakes in a hotel room using only a laptop and an inkjet, how are you supposed to stop a hostile foreign country from counterfeiting?
nuclear bombs
There's a good video about Korean people making excellent counterfeit bills
Can’t help but think of the line “Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave… with a box of scraps.” 😂
I mean, the limited value of counterfeit cash shouldn’t be worth the risk of being exposed as a ridiculous crook on the world stage.
By 69ing with them, I'd assume.
I'm north of Knoxville and yes many stores won't take $50 and $100 bills now. Gas stations, DG stores, etc... won't take anything above 20's now.
Facts!
@@jeffreypatrickturnerI think that’s every dollar general
then use ccounterfiet 20s
And yet this guy thinks he didn't do much of anything wrong.
@@earlysda he did, he mentioned it had an impact on a local level instead
This dude is super smart. He figured all of this out while unemployed and homeless. Had he grown up in a place with more opportunities, he could have been making a good living in a marketing department somewhere.
Don't do drugs kids.
Arthur Jackson's a better counterfeiter, he even made a book about his story and how he literally did everything-- he definitely doesn't go into vague details like this.
Its always funny when the real end is the bad idea inside the good ideas. E.g. Silk roads creator only got got because he tried to have someone killed. He probably would never have gotten caught if he didn't.
@@spicychad55 wow youre such a kill joy lol...damn dude let the dude have his W
What does doing drugs have to do with it? The more accurate statement would be "don't be born into a poor family, kids." Sure, he mentioned doing drugs, but he didn't do this stuff because of drugs. He did it because he was poor and couldn't get into a decent place in life. That's the way it goes...
Its not just drugs. Its lack of opportunity and guidance. Zip codes predict income better than any other marker. I hope the mint or some design company hired this guy.
Forever ago, I was at a gas station and paid with cash. The lady said it was counterfeit and she pulled out a stack of "counterfeit bills" and slapped it on the stack. I told her to give it back, but she said she couldn't do that. I was pissed. I asked her how, and she said she couldn't see something you are supposed to see. And I showed her she didn't know what she was talking about as I could see it.
And I told her to give it back or call the police. So an officer came out and said it was real. And so she gave it back, but the whole ordeal took like an hour. So she had been confiscating people's money saying it was counterfeit. Though her explanation is someone took a counterfeit bill, and the owner said they'd be fired if they took another counterfeit bill.
Makes you wonder how many real bills she took out of circulation thinking that they were fake.
@@kiwitrainguy I don't know how long they were doing that for. But at least on my day, it was a stack of money 2" tall. Though I've since mostly pay by debit card. Only have cash for when I feel like buying a lottery ticket, even though I know I'll never win. So I just play for fun sometimes.
Maybe that was her side hustle, if she got away with it once a day, she would be $600 up each week. Good that you called her out.
@@colt5189ok all plo
Kll ko kllxjllllllkllllll
From dumb truck driver who went unemployed, to arguably one of the finest counterfeiters who delivered the entire operation, from inception - placement, layering and integration. Legend
As much effort as he put into all that he could’ve just came up with a legally profitable business.
I think he's still doing it. You know he thinks about it.
When's the movie coming out?
@@HueyPPLongya, but he also admits to being addicted to drugs a lot at that time so it's not very likely that he would have made a good company.
The fed reserve is a private operation, they use a method called quantitative easing and simply print money and circulate amongst their federal banks, who in turn provide additional liquidity to the banking system. Essentially it’s a debt system and it’s broken. The clever way to counterfeit is to mint older circulating notes, less security features on the notes and legally still tender. One would assume counterfeiting 1990s notes would be a wiser method.
This dude isn't a counterfeiting expert. Hes an artist. He explains it like it was simple. I cant color inside the lines 😂
i feel you bro....
Obviously he is if did all this and trial and error but someone like you can sit on the Internet and knock what ppl did get over yourself clown
A Con-Artist 🤔👹👁️
Ur comment is confusing… everything is art, how is he not an expert? The CIA even admitted it genius
@@stephenspeliades2941 that's not true. Taping a banana to a wall is not art. It's nonsense, and it's a bigger scam than any counterfeiter could ever hope to pull off.
As a DG manager, can confirm a vast majority of our stores do NOT accept $50s or $100s simply because so many fakes come through. In reality, I'd suspect almost everyone has accidently used a counterfeit bill without ever even knowing it.
I actually had a $20 once. Got it from an ATM machine but it was KINDA obvious it was a fake. Paper was okay but no strip, no watermark, no threads, no microprinting ... how the bank didn't catch it, I'll never know. Didn't try to use it - kept it around for a few years but I think I trashed it at some point in time.
Former DG manager of 9 years. Respect! 🙌
Do Americans not have those little machines at cash registers that check if the note is fake?
@@susch7466 not at the cash register. Only money exchange stores have then as general practice.
Maybe because so many DG's are in trashy/poor areas lmao
Gotta respect the guy who gave him a job at a printing company. Best talent search ever
lol thanks! I’m going to share this with the owner!
Guy stole a million and ruined people's trust in cash.
Why isn't he still in jail?
@@earlysdaHe did his time…and he’s clearly an artist who’s not afraid to work hard. He just saw that he could make more money doing something illegal…like many young people might do. He was successful until he wasn’t and paid the price…this time with his time and his literal life took a hit. Pay a person what they’re worth and can afford to live on and they usually aren’t incentivized to do illegal things, unless they’re a career criminal and it’s all they’ve ever known. Locking people up indefinitely for essentially white collar crimes is not the kind of society I’d want to live in. The justice system aims to be fair in how they hand out sentences. The dude has to pay restitution, give a detailed account of his criminal operation, and has aided law enforcement in preventing future incidents of counterfeiting. You just wanna lock this dude up and throw away the key? Out of sight out of mind? Easy for you to say… Try offering real solutions and thoughtful feedback…otherwise you’re just trolling with your critical opinions… And you know what they say about opinions…
@@earlysdaHe already served his time bruh what more do u want😂
@@swishyxd2035 swish, Why isn't that guy still in jail?
"Still printing, just nothing illegal." Great ending line. Glad he's getting his life back on track.
THANKS FOR RUINING THE ENDING FOR US
Pro tip: Don't read comments before you've watched the video. You're welcome. @@Facter1a
@@Facter1adon't read the comments before the end of the video...
I cant believe he's allowed to work around printers though lmao, that is just playing with fire.
that we know of...
This man turned his hustle into a literal career.
What a Great American Story.
Idolizing crime and slapping "American" on it is such a moronic American thing to do.
@@NeonSlice Given the fact that the nation is literally founded by a bunch of criminals and smugglers... not so oxymoronic i say
@@NeonSlice crime and america is basically one thing.
@@NeonSlice it's irony mate -_-
@@NeonSlice America is basically stolen land.. so...
I love how he admits going to prison was for the best and came out a better man. It's almost as if prisons should rehabilitate rather than punish.
Sounds like he took personal reasonability for his actions, allowing him to rehabilitate himself with the time he had in prison.
The minute the guy talked about getting involved with the drug dealer, I knew it was the way he got caught. Drug dealers will always drop a dime on their colleagues when they’re arrested. Should have paid the dealer with his clean money.
he's not a colleague; he's a customer
No, not necessarily because, whenever a person is continually committing crimes, it's just a matter of time when they get caught, regardless of who else is involved. That's what the law enforcement is for. That's what they do!
@@slimdude2011 as he explained, he had a very low risk of getting caught. His mistake was revealing his operation to someone with a very high risk of getting caught.
@@natashaonis Let's get down to reality here! It didn't matter if he revealed his illegal operation to someone else or not because, he would've been caught anyway. A criminal NEVER have a low risk of getting caught. There is no such thing! When a person is breaking the law, they are definitely going to get caught sooner or later. It's just a matter of time. Law enforcement have the resources to investigate and apprehend even the most intelligent, underground criminals whether if it's white or blue-collar crimes. How do you think Frank Bourassa (the world biggest counterfeiter) was caught? Even the criminal themselves doesn't know the person(s) who they're working with may be undercover FBI or DEA agents.
So therefore, nobody can outsmart the law because, they are always two steps ahead of you. That's why crime (in general) doesn't pay because, everything that a criminal has accumulated illegally in their bank accounts, and possessions they have purchased with suspected drug or counterfeit money is seized, confiscated by law enforcement, and the Government and they will lose everything, in addition to incarceration. They are left with nothing but the clothes on their back.
The people who know the more people can tell. He took his time on the chin and improved, so he may have subconsciously wanted to get caught. Sometimes that’s the only way you’ll stop.
I'm 2 minutes in. And already, I am floored by Jeff's intelligence. He's clever, creative and determined. He is a perfect example of how our society is letting people down. Had the government supported his education, and helped him out when times were tough..... he could have possibly used his intelligence for better things.
so you're saying the gov is at fault?
The gov already helped him immensely. He got his education for free. Thats several hundred of thousands right there. Who do you think taught him how to read and do all this? -the gov.
And the gov already supports everyone who doesnt make a certain amount of money, especially if you got kids
The only thing the gov didnt do in this case is just hand him over a million dollars to support his drug use, which is what you''re suggesting the gov should have done
I dont know about you, but I aint gonna be paying taxes so that the gov can support someones drug habit. I aint working just so someone else can stay high on crack
It isn't the governments job to take care of people. I'm not sure where this mindset even came from. The federal government being involved in your life, in any form, is not a good thing, they are not your friend. That's a very slippery slope. Once you have a society dependent upon their government, they have total authority. See China or North Korea for reference. We as a society need to realize we're purposely being divided, distracted, & pushed to depend on government assistance more & more. Once we realize that, we can ignore all the division & distraction tactics and come together as one people to stomp out the corruption & greed so that we can all have much, much easier lives and so many people won't need to depend on the government in the first place. Its all one big ponzi scheme and no one sees it. I understand people all around the world need help but America shouldn't be the welfare office of the world. We the people need the money ourselves we pay in taxes and yet its being spent on everyone except us, which takes us back to coming together as one people to end the corruption & greed in DC & Wallstreet. We the people hold the power but they've done such a good job at dividing & distracting us that we've seemingly forgotten that & normalized depending on the government for assistance when if we would come together and end their BS once and for all then the majority of folks wouldn't even need that assistance in the first place. Corruption & greed are what have drove the prices so high here and yet instead of the people coming together to put our collective foot down and take back what's ours we just continue arguing amongst eachother and pointing fingers at eachother. It's absolute madness that we've gotten to this point and people still don't see it.
Was scrolling comments to see if there'd be anyone making excuses for him, and I didn't have to scroll far! 😂 Yknow, people have free will and sometimes people make bad choices because, at the time, they are bad enough to make them. Glad he's clean now though. But I don't see people like you blaming society for him getting clean and becoming legit. 🤔
@@10zlo The Scandinavian countries have plenty of safety nets and assistance for their citizens and so far they seem to be doing just fine. Better than us even. Your anarchistic spiel is delusional and laughably impractical. Anarchism in any form won't be possible for at least the next couple centuries. Come back with practical solutions instead of weak platitudes based in a complete lack of understanding about how the world works. Your thoughts are nothing new, and you're not the revolutionary you like to LARP as.
@@10zlo Literally the governments only job should be take care of people. I'm not sure what this mindset that the government shouldn't do anything came from. What's even the point of governments and countries then?
Always the sign of an intelligent, well-edited report when its broken into chapters like this.
Jesus Christ, it's a freaking criminal. Nothing about it is intelligent, it's bad, it's evil, and it's directly from the Satan himself.
I love how a national fugitive that took years and the Secret Service to track down in printing counterfeit money now works as a production manager in a printing shop.
I heard everyone there gets paid in cash for some reason or other.
@@frenchyroastify🤣😭😭
He knows the printing business, product quality management and initiative/leadership qualities
He actually had experience with graphic design while working at a sign company before he got caught! I'm pretty sure the truck he crashed was at the sign place.
The 1 & 2 dollar bill?
2024.
Back in the 80's I found a fake $20. I had it in my pocket on the outside of a fold of cash. It felt different, like slick magazine print. I showed it to my wife who dealt with a lot of cash in a supermarket office. She laughed and said it so fake it was amazing it passed by anyone. She asked where I got it and I said at your store when I cashed my paycheck! We called a friend who was a cop in town. He came by and wrote down some things and took the bill. I was out $20.
LMAO 😅😅😅 at your store
No good deed goes unpunished
15:13 "Still printing, just not illegal" - I like how he framed the conclusion.
dude's seriously intelligent, definitely has potential in other areas. Crazy how addiction can redirect people's motivations.
So true. Best comment on here.
Fun fact: intelligent people are more susceptible to addictions because they understand and feel on a deeper level how broken the world is. While dumber people have a Much easier time just ignoring it and getting distracted by things and just don't really grasp the true gravity of a lot of things.
@@bestieswithtestiesyes, people with higher IQ are more susceptible to addiction (at a young age) but there is absolutely no conclusions on why that is, based on all available studies, so everything you said about intelligent people knowing how terrible things are is bullshit.
@@kn9300 Haha. Well. Try being one friend. Then come back to me
@@kn9300 I respect your response. I did not accurately articulate a scientific fact. You are right to call me out
I work in a large grocery store and train our cashiers. We train on spotting counterfeit bills. Our new employees wear badges that say “I’m new please be patient “. It’s also a magnet for people who want to pass counterfeit bills. Especially if they are young.
Yeah I definitely accepted some obvious and probably not so obvious counterfeits when I was a new cashier at a hardware store. Many of the contractors got paid under the table so we took a lot of big bills but we never got trained on what to do when we found a fake, just the basics of how to recognize them
I always accept counterfeit bills. Im not being payed enough for counterfeit detection.
Secret Service: "We're running low on criminals to catch"
Insider: "No problem sir, we'll help create some for you guys"
Pretty much. That's what I think about whenever I watch one of these.
i doubt the newer guys would be that successful... with the competition these days
This is so interesting. I’m a designer and was impressed with this guys tenacity and eye for detail. It’s great that he was able to turn his design skills into a legit job once he was out.
Massive respect for the ingenuity, patience and craftsmanship ! That determination put into good use can be invaluable for the society
It's also how supervillains come to exist.
The best counterfeits are super notes printed by foreign governments. Looking at you North Korea.
What's wrong with you?
@@lisazinn866 Lisa. what do you mean? Do you think a person counterfeiting the currency is wrong? Why, because it dilutes the value of currency already in circulation? An individual person counterfeiting is a drop in the ocean compared to what the globalists do. They counterfeit TRILLIONS a year.
He’s a complete Liar
A man of commitment. You see him as a criminal, i see him as a genius.
And I bet, to the contrary, you see actual geniuses as criminals.
@@photography8023 and vice versa, smarty pants.
@@nugget6644 truuuu
Same side of the coin
And yes, a lot of geniuses probably ARE criminals in 1 way or another lol. Theyre just smart enough to either not get caught committing crimes or they know theres no way to actually prove theyre involved in any criminal activities. Usually a genius will probably possess enough knowledge to at least somewhat know the law(s) surrounding the crimes theyre committing/committed, understand their rights, and recognize law when they're being done wrong by law enforcement. Thinking the other way around that actual criminals were geniuses...ehh idk about all that lmao 😂
I remember my dad used to cash his check at the liquor store, when i was younger. One day, he came home and gave my mother the money and she noticed that one of the $100 bills were fake. Boy was she pissed. Called the cops, lost the $100, and learned a valuable lesson. 😂
What'd we learn, ma? 😂
@@goofballbiscuits3647 if you have counterfeit money don’t call the cops as you’ll lose it.
@@goofballbiscuits3647shouldnt have called the cops and simply used that bill on the same store.
Yep. Never call cops
Was the lesson: "There is no situation the cops can't make worse"?
I heard of someone doing this and never get caught. They do it in a group. They don't make 100 bills, they do 20s, and they have a group of people working in high traffic stores, like Walmart, Costco as cashiers...etc. Someone would go buy something with fake bills in the morning, by the time at night, all fake bills would have been gone from the store. They did it so carefully that, before they give out the fake bills, these cashiers would look at the wallet of the customer when they pull out their cash, and see if they have a some more 20s in there, just to make it hard for people to know where the fakes are coming from.
Counterfit money has always fascinated me... It's a lot of work, be it bills or coins. Like the work this guy put in highlights just how much of an art it is for these things to be made by a government to begin with, so for him to dig into understanding how they're made is incredible.
Thanks!
In an alternative universe, Bryan Cranston played counterfeiter William White in hit show "Breaking Bills". His catchphrase was "Jesse, we have to print!"
Uh...
Exactly what i was thinking
An art teacher turned counterfeiter
@@swevixeh makes total sense.
Breaking bad alternatives:
Making cash
Making bags
Faking tags
It's always good to see hard-working people get rewarded.
😂😂😂
So that was your takeaway from this? 😆😆😆😆
He sold a million plus in product, paid 10% of that as a fine, served a year in prison, and now has a real job? I think he made out okay.
@@RussJennings Yes. He could have gone the BLM way and just looted and shoplifted.
@@Colorado_Native Even better he could've gone the average trump supporter route and just moved into a trailer in Alabama and signed up for food stamps and other government handouts. Wouldn't have to work a day in his life he can just coast off blue states tax money
Law enforcement tells everyone they catch "You the best we've ever seen" because most criminals think of themselves as masterminds and want to brag how smart they are. This is literally the first tool of tips and tricks officers use to get you to talk.
Well that's psychology for you
Smart DA to offer immunity for his wife. They knew he wasnt a bad guy really, and knew they could get cooperation by offering protection to what he really cared about
and then she split up with him. Oooof
Yea she definitely left him
He probably offered to pay her child support in $100 bills 😂
What an inspiration. Im going to start counterfiting my own bills. Thank you so much.
Bruh
I was thinking the same thing😂
Do not do that. Trust me feds suck. Postal Secret Service not to friendly!!
Lol😂
Unfortunately, you’ll always get caught. Either due to hubris, or just dumb luck.
shows how attention to detail can shoot you to the top quickly.. gald he is using his talent for something more positive now
I, too, am GALD that he’s doing well! (“American education”! Nice!)
It's a failure of our society that we don't present bright individuals such as this man with opportunities to do something legal, productivity, and rewarding. We allow people to drown in unemployment, financial problems, and addiction.
Even intelligent people with countless opportunities available to them make mistakes and go down bad paths. It’s not as simple of a problem as you make it sound.
@@CrippledMercI agree, I mean he said he was in a bad time but he could have just down it enough to get by and then find something legal. It's tough tho having an almost endless revenue stream and also being addicted to drugs must have been really hard to give up making bills.
He said in another interview that he came from a middle class family that didn’t struggle. Where we start out in life doesn’t determine our path in life, granted it can make it harder or easier. This is true for people in upper class families as well.
Or he could just have worked at a printing company to start with.
We do, which is why now he works at a print shop. It's an interesting story but nothing he did was revolutionary or Mensa-worthy, and there are many print shop employees who could do what he did for much longer but choose not to. He made more money to compensate for the risk that they didn't take, and he did
Dude is so lucky to still be alive to tell his story.
He was such small potatoes.
Because he’s white
Yup.
With this guy's attention to detail and ingenuity, and research abilities, he would be a great asset to a special effects company.
How Crime works is quickly becoming one of the best DocuSeries ever
This guy's focus and tenacity is amazing...........he'd be a force, if he applied himself for something good
This man's life could be made into a movie... and I would watch it.
I actually optioned my story to a film company and a film is in development now
@@jeffreypatrickturnerCan't wait 😁
You'd watch a movie about a junkie making dodgy $100 bills in a hotel room?
@@jeffreypatrickturnerCool 😎
69 likes
The US Mint needs to give this guy a job.
They basically did. They gave him a leaner sentence in exchange for the information he had about counterfeiting
The US Mint has nothing to do with making paper currency so I don’t know how much of a help he’d be
I wouldn't be surprised if he's hired on my an agency like Catch Me If You Can
@@CodeGr88nDid y'all even watch the video? He said that's exactly what happened in his deal with the Secret Service
You mean BEP. Mint only makes coins.
They caught him, and then gave him immunity and hired him 😂
No. His wife got immunity. He did time and was given work release.
I love stories like this. I bet if this guy made 20's and smaller bills instead of 100's, he'd never have been caught. 6 - 12 20's an hour is still $120-$240 an hour. Do that for a couple hours per day and you're living the life lol.
actually, the problem was his drug addiction. He was cashing thousands of dollars worth a day he said! Had he not had the drug problem, he could have stuck with just 1-2 bills a day at a range of stores in a range of areas & it never would have raised any red flags. 2 per day, 5 days per week is $1000 a week income, from 10 minutes work (plus the time in going to the stores, which is still far less than with your proposal).
There was also that tv show with the mothers who found a laundering method of buying & returning items, if he did that, he could buy items worth a few hundred & get the money back in real cash, which would mean only a couple of purchases a week for the same amount. Even go on a holiday & buy a couple of laptops & iphones from a few different stores, then return them to different stores in the same chain, within the same area & then be gone & don't return to that area for another 5 years or so & no-one's going to have enough details to be onto him
Plus stores hardly ever use the money pen on 20s.
you stupid or what? he said his drug dealer threw him under the bus and nothing else
Yeah that’s what I thought too but it would take a lot more time to launder 20’s at retailers. The return wouldn’t be enticing. The fact that he admits to only printing $1-2 million in 100’s shows he was relatively careful and smaller scale.
Nobody ever looks at change. Buy a press and mint some dimes. $100 a day is $36,000.00 a year tax free. You’ll never get caught.
Man knows his stuff. Intaligo and Lithography are how counterfeit money has been made since the dawn of paper notes/Bank notes/certificates/stocks. I love printing on a 500 pound piece of limestone and you can definetly understand why people do it for the art.
Buying drugs with counterfeit money… this dude has some tremendously big balls!
Yeah, but the issue with counterfeiting for people doing it is offloading the bills covertly.
Some time ago the engineering company I worked for got an assignment from a bank to detect counterfit money. The samples we got had all the fancy safety features, but the poor quality of the watermarks was a trivial indicator which bill was real and which was fake. Even if you'd never seen a real bill from that currency, the watermark would tell you whether it was fake or not.
Watermarks in dollar bills suffer from a bad design as they have little contrast (compared to other currencies). Watermarks are - a.f.a.I.k. - impossible to fake, as it literally requires you to make the paper from scratch and these processes are kind of technical and kept secret. Maybe, if you throw a lot of money and time against it, you can solve it, but it is extremely unlikely you can do this 'out if your garage'.
You probably could do it but counterfeiting a 100$ bill would cost you more than 100$ in materials and equipment so it’s not worth the effort.
@@dominikfrohlich6253that's if you're only making ONE bill. Spend 100$ to Make 10,000$... The R.O.I is absolutely worth it.
What a great story. Great ending. Hope he is happy.
US currancy is ALL bad design! Try to get hold of an Australian $5 note & see if you think anyone has ANY chance of counterfeiting that! (Aussie $1 $ $2 are coins, so you won't manage them either, $5 is the lowest note)
@@mehere8038 People do try and fake Aussie notes but the results are usually so mediocre, a blind person could spot them a mile away.
I've seen fake $100 bills under normal lighting conditions, and they stand out like dogs balls.
This was by far some of the best 15 minutes UA-cam has ever presented... I was riveted to everything you were saying.
This sounds like a man simply explaining a hobby and how he learned to do it well. Criminal or not, you have to admire that kind of passion and dedication!
Yeah but it is a criminal activity. Great passion and dedication, but still a crime
Proud of this dude. Thanks Insider and Jeff Turner for telling the tale.
Thanks buddy
Working at a print company is such an amazing end to this story
Yep that company is making Euros.
I worked in a bank as a teller for a few years and got pretty good at detecting fake bills. I caught a more than a few! I wonder if any of these types got past me? When I found one I was not allowed to return it to the person which sucked, because they had to eat it and most of the time they were given the bill as payment.
We then sent it off to the secret service which I always thought was weird. Why would the secret service be in charge of counterfeit currency instead of the federal reserve who issues the currency?
I also find it ironic this dude was busted for printing fake money by a government that prints fake money on a scale the supernote printers can only dream of.
The only thing I could think of was because the secret service has their hands in everything. All trades where that those counterfeit bills would be present
Secret Service is in the Treasury department, nothing more to it than that. They're the feds who are ultimately in charge for any sort of currency crime.
Counterfeiting is only good when the government does it. Just ask them. LOL
Kudos to this guy for going straight and finding what seems to be the perfect job for him!!
The Secret Service doesn’t play with counterfeiters. We had a store contact us that the franchise’s stores in Miami had been hit by a group of counterfeiters. Our policy was for cashiers to never question the customer; so that job fell on me the manager. Luckily their bills were terrible; all the same serial number. Basic stuff. Just passed it back. But when the group left; 7-8 black SUVs showed up blocking their SUV in. Secret Service ripped that thing to shreds. Tearing out the panels; everything was broken down.
Love him being honest and showing his softer side towards his kids and family. God bless him.
Moral of the story.. If you are going to be a criminal. Be the best criminal ever so that LEO's will knock time off your sentence if you consult for them.
Thanks for sharing your story Jeff. I learned something useful today. I'm glad you're doing well. Sorry to hear about your family issues. Crime really doesn't pay, people.
Family issues? He was a junkie 😅
@@paulsimons769Well, he did own up to it. He didn't make any excuse. Didn't blame his wife or anyone else. Sure, he's a junkie and what he did was illegal. He paid for his crime and now is making a clean living. I'd say we can give him a second chance, don't you agree?
He seems like such a cool guy. Imagine having an actual convo with him, his stories have to be amazing
Thanks! I’d LIKE to think that pretty cool. 🤷🏻♂️
".....keep my restitution amount under $100k."
"Hey do you guys take cash? I can pay that off right now. Large bills okay?"
😂good one!😊
How poverty & desperate financial circumstances led him into commiting a crime speaks a lot of why we should have a system that takes care of the poor rather than putting people in prison
@@kw6833 All things aside government should support people with mental health issues, substance abuse issues rather than putting people in prison where people don't get to rehabilitate, studies have shown that most of these people go to the same old routine after getting out of there
Crime would exist regardless, not all crime is out of desperation. Yall are so naive and think you can “fix” the world its very childish
@@TheChosen1inc yes not everyone is desperate, some commit crime out of habit & joy they find in it,
BUT
Majority of people in US prisons today are there cause the system failed them
@IAMAliIbrahim Guess what maybe if he didn’t make so many bad decisions early in life things would’ve turned out different! First of all why would he ever have a child before a career or being financially stable, There is a system in place to help people unfortunately that system is being abused and is now a career choice for people! Either way it was his own poor decisions that got him where he was, It isn’t anyone else’s responsibility to hold his hand and guide him through life!
@IAMAliIbrahim First of all I guarantee that you cannot back up that comment with any type verifiable statistics, They are there not only because they made a poor decision but continued to make poor decisions!
I love the sound of a printer in between chapters. Interesting story and well done.
This guy is absolutely brilliant.
@@joanfrederick9176 a brilliant criminal tho
Thanks Matt!
I knew I recognized his voice, then he went into details I remembered from your pod. I tune in every ep for the past 6 months. 👏🏼
The “Stil printing” got me 🤣🤣 Do what you talented in 🤷♂️
This is the best "how to" video I've ever watched!
Happy he turned his life around. I always travel internationally with some cash. At the airport I'll exchange some money. This way when I take a taxi I can pay the driver, and I can grab a meal.... After that I mostly just use ATM machines. (Every single currency exchange I've ever gone to outside an airport has been completely crooked. They punch numbers in their calculator and show you.... it's never even close to the rate posted behind them on the wall. Banks are okay but often don't want to exchange money.) And of course in tourist areas a lot of businesses will accept U.S. Dollars. In Asia they pay less for older bills, and older style $50 bills no one accepts. I guess the super counterfeiter in Thailand that got busted well over ten years ago had made a lot of these and they're still in circulation. So if you travel with U.S. cash get your bank to give you only the newest bills.
Yep, also do not fold or exchange the bill with stain or marking. The currency exchangers in the SEA are notoriously strict.
Yes yes… turned his life around… AFTER being caught by the fbi
You bank probably has a service for ordering foreign currency super close to the true mid-market exchange rate. Its best to grab cash before you leave your home country.
@@thesmallterror Banks in my country have all closed their services for travel cash. The largest banks don't even deal in cash at all anymore. Nothing to do with the world's situtation, just what we call "progress".
Yeah, I just get my foreign currency from an ATM now. I have a good bank that uses the actual exchange rate and reimburses me for the ATM fee. I keep a couple hundred Euro and UK Pounds at home so I have some cash when I get there, but I get the rest from local ATMs.
Crazy how much effort cops put into any crime that threatens a business' profits.
Every single time I give a $100 bill to the cashier I'm praying that it isn't somehow fake
The best part about crime docs for fans at least is knowing the best criminals are still out there doing their thing. Just thinking about the amazing counterfeiters we will learn about years from now gives me chills.
It’s going to hurt you far more than you think.
They don't mention it here but counterfeiting isn't always just about the money. The reason we have a secret service for the treasury department is because if you get enough counterfeit money into circulation you can have an impact on an economy. That mattered a lot more when the US was a smaller nation but it was a way a foreign power could destabilize the country so it's really a matter of national security. I think some years back China actually attempted to do that on a smaller scale because we got FLOODED with chinese counterfeits for a while.
During WW2, the "germans" were counterfeiting the U.S. Indian head gold coins.
There's nothing the Chinese won't counterfeit ;)
Basically inflation. That's what the fed and every other central bank does, create money, in order to transfer resources from the public to the institutions that create the new money.
Hitler actually attempted to drop fake notes to destabilize the Zuk economy
Nazi Germany tried this during the war. Look up Operation Bernhard
I realized that the secret to making a million is saving for a better investment. I always tell myself you don't need that new Maserati or that vacation just yet. That mindset helped me make more money investing. For example last year I invested 80k in stocks and made about $246k,but guess what? I put it all back and traded again and now I am rounding up close to a million
Thanks for continuing updates I'd rather trade the stock market as it's more profitable. I make an average of $42,500 per week even though I barely trade myself.
How
..? Am a newbie in crypto investment, please can you guide me through on how you made profit?
Thanks to Mrs Maria Davis.
She's a licensed broker here in the states
YES!!! That's exactly her name (Deborah Davis) so many people have recommended highly about her and am just starting with her 😊 from Northern Ireland🇬🇧
Previous work experience: Printing fake notes. YOU ARE HIRED SON.
I knew drugs were involved right off the rip. As a guy into graphics, extreme eye for detail, and interested in forgeries, this is fascinating.
@mattkaustickomments don’t get too excited he was already making poor decisions before the drugs!
@@NeverEnoughPyro40 Well, yeah. I’m only saying getting more drugs was his motivation for staying in the counterfeiting game, and I could tell right away from his demeanor he was into drugs.
i can barely get my printer to connect to print out a shipping label
Damn dudes wife got off from having federal charges and breaks up with him. No loyalty.
This part
The amount of security put into paper money is insane, and it can still be counterfeited
I wonder why people don't counterfeit small bills like $1's and $5's. Sure, it's going to take a long time to make a considerable amount of money, but people don't really look for counterfeits in bills that small.
I spent about $80 a day on ink. To make roughly 100 bills… I.e. $10,000 in hundreds… if I was printing $1 bills I would only PROFIT $20. Not worth it at all…
he prints a few thousand goes to prison, fed prints a few trillion and do it all again the next day
The FED is the biggest counterfeiter of all!
Total respect to this guy for getting caught owning what he did and paying his debt to society and doing the right thing now.
Thanks!
He needs to write a book. Hes actually genuine and compelling. Id buy the audio version.
I’m actually writing a book now
@@jeffreypatrickturnercan I pay to give me the product list? Or a tutorial ?
So proud of this guy and where he came from to what he's doing now. Good on law enforcement to seek knowledge, a little bit on punishment, and use the skill/knowledge he had to be better overall. Very cool article, thanks Insider
Because the feds were involved. Local law enforcement is so political that regardless of the facts they have to seek maximum sentences. Criminal justice is just Criminal politics today far removed from any pretense of justice.
Most people doesnt realize their true potential. If this man could dedicate so much time and effort into any other legit job. I'm sure he would be very successful. Sad he had to walk this road...
I like how he figured out that if he spent 5-10-20 minutes on a bill, he’s still making more than most people he knows.
Just the guy I needed to hear from, his story is very fascinating!! I only wish this video was longer
There's a handful of interviews with him and his story
"So I got busted and gained a customer."
What a legend...
His skill and determination placed on another legit line of work...wow.
I am so fascinated by the counterfeiting of paper money, idk why haha. I read that Art of Making Money book as well. Very interesting to hear this guy's perspective and story.
Money is practically paper and rocks.
@@eyeseer1 ok
what I find sad is that it was the pressures of having lost his job for an accident that pushed him to make ends meet any way necessary
@TheFourFats First of all his story is a little fishy! How does an accident cause all of that? If he got into an accident he should’ve had healthcare and if he was working he should have been able to collect temporary disability! That is how your average American does it, But something tells me he didn’t have a pot to piss in especially choosing to have a child at the age of 19 and being broke!
I received a $100 from a bank earlier this year, I think it was marked as an older series (1996?) and looked slightly smaller when compared with a current "blue" $100 bill. But what really raised my alarm was that it looked like an inkjet print - pixelation, lack of definition. The bank took it back, replacing it with a "blue" bill. They said they had checked it and it had passed all their checks. 🤔
Employee maybe?
I love at the end of this video, he says he's working at a printing company. Like yes, of course he is. He's basically self-taught to the most restrictive and highest standards.
What surprises me more is that he could find a printing job. An ex of mine had that technical trade skill from high school and did it for many many years. It was well paying too. But eventually all the printing trades in the city got bought out by bigger companies and also shipped overseas.
This man is clearly intelligent because of his strategy in laundering money on the daily and at different places. Then he's got an unparalleled attention to detail for the counterfeits themselves. I think he'd be great for art restoration too.
I'm glad prison got him off drugs, that is definitely a win. I'm glad he thinks of it that way. If he had been given the right educational and work opportunities, I don't think he'd have the drug problem nor be a counterfeit bill creator. That part is a shame.
Great and interesting story.
He's so calm and indifferent about all this, he has to be a psychopath, so I'm sorry to tell you, psychopaths are calm AF to the point that if they aen't mask, their voices are damn near monotone and you won't see a single muscle of emotional expression on their face, except maybe an occasional sideways half-smile when they mildly like something. The use drugs to ALLEVIATE THEIR PERVASIVE BOREDOM, not because of a lack of education.
Given his intelligence it's not surprising he was an addict. Highly intelligent people are often more susceptible to addictions than others. They actually understand and feel on a deeper level just how broken the world is. While average people and dumb people have a much easier time just ignoring it and not caring and are totally content eating junk food and watching Netflix. Intelligent people are not so easily satisfied. Substance abuse is common among intelligent people. Thing is, because they're intelligent, they're just usually good at hiding/controlling it.
@@bestieswithtesties i think he is still on drugs. look at his pin point pupils.
@@CoolGobyFish Yeah you're right. I wouldn't be surprised. Drugs are fun.
It's like the best crime to cooperate with the feds for. You're only giving up yourself so you don't have to fear any reprisal from other criminals. It's an impressive skill so they seem to just give you a slap on the wrist and then you're back on your feet afterwards.
This reminds me of a film called Mr. 880 (1950) about a poor old man who printed fake $1 bills to make ends meet.
The film stars Burt Lancaster as The Agent and Edmund Gwenn as The Counterfeiter.
Mr Gwenn was born in 1877 and played the role of Santa in Miracle on 34th Street (1947).
I'm just imagining your parole officer finding out you got a job at a printing place and being like "You gotta be shitting me 🤦♂️" 🤣🤣
Secret Service should have employed him as an anti counterfeiter adviser subject to probation conditions
Big ups to this guy, wish him all the best.
Thanks
When i was a cashier in the mid 90s making 6.25 an hour every so often a counterfit would come in and id accept them. I didn't care but mostly because i didn't necessarily know right away that it was counterfeit but i didnt care either. Still dont
Imagine caring about the bottom line of a multi billion dollar corporation that underpays and overworks you. They won’t feel the tiny loss anyway from their enormous revenues.
@@kiuk_kiksyea because who cares about integrity and honesty anyway right?
@@miami-dadetransparency5253 tell the corporation to have integrity and honesty. Telling a starving man to starve and die with integrity is dishonorable
@@miami-dadetransparency5253they don't have integrity, why must us?
@@aaronhpa if the company offers you a job with an hourly pay that you agree to and they pay you for the hours you worked, what else do you feel you are owed?