A sentence was handed down on Wednesday for a Quincy man convicted of counterfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. currency.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that 34-year-old Victor Cardona pleaded guilty in October to one count of counterfeiting U.S. currency, specifically, forged older-style $100 bills.
A counterfeit currency manufacturing facility was discovered during a search of Cardona’s residence in October 2019.
The facility included equipment and materials used to create counterfeit bills, specifically, inkjet printers, a paper shredder containing counterfeit bills that had been discarded, a “counterfeit buster” detection pen and counterfeit bills, including one fake $100 bill in Cardona’s wallet.
Investigators also found several authentic $100 bills with serial numbers that were tied to counterfeit currency recovered from across the country.
There were also burned remains of counterfeit currency located in Cardona’s backyard.
According to court documents, Cardona admitted that he procured the materials to create the counterfeit currency and hosted one or more other individuals at his home on a weekly basis for the purpose of creating the fake bills.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that Cardona produced, or participated in the production of, over 4,000 fake $100 bills that were identified as counterfeit and traced by serial number to the authentic bills found at his residence.
The government has recovered over $467,000 in counterfeit $100 bills traced back to the authentic bills found at Cardona’s residence.
Cardona was sentenced to 41 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and a fine of $5,000.
