By Heather Morrison
masslive.com
QUINCY, Mass. — A Quincy man used Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, printers and other items to turn $1 bills into $100, according to court documents.
Victor Cardona, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of counterfeiting U.S. currency. He was arrested and charged by criminal complaint in October 2019 and indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2019.
Court documents state agents have been conducting an investigation into “the source of older-style, bleached counterfeit $100 bills in the great Boston area” since January 2019. Officials said they were able to analyze cell phone records to track down a specific address “of an individual in contact with multiple ‘passers’ of counterfeit currency.”
On Oct. 24, 2019, officials then found trash bags on the sidewalk near the Quincy house that included “numerous” Epson 220 inkjet printer cartridges, rubber gloves, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, clippings of bleached $1 bills reprinted with “an older-style $100 image” and shredded paper with images of the $100 bills.
“The counterfeit notes included serial numbers and back plate numbers that match a significant amount of counterfeit $100 bills received in the course of the USSS investigation,” court documents state.
When police asked about the counterfeiting, court documents state Cardona admitted he had been regularly obtaining materials for counterfeiting currency since at least summer 2019. These items, he told police, included detergent and degreaser “used to bleach genuine $1 bills on which counterfeit $100 notes are printed,” court documents read.
He also told police, according to court documents, he talks with the individual on a weekly basis regarding the counterfeiting materials and that person comes to his house to print the currency.
Each session, according to documents, produces an average of 10-20 counterfeit $100 bills. These weekly sessions usually happened on Sundays.
Cardona told police he had burned counterfeit and related materials in his backyard, which police later found during a search.
One of the counterfeit $100 bills was in Cardona’s wallet, court documents state. But he also had real $100 bills in the armrest of his couch.
Cardona is scheduled for sentencing for Jan. 10, 2023.
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