A handful of $100 bills passed at a Bel Air 7-Eleven store has put federal authorities on the trail of one of the world's largest counterfeiting rings, responsible for more than $3.5 million in phony bills printed in Bulgaria.
Secret Service agents said yesterday that a Bulgarian native, Valeri Gueorguiev, was a courier who delivered tens of thousands in counterfeit cash to Maryland. He was arrested last week in Bel Air with a duffel bag crammed with $62,700 in fake money, authorities said.
"They're pretty well-done notes," said Richard A. Rhode, head of the U.S. Secret Service in Baltimore. "We've been alerting malls around town to try and educate people. These bills are so good they even re-create the red and blue fibers you see on real dollars."
In an affidavit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, prosecutors said the bills were printed by a secret offset press in Bulgaria which makes "the most frequently passed counterfeit currency in the United States and the world."
The bogus bills are facsimiles of the government's newly designed $100 note, which federal officials had hoped would curb counterfeiting. Prosecutors said the bills seized had nearly flawlessly copied markings which designers had expected would make counterfeiting extremely difficult.
Authorities said the Bulgarian printing press is still operating, but its location is unknown. Rhode and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. White refused to comment on whether Gueorguiev's arrest may lead international authorities nearer to the press and its operators.
But even with a break in the case, authorities said counterfeit bills coming out of Bulgaria may be tough to stop -- mainly because the Eastern European country has a reputation for prolific counterfeiting. And the problem doesn't stop at phony money.
Among the counterfeit items produced and distributed in Bulgaria, according to Bulgarian officials, are such things as paprika made from red brick dust, soap powder made from salt, baby herb medicine made with mud and top-label whiskey made with such low-quality liquor that it kills more than 400 Bulgarians a year.
The country has a monthly magazine titled Mente -- Bulgarian slang for a counterfeit product -- to try to help residents identify bogus products and money.
Rhode said the counterfeit money being passed in the United States is unlike many of the phony bills distributed by local frauds. Many of the locally produced bills are made with a personal computer and medium-quality printer.
