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This November, police in Brea, California, really had something to be thankful for. At 7:00 AM on the day before Thanksgiving, search warrants were executed at several residences in the Southern California area. Two men, Robert M. Wann of Corona and Arde G. Damos of Placentia, were arrested just hours before they were scheduled to depart for Vietnam. Authorities seized almost $8 million in counterfeit $1,000 Visa traveler’s checks, all bundled up and ready for transport to Vietnam. It is believed the two were planning to pass the checks into circulation there, especially since it is often easier to pass such large checks in foreign countries than it is in the US. Other checks passed by the ring have ended up in China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam.
Wann and Damos had been under surveillance for three months after $1,200 in counterfeit $100 checks were used at a supermarket in Yorba Linda, California. Shortly after the investigation began, the Brea police – under their contract to patrol the city of Yorba Linda – discovered that the FBI had already started its own investigation on a ring of counterfeiters in the area. During the course of the investigation, authorities followed the men south to San Diego and then on to the Mexican border, where they observed the suspects meeting with several other people.
Investigators are unsure exactly where the seized checks were printed, how long the suspects had been passing them or how much money was involved. It is estimated, however, that the ring printed and passed fraudulent checks worth almost $100 million in the last year.
In other Southern California locations, authorities seized $25,000 in phony $100 Visa traveler’s checks as well as a large printing press that may have been the source of at least some of the fraudulent checks. The printing press, part of a $10,000 lithograph set up, was housed in a 20- by 40-foot room in Riverside. With this equipment, the counterfeiters were able to print as many as 1,500 checks per day, with a total value of $150,000. It is estimated that at least $50,000 to $75,000 in bogus traveler’s checks may still be circulating in Orange and Riverside counties.
Police wouldn’t speculate on whether this ring was related to a similar ring of counterfeiters busted in the Little Saigon area of Westminster, California, this past October. After a two-year investigation, FBI agents arrested 23 people suspected of operating a counterfeiting ring that produced phony credit cards and traveler’s checks. The ring is responsible for taking millions of dollars from major financial institutions, including the US treasury.
The US Attorney’s office considers the Little Saigon counterfeiters to be part of a sophisticated ring of criminals operating nationwide. Those arrested in October were from Garden Grove and Westminster, but the counterfeit cards and checks were being sold in Virginia, Florida, Colorado and Texas. California banks alone are estimated to be losing $500,000 per month to these scams. The group arrested also allegedly dealt in drugs, weapons, and pirated computer software, including copies of Windows 95 that were sold at least one week before they were available in stores.
The FBI investigation was code-named Operation Paper Caper. Agents zeroed in on Southern California after people arrested elsewhere began telling them that the source was in Orange County. Investigators working undercover were able to purchase fake payroll checks, stolen IRS and State of California checks, phony credit cards, silencers and parts that would convert semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic weapons.
The traveler’s checks the group dealt in were similar to those that were reportedly found in the trunk of a car stopped by California Highway Patrol officer Don Burt in July of this year. Shortly after Burt opened the trunk of the suspect’s car, he was shot seven times, including the fatal wound, an execution-style shot to his head. The man charged with killing Burt, Hung Thanh Mai, is currently being held in the Orange County jail. Police are still looking into the case, trying to determine whether there is any connection between Mai and the Little Saigon counterfeiting ring.
In other developments, New York State Police recently warned merchants to be on the lookout for counterfeit $100 Visa International traveler’s checks. At least 168 such checks, all with serial numbers ending in 923, 924 or 925, were passed at gas stations, fast food outlets, drugstores and department stores in the state between October 10 and 25. The victimized businesses lost a total of $16,800.
No fools, these crooks are believed to be purposely taking advantage of this traditionally busy time of year, when clerks may be less vigilant about accepting such checks. Although the availability of quality color copiers and printers has made the production of these fraudulent checks quite easy, authorities stress that there are several telltale marks of a phony. Most importantly, the real checks have a watermark that is impossible for the counterfeiters to reproduce. Also, there is a different feel to the counterfeit checks: there is a raised texture to engraved areas on the real checks but not on the phony checks; and the paper the checks are printed on should be crisp like new money, rather than flimsy and slightly glossy like the checks that are being passed in New York.
Investigations are continuing in all three cases, with more arrests expected.
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