Okinawa Marine pleads guilty to forging, passing $20 bills

[unhappycamper]

Okinawa Marine pleads guilty to forging, passing $20 bills
By Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, April 26, 2008

NAHA, Okinawa — A 20-year-old Marine assigned to 3rd Marine Logistics Group pleaded guilty Thursday in Japanese court to forging and passing counterfeit $20 bills.

Pfc. Phillip C. Scott admitted he scanned a $20 note on a computer and made 42 copies of it in his barracks room last November.

He told a three-judge panel that he conceived the idea to send money to his pregnant fiancee in the States and to buy a new uniform for a Marine Corps ball.

The fake money, however, was spent on off-base services, including taxi rides and bar tabs. A Japanese prosecutor demanded a three-year prison term with hard labor.

Scott’s lawyer, Yuji Fujita, asked the court to suspend the sentence. Fujita said his client voluntarily surrendered himself to military authorities four days after he made the forged money.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54322

[leftofcool]

1. Assuming he was scanning US notes.......

how in the hell did he think he could get away with this?

[Benhurst]

2. I don't know; but the government must be having a lot of trouble with

counterfeit bills. It seems every time I get a $20 bill it's been changed. It surprises me that such a low domination seems to be under attack.

[sandnsea]

3. That's the most common forgery

Us peons think it's a decent amount of money. We don't see hundreds very often.

[Benhurst]

4. Same for me.

:rofl: But I think I'd aim for a slightly larger denomination to avoid having to pass so many bills. A $50 might be a good choice. Large, but not so large as to attract attention like the One Million Dollar bill some idiot tried to pass at a shopping mall.

[sandnsea]

5. People pay closer attention to larger bills

Because they don't see them very often, not even $50's. Although that might be truer in the future.

[leftofcool]

6. There are hundred dollar bills?

It's been so long since I have seen one, I thought they quit making them.