AMERICAN COUNTERFEITERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18332, 23 February 1923, Page 7

AMERICAN COUNTERFEITERS

GANG RUN TO EARTH. WIDESPREAD OPERATIONS. MONEY, STAMPS AND BONDS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. NEW YORK. Feb. 21. Twenty-two men have been arrested | on charges of being concerned in a gigan- • tic counterfeiting conspiracy in several • States. Warrants arc out for the arrest j ■ of 100 others. i The United States Secret Service has j been working for a year in an effort to j determine the centre of the conspiracy, j and has arrested more than 1000 persons , found passing spurious bills and coins. : Secret service men ultimately discovered ;, a house in a foreign section of New York where the counterfeiters had their plant. In addition to spurious coinage, United States postage stamps of various denominations, estimated to have a total faca value of 1,000,000 dollars, internal revenue certificates, bonded liquor seals and Italian lire were also manufactured with one of the best-equipped counterfeiting plants ever discovered in the United States. Leaders of the gang had agents throughout the country to which counterfeit money was shipped on the basis of 17 j cents a dollar. Most of the spurious; money found its way to the Bahamas and Cuba, where it could be passed more ? easily. Illicit dealers in liquor often used this currency to make payments for car- j goes purchased from rum-runners outside the three-mile limit.