Counterfeiting Capers

By Dan Kelly

This is a story about two ruthless gangsters who live on opposite sides of the globe who have joined forces to rip off the rest of the free world, primarily Europe and the USA. They have raised organized crime to a whole new level, threatening the economic stability of many nations and the lives of anyone who dares to interfere with their operations. The men come from entirely different cultures. Ji Yang is Chinese and is based in Shanghai, China and Basilio Marou is Latino and is based in Lima, Peru. However, they have one thing in common. They have an unquenchable thirst for wealth and power.

Two Secret Service Special Agents, Ryan Healy and Megan Durand, volunteer to take them on, after they become victims of their illegal operations and they soon become entwined with police departments throughout the mid-west, customs personnel at several seaports, U. S. Special Forces and British SAS troops and even the CIA. At first, they had no idea who ‘them’ was and finding that out proves to be quite a challenge.

Counterfeit currency along with stolen and knock off merchandise are being smuggled into these
countries in record amounts and cleverness, bribery and threats of physical violence are the
primary tools Yang and Marou use to generate enormous amounts of illegal income.

This is a tale filled with intrigue, suspense and violence sprinkled with humor along with some
interesting factual information woven throughout. As the story unfolds, there are some
interesting twists and turns which should make it hard for the reader to put it down. Enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dan Kelly
• Release date: Apr 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370182886

Dan Kelly

A Little Bit About Dan Kelly the Author"May you always find a good book to read and the time to enjoy it!"After spending forty years in the real world of domestic and international banking, my writing activities being largely restricted to business plans, internal memos, advertising copy, news releases and speeches, I decided I had had enough of the real world and made up my mind to pursue something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while, immerse myself in the world of make believe just for the sheer joy of letting my imagination and creative juices run wild.Except for the occasional humorous ode for the enjoyment of family, friends and colleagues, I never had the time to indulge the more fanciful side of my nature, but since July 2007 I’ve made great progress in atoning for that neglect. My Irish sense of humor coupled with my experience in dealing with a broad spectrum of people from all walks of life and social status are proving to be a wonderful reservoir of inspiration for me in character and story development.Celestial Capers, Casino Capers, Computer Capers, Caribbean Capers, Carat Capers, Calling Card Capers, Cabernet Capers, Calumny Capers, Canyon Capers, Capital Capers, Counterfeiting Capers, Cryptography Capers and Chopper Capers are the products of my first thirteen mental voyages into the realm of make believe and I hope you will be as delighted as I was to make these trips. I am currently embarked on my fourteenth safari into the relatively unexplored dimensions of my imagination, Campaign Capers, and I am finding the expedition as thoroughly enjoyable as my first thirteen tours. I’m hoping you will too.If you'd like to contact me, feel free to send me an e-mail at [e-mail].

Book preview

Chapter 1

It’s six-thirty on a cool, clear Wednesday night with a quarter moon smiling down and Secret Service Agent Megan Durand is pulling into the parking lot of her local supermarket in the North Center neighborhood of Chicago to replenish her larder as she has been neglecting it of late because she’s been eating out a lot. Lately her work load seems to have almost doubled as things are changing at the agency. People are leaving to take less stressful jobs for equal or more money. When she gets home at the end of the day she’s often too bushed to rustle up a meal for herself.

The Secret Service came into being as an investigative unit in July 1865 to deal with a serious counterfeit currency issue that was plaguing the country at the time. Since then its responsibilities have exploded and the unit has become a real pressure cooker.

After loading her shopping cart with the items on her shopping list, she gets into one of the checkout lines which surprisingly aren’t as long as the lines usually are at this time of day. When it’s her turn to insert her debit card into the payment doohickey, it flashes a question on its screen. ‘Do you want cash back?’ Megan punches in yes and enters $100. The cashier gives her the receipt for her purchases and five twenties.

After she arrives home and puts her groceries away, it’s approaching eight o’clock and she’s not in the mood to start cooking so she decides to go to Barnat’s Bistro for some Chicken Paprikash. It’s a local Hungarian family restaurant and serves the most delicious meals which Megan swears are addictive.

Walking into the restaurant she sees that it’s still fairly crowded and when the hostess greets her Megan says, At this hour I thought things would be quieting down a little.

A couple of birthday parties showed up about six and they’ve been at it ever since. The bar bill alone is going to make Barnat’s day. I can seat you away from them or smack dab in the middle of them. Your choice.

It’s been a trying day, away please, Jessica.

You got it.

The Chicken Paprikash accompanied with a glass of quality Hungarian white wine, Disznoko 5 Puttonyos, is a real palate pleaser and as she is enjoying her evening repast she can feel the tension melting away.

About a quarter past nine, she passes on dessert and asks for her check. Barnat himself is manning the cash register and she says, Once again the meal and wine were fabulous, Barnat.

I’m glad you enjoyed it.

She hands him her debit card and tells him to add 20 % for a tip as she wanders over to a display case which holds some bead jewelry. Seeing Megan looking at the items Barnat says, My daughter made those to sell to raise some money for the Shriners Hospital. Her junior high school class is doing a bunch of things to raise money for the cause.

Megan says, She’s good at it. Pointing at a necklace she adds, I’ll take this one.

He was about to hand her debit card back to her, but withdrew it to ring up the sale of the necklace. Megan says, Don’t bother with that. I’ll pay cash.

Taking a twenty out of her wallet she hands it to him.

Holding it up to the light he says, Uh oh. Just a sec. He walks over to a counter behind him and inserts the bill into a piece of equipment. A few seconds later with the twenty in hand he walks over to her and says, I’ve got some bad news for you, Megan. This bill is bogus. It’s a counterfeit. It’s a very good one, but it’s still a phony.

"Where did you learn about counterfeit currency?

Some of the merchants in the area have had some of these suckers passed at their shops and found out about it when they made deposits at their banks. We went to a class held by one of the local banks to learn how we could protect ourselves from forgeries such as this and we also learned about the equipment available to help identify the phony bills. Twenties seem to be the most popular bills to forge.

Megan says, I’m embarrassed to admit that I never thought to check them out because that’s one of my functions where I work, to identify counterfeit operations and shut them down. Give me the bill and put the cost of the necklace on my debit card. Give me the names of the other merchants that have been targeted and the name of the bank that held that class on counterfeit detection. I’ll bring this to the attention of my superiors and see what we can do to nab these people.

I’m sorry your evening had to end this way.

I’m not. It’s good to see that folks like you aren’t going to put up with nonsense like this and are willing to fight back. Plus, you’ve made me aware of a problem in my own neighborhood and I’m in a position to do something about it. The first giant step in dealing with something like this is gaining knowledge of its existence. I’m glad this happened tonight Barnat.

Putting the necklace around her neck and receiving her debit card and receipts for her meal and the necklace, she bids Barnat good night and heads back home.

Chapter 2

While Megan Durand is enjoying a wonderful meal at Barnat’s Bistro, Secret Service Agent Ryan Healy is climbing out of a taxi in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago. He is returning from an assignment in San Diego. Pulling some folding money out of his pants pocket he sees he has mostly big bills, a hundred, a few fifties, a ten, a five and a few ones. His fare came to $26.75 and he says, I hope you can break a fifty.

The cabbie says, Can do.

Receiving his change, Ryan heads into his apartment building to order some delivery Chinese, tune into the second half of a double header Cubs game on TV and change into some bumming around clothes. When he calls the Mandarin Taste to place his order he asks them if they will send the delivery person with change for a fifty. Since they know him as a repeat customer, they say they will accommodate him, but normally they accept nothing larger than a twenty.

Fifteen minutes later the food is delivered and Ryan settles into his recliner and enjoys the rest of his evening. During the seventh inning stretch, Ryan cleans up his dinner mess, grabs a beer from the fridge and puts his change from the delivery guy on his dresser in his bedroom. When he is counting his money to see what is left after the day’s outing, something doesn’t feel right about some of the currency. He takes a closer look and soon realizes that he has two counterfeit bills, a ten and twenty. The probable sources of the notes were the cab driver and the Chinese restaurant. While in San Diego he had used his debit card for all of his expenses. Damn!

Taking another look at the bills he sees that in addition to the kind of paper used there are some other telltale signs of counterfeiting with respect to the raised printing used in legitimate currency printing and both the ten and twenty don’t have the color shifting ink on the number 10 and the number 20 in the lower bottom right corner of the bills. When you look straight at a legitimate bill the color of the 10 and 20 will have a copper color. When you rotate the bills to a flatter position, the color changes to green.

He knows there are other ways to spot a phony bill, but these two flaws tell him all he needs to know. He’s been robbed.

I wonder if I can expense this.

To make matters worse, the Cubs lost both games of the double header with the Mets. They lost the first game 5-3 and lost the second 6-5.

His misery is interrupted by a knock on the door. It’s his neighbor Bill Landon.

Hi, Ryan. I’m sorry to bother you so late in the evening, but something unusual came up at work today and I’d like to run it by you if you have a few minutes.

Bill manages the local branch of Citibank and as an ex-marine isn’t easily rattled.

Come on in. I’m not doing anything but cussing over the Cubs loss of the double header tonight.

Thanks Ryan. I appreciate it.

Would you like something to wet your whistle, a beer, a soda, a cup of coffee?

A beer would be super.

Okay. Grab a seat and I’ll grab a beer out of the fridge.

Returning with the beer Ryan asks, Okay, what happened at work today that's ruining your evening?

Late this afternoon, about an hour before closing our Merchant Banking teller had fourteen small business people come in to make their usual end of day deposits. However, six of the deposits were not usual at all. They contained a lot of counterfeit bills. We occasionally get a phony bill, but never so many all at once. Our procedure in situations like this is to report it to the local police or to the Secret Service. The first thing I did was notify our internal security people so they were aware of the situation and when I did I was informed that several other branches had encountered the same thing. Because I know where you work I volunteered to talk with you to see how we could best expedite a response to our report. Could you and would you refer us to someone who will immediately put the pedal to the metal and launch an investigation into this wave of counterfeit bills hitting our local economy?

I could and would, but there is no need as you’ve already found that someone. I’ll get right on it as soon as I clear it with my boss which shouldn’t be a problem.

You have that much clout?

It has nothing to do with clout. It’s what I do as part of my job. This occurring in my own neighborhood gives me a leg up on things because people know me and will be comfortable talking with me.

That’s terrific Ryan. What do you want me to do?

Give me a list of all the affected merchants with their contact info and then arrange a seminar for all of your merchant customers to instruct them on how to protect themselves against this kind of theft. I’ll gladly be one of the speakers if you think it will add some benefit.

I’ll make up the list the first thing tomorrow morning. Should I send it to you at your office or give it to you here tomorrow night?

The sooner the better. Send it to me at my office. Just a sec. He leaves the living room and returns a minute later. Here’s one of my cards. It has my email address on it. Email the information to me.

Will do and thanks again. And thanks for the beer. Good night.

After Bill has left, Ryan starts to think about what has occurred during the past few hours.

What the hell has just reared its ugly head?

Chapter 3

At eight-thirty on Thursday morning, all of the agents assigned to the Chicago Field Office are sitting around a large round conference room table waiting for their boss, Kyle Karlsson, to put in an appearance for their usual morning meeting. Megan Durand and Ryan Healy are sitting next to each other and begin a passing the time conversation by sharing their last evening’s experiences.

Megan and Ryan are an impressive twosome. They’re both in their late thirties and quite attractive to the opposite sex. Megan is close to six feet tall with a swimsuit model’s figure, flaming red wavy hair and dark green eyes. Ryan is a tad below 6’2" with an athlete’s build, curly coal black hair and cobalt blue eyes. There’s been a bit of speculation that they’re an item, but the truth of the matter is they are colleagues who have worked together on many assignments out of which has grown a lot of mutual respect which has evolved into a very strong friendship. They are aware of the rumors and when things are slow sometimes have fun with the gossips by acting like they’re more than colleagues and friends.

Megan says, I wonder if this is the tip of a huge iceberg.

Ryan says, I’ve been thinking along those same lines. I’m waiting for Karlsson to show up to request permission to pursue this as a normal assignment.

Megan says, Me too. What we’ve come across leads me to believe that looking into it is at least a two person chore. Would you prefer to hit him broadside solo or that we come at him with a partnership approach since these incidents occurred in our own neighborhoods which should give us access to information an outsider might not get and we wouldn’t wind up covering the same ground twice which is likely if we were conducting independent investigations.

I’ve always been a follower of the two heads are better than one philosophy. Let’s ambush him after this morning’s meeting.

Deal.

They didn’t have to ambush him. He brought the subject up as the first item of business when he arrived.

The six largest cities by population in the State of Illinois have become the latest targets of a major counterfeiting operation. Chicago, Aurora, Joliet, Rockford, Naperville, Springfield, Peoria and Elgin all have reports of heavy counterfeit operations, most of which have been brought to the Department of Homeland Security’s attention by banks in these cities. As of an hour ago, no other states have reported similar incidents.

Both Ryan and Megan raised their hands to get Karlsson’s attention and Megan gave the floor to Ryan.

Sir, both Megan and I became victims yesterday. He went on to give the details of their experiences and requested that Megan and he be given permission to launch an investigation into the Chicago situation, stating the reasons he and Megan discussed a few minutes earlier.

You’ve got it. The two of you stop by my office after the meeting and I’ll give you the names and contact info of the people you should liaise with who are involved in what’s happening in the other cities.

Forty-five minutes later Ryan and Megan are sitting in Karlsson’s office discussing possible avenues of investigation to explore.

Kyle says, "Several questions immediately come to mind. First, why has Illinois been selected over all of the other states as a target for this initial attack? Was it chosen at random? Is it a test site to see how things go before the operation is expanded to other states? Why Illinois? Second, who is the supplier of the bogus notes? The answer to this question will probably be the same answer to who are the masterminds behind this scheme. Third, who is handling the insertion of these bills into our urban economies and how specifically are they doing it? We are familiar with many ways this has been done in the past, but it would help us get to the bottom of this latest onslaught on our economy if we had the answer to this question.

Okay, I’ve said what’s on my mind. What’s on yours?

Megan responds first with, Ryan and I are thinking of taking the bottom up approach. We’ll start out by talking with the merchants and bank personnel who have been involved in the passage of the counterfeit bills. Get their input as to how they came in contact with the funny money and follow any leads this generates.

Ryan jumps in with, "Once we accumulate some data on the streaming of these bill, we can then interact with the folks on this list you’ve given us to look for similarities or other leads that might be revealed.

The first thing that jumped into my mind was the origin of these bills. Might Peru and Mexico be involved? They have quite a history of dealing in the counterfeit currency arena, especially our green backs.

Kyle says, That’s definitely something to consider. Check with the FBI and any other pertinent agencies to see if they have any suspicions along those lines.

Will do.

Megan says, I think we should also touch base with Interpol and other agencies around the globe to see if there’s been any increase in counterfeit activity in their neck of the woods with respect to U. S. currency.

Kyle says, "I’ll take on that responsibility. The sooner we get a feel for the scope of this operation the quicker we can arrange to have the appropriate personnel and resources assigned to the investigation. Until further notice, you two are excused from attending our usual morning meetings. Who knows where your investigation will take you and for how long. I expect, however, that one of you give me daily progress reports so I can keep my bosses informed and up to date.

Now, if you two have nothing else to share with me, get out of here and go catch some bad guys.

Chapter 4

Walking back to their offices Megan suggests, Why don’t we start out by separately talking with our neighbors and merchants in our respective neighborhoods and follow up on any leads that generates? Then we can have some chats with the local branch managers of the banks in our neighborhoods. After we’ve done that, we can get together to go over what we’ve learned if anything and figure out what our next step should be.

That works for me. People will feel more comfortable being approached by a single someone they know than if we approached them together. Most people tend to be reticent, even shy around strangers, especially us law enforcement types.

This will probably take the rest of today and a good part of tomorrow to do it right. How about we get together for breakfast somewhere tomorrow morning and we can bring each other up to date about what we accomplished today and we can also report in to Kyle?

Okay. Let’s meet at Miss Ricky’s over on North Wabash say at eight.

I’ll be there.

After they attend to some routine office things, they head out to do a lot of walking and talking. They have no idea about what they are walking into, whose tempers they’re going to stir or what the consequences of their actions will be. However, these two are no rookies. They’ve been around the block more than a few times and are always ready for the unexpected. They have learned the hard way that ignoring any danger signals that might flash across their minds could be fatal. This counterfeiting operation has all the signs of being a sizeable professional operation and when the stakes are high so is the danger level.

The next morning at Miss Ricky’s they shared the information their pavement pounding had produced. One discovery stood out from all the rest because it was so unexpected. One common question asked of all the merchants they talked to was who did you notify about the counterfeit bills passed to you? Only two different answers were given. ‘No one. I left it up to the bank to pursue.’ or ‘I notified the local police.’

When these people were asked how the police handled their reports, without exception they said their report was taken and they haven’t heard a thing from them since. Megan says, This is very troubling. This is either poor police work or something more sinister is going on. I think we should pay a visit to the Superintendent of Police and sound him out about it.

Ryan says, I agree. In light of this discovery, I also think we should now approach the local branch bank managers to see if they have had any disappointing experiences with the local police. Perhaps we should do that first. I also think we should pay a visit to these bankers together. Two of us will be more intimidating if they have any hesitation about talking with us and try to slough us off on their internal security people.

It’s worth a shot. You know, Ryan, there’s been a lot more counterfeit activity in our two neighborhoods than I first thought. After we talk with the bankers and the police chief, I think it’ll be time to contact the folks on Kyle’s list to compare notes and swap ideas.

We’re on the same track. While I’m paying the check you can request a list of addresses for all of the bank branches in our neighborhoods and have it sent to your iPhone.

I’m on it. While we’re driving to the first branch, you can report in to Kyle.

Okay. Why don’t we start on the branches in your neighborhood? We can drop your car off at your place and I’ll do the day’s driving. Driving two cars to the same places makes no sense. This way we can talk about what we’re learning as we move through the day instead of having to wait until a later time.

That works for me.

Since a lot of commercial banking branch managers have business development goals to reach in addition to their management goals, some of them were out of the office trying to drum up new business, so there were some branches where they had to deal with the assistant managers and they weren’t always clued in on everything happening in their branches. However, a pretty clear picture emerged anyway of the nature of the cooperation offered by the local police to help the banks deal with the counterfeit currency floating around the communities. Succinctly, a little lip service was given at the time the reports were submitted and then total silence.

Reviewing the results of their efforts today Ryan says, Tomorrow I’d like us to touch base with Kyle to see if any contacts were made with the Secret Service by the Chicago PD regarding these reports. I also think we should begin touching base with the people on Kyle’s list.

I agree. After we do that, I think it’ll be time to have a chat with the Superintendent of Police. Something’s out of whack there.

Shaking his head Ryan says, That’s not going to be a pleasant encounter. He’s irascible in the best of times.

Well, it looks like tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day. Right now though I just want to go home and forget about this mess for a few hours. My couch, a good book of humor by Erma Bombeck I found tucked away in a carton in my garage a few weeks ago and haven’t found the time to re-read and some take out from Della’s Deli are calling, hell screaming for me."

Chuckling Ryan says, I’ll have you home in fifteen minutes. I think I’ll grab some Chinese and then go to the gym and beat the crap out of a punching bag. That usually takes my mind off my troubles.

As my dad used to say, ‘Whatever floats your boat.’

Chapter 5

After the morning meeting, Ryan and Megan appear at Kyle’s office door to give him their progress report and to inquire about contacts made by the Chicago PD with the Secret Service. He’s on the phone with someone and he doesn’t look like he’s happy about what he’s hearing. Seeing them standing in the doorway he motions them in and to sit down.

Five minutes later he slams the phone down and says, Indianapolis just got hit with a wave of counterfeit currency. It now looks to me like Illinois was picked to be the first state to be flooded with forged bills randomly, although it does cause me to now speculate on why the Midwest has been targeted above other sections of the country.

Megan asks, Do you have a name for us to add to the list of people you want us to co-ordinate with on our investigation?

Yeah. Tom Santella. Damn! The quicker and faster this economic disease spreads the harder it will be for us to get a handle on it and limit the damage it causes. What did you two learn yesterday?

They brief him and then Ryan asks, Can you find out for us if any attempts were made to contact Homeland Security or the Secret Service by the Chicago PD or the police departments of the other Illinois cities about the counterfeit bills showing up in their city?

Just a sec.

He places a call to someone who will be in the know and several minutes later he hangs up shaking his head. Nothing. It’s hard to believe that all of these police departments have been corrupted.

Megan says, If they haven’t, that means we have some dirty laundry in our neck of the woods.

Kyle says, It would be quite a feat for someone in our department or in Homeland Security to keep something like this under wraps.

Ryan says, Something is rotten somewhere. This has a strong odor of bribery. If this counterfeit scheme is large enough, there’s a huge profit to be made from it and the perpetrators will have the financial resources to put some strategically placed and savvy people in their pockets. I agree with Kyle. My money is on the police departments. Someone is being paid to look the other way.

Megan says, Ever since I became aware of this problem I’ve been impressed with its apparent sophistication. I’ve also been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Ryan asks, What other shoe?

Counterfeit currency generates billions of dollars in profits globally and it is estimated that over $200 million is circulating the U. S. at any one time. The worldwide counterfeit products market is estimated to be over $461billion, most of which is sold on the internet. That other shoe.

Kyle asks, Are you implying that the people behind this counterfeit currency operation could not only be striking out at other countries’ currencies, but are also capable of and maybe ready to expand their counterfeit operation into fake purses and other products or are already doing so elsewhere or even here and we don’t know about it?

"I am.

Rubbing his temples Kyle says, Boy the way this day is starting out, it is bound to be an Excedrin day to remember.

Ryan says, This has me thinking that maybe we should be touching base with other countries to see if they’ve had any new developments in these areas. There may be a link with what’s happening here. Megan has already suggested this, but it got put on the back burner as we forged ahead down other avenues.

Megan says, Peru and Mexico are at the top of my list with respect to the bogus bills. It wouldn’t hurt to ask for their assistance in helping us track down the culprits. Every country with respect to the fake products although China stands out from the crowd as a key player in that market.

Kyle says, Okay, you’ve got a lot on your plates. Start eating.

Walking back to their offices Ryan asks, How would you like to prioritize what’s on our agenda? Do you have any preference?

Except for starting out with a visit to the Superintendent of Police, I don’t have any order in mind.

Okay, let’s go stoke the flames of the Superintendent’s temper and then we can hit the phones to touch base with everyone on our list. I’ll drive.

Chapter 6

Superintendent Norman Morse is an impressive man in many respects. He stands 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs about 210 lbs., none of it fat. He has a deep bass voice and when he speaks you listen. He talks rapidly and tact is not one of his strong points. He’s been a cop for twenty years and it shows. He’s seen a lot of bad things, has had to deal with a lot of dangerous situations and has become more than a little cynical about his fellow man.

It shows on his face and in his demeanor. He’s good cop though, one of the best. When he was on the streets, he set a record for arrests of some of the most sinister gangsters and street thugs in the city. Perhaps this part of his career is what generated his penchant for losing his temper over just about anything that happens that doesn’t please him. In these moods, he can cuss with the best of them and he has raised dressing down anyone who has dared to dissatisfy him to a fine art. The fact that he’s still around is attributed to the fact that it would be a monumental task to find a suitable replacement. It certainly isn’t for his charisma.

Surprisingly, when their presence is made known to the man he readily invites them into his office. They thought he’d keep them waiting a bit just to show them whose turf they were on.

Well now, this is a first. I’ve never had the Secret Service show up at my door before. What’s up?

They lay it on him, emphasizing their concern about the lack of response by the Chicago PD to the reports of counterfeit currency circulating around the city by some of its merchants and the lack of contact by the Chicago PD with Homeland Security or the Secret Service to bring them into the loop. To be fair and open with him, they also told him about the other police departments’ failure to respond in any way as well.

As expected, the Superintendent responds with, !@#$%^&*(+)= which he follows up with What are you implying?

Ryan says, We’re not implying anything. I believe we’ve stated our concerns very clearly and would like to hear your explanation for the department’s lack of response to these reports.

Hmmm. Just a minute.

He punches his intercom button and his secretary answers. Yes Superintendent.

Have Lieutenant Vecchio report to my office immediately.

Five minutes later the Lieutenant arrives a little out of breath, like he ran all the way.

Lieutenant, these people are from the Secret Service, Agents Megan Durand and Ryan Healy. They are investigating the counterfeit currency that has suddenly shown up in some neighborhoods in our city. They want to know why we haven’t reported these incidents to their agency or Homeland Security. Frankly, so do I.

"They have been reported sir. Within 24 hours of receipt of a report from a merchant, it is relayed to the