U.S. News

Atlanta counterfeiter pleads guilty

Published: Nov. 23, 2011 at 3:41 PM

ATLANTA, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- An Atlanta man has admitted in federal court he created $1.2 million in counterfeit money by turning $5 bills into $100 bills.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Vincent Gerome Rome Jr., 25, pleaded guilty to counterfeiting Monday in U.S. District Court. He also pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He is to be sentenced Feb. 7.

"This defendant may have used an old-fashioned method to make counterfeit currency, but he made a staggering amount," U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Rome spent two years bleaching $5 bills white, then running the bills through printing presses to make them into $100 bills. He then sold the fake bills to other people.

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