ATLANTA, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Thousands of dollars in counterfeit money was found in the former home of Olympic gold-medal gymnast Olga Korbut, who was arrested last week on a charge of shoplifting at a grocery store, officials said Wednesday.
The Secret Service said it was investigating the discovery of thousands of dollars in counterfeit bills found scattered inside Korbut's two-story home on Dec. 5 in Duluth, about 20 miles northeast of Atlanta, by a sheriff's deputy who arrived to serve an eviction notice on Korbut and her husband.
The couple no longer live at the home, which has been vandalized and has a for-sale sign in the yard. Neighbors said the couple's 22-year-old son had remained in the house after the couple moved.
Gwinnett County police said Korbut was arrested last Thursday on charges that she shoplifted $19 worth of groceries, including figs, chocolate syrup, cheese and tea, from a supermarket. She was released on $600 bond.
An off-duty sheriff's deputy working at the grocery arrested Korbut. He said he saw Korbut put the items in her purse before she walked out of the store.
"Olga Korbut denies the allegations and is confident that once all the facts are brought out, the charges will be dismissed," her attorney, Thomas Nagel, said in a statement.
Korbut, 46, is a four-time gold medal gymnast who retired from gymnastic competition in 1977. She moved to the Atlanta area when she immigrated to the United States in 1991.
She has worked as a gymnastic coach in suburban Atlanta. Her Web site says she is available for "motivation speeches for business and training young Olympic hopefuls."
Korbut, who won three gold medals in the Munich Olympics in 1972 and a fourth gold medal in Montreal four years later, told a Russian newspaper in 1999 that she was beaten and forced to have sex with her former coach beginning in 1972.
She said he told her she would be thrown off the Soviet gymnastics team if she refused.
