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Alleged counterfeiter made $1.6 billion

DULUTH, Ga., Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A Georgia man is facing mortgage fraud charges after allegedly printing up $1.6 billion in bogus U.S. Treasury bonds and trying to buy a house, officials said.

Authorities said Lloyd Clifford Norris, 57, of Duluth was being held without bond following his arrest last week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.

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Gwinnett County sheriff's investigators were tipped off Feb. 1 by a lawyer that Norris intended to buy a house using a registered promissory note supposedly certified by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Gwinnett police Cpl. David Schiralli said.

"A copy of the promissory note was given to the investigator and with the assistance of the U.S. Treasury, the note was confirmed to be fraudulent," Schiralli said.

Norris attended a loan closing at the attorney's office Thursday and allegedly presented the $225,000 note for payment to purchase a Lawrenceville house, the Journal-Constitution reported.

Norris was arrested after investigators allegedly confirmed he signed the loan documents under false pretenses, the newspaper reported.

Schiralli said Norris also brought several more counterfeit promissory notes with him in the amount of $600 million. Investigators entered Norris's home on a search warrant and allegedly seized about $1 billion in phony notes.

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