Feds Take Down Tamarac Man For Selling $800K In Bogus Bills
SUNRISE (CBSMiami) — Slick, but not slick enough: a Tamarac man has been indicted on a charge of selling $800,000 in counterfeit U.S. dollars.
The deal went down near the Sawgrass Mills outlet stores in Sunrise.
Court records reveal all of the bills produced by 48-year-old Henry Giraldo lacked the security features commonly found on genuine currency.
U.S. Secret Service agents said they got a tip from a confidential source that large amounts of counterfeit dollars were being imported and stored in a home here.
The source offered to have someone deliver $800,000 in fake bills in exchange for $3,500 in real money — $1,500 for the local contact and $2,000 to be wired to the person in Colombia.
Federal agents monitored the meeting, using audio and video surveillance, on July 19 in the area of the mall.
Investigators said Giraldo showed up for the meeting and provided two samples of different types of forged currency.
When the confidential source agreed to the deal, agents said they followed Giraldo to his home in the 7000 block of Northwest 80th Avenue in Tamarac, where he spent about 10 minutes before returning to the meeting place.
Giraldo then took about $73,000 in counterfeit currency out of a blue bag and sold it for $1,500, the agents said. He was arrested immediately.
Agents said Giraldo then agreed to let them search his home and they seized about $12,000 more in fake currency.
Giraldo told the agents that he had been buying counterfeit money from a person he knew only as "Tono" in Colombia and smuggling it into the U.S., agents wrote in court documents.
They said Giraldo claimed to have smuggled in about $100,000 in fake money and said that he and his wife used some of the counterfeit cash to buy multiple gift cards from various stores.
Giraldo was indicted earlier this month on a federal charge of dealing in counterfeit currency. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
