On the 8th of September Riga City Vidzeme Suburb Court sentenced six men to prison for forging 3.5 million US dollars, as LETA was informed by the court.
The criminals in question are Aleksandrs Fomičevs, Viktors Ždanovičs, Normunds Juška, Ilmārs Krieviņš, Māris Popovs and Sergejs Jakovļevs.
All of them were sentenced to one year of probation on top of their prison sentences.
In a previous statement to the press, the prosecution office wrote that there are six persons accused on manufacturing and storing fake 100 US dollar bills with intention to distribute them.
In accordance with the decision to bring the criminal case to court, the accused, guided by greed, divided the duties and carried out actions aimed at the production and storage of counterfeit 100 US dollar notes for the purpose of distribution in large quantities. Members of the organized group set up a printing house in Riga, carried out the adaptation of the premises to the needs of the printing house. Purchase and installed necessary equipment, which, under the guise of legal activities, carried out the production of counterfeit foreign currency – 100 US dollar bills on a large scale, as the prosecutor’s office previously reported.
Some of the printed 100 US dollar notes were stored by the criminal group inside the printing house. Some were stored in the homes of members of the group and premises owned by another business.
In total the organised group had manufactured and State Police officers had confiscated 35 745 counterfeit 100 US dollar notes worth a total of 3.5 million US dollars (3 167 759 euros).
In April 2016 Latvian State police told journalists that in September 2014 three persons were detained for distributing forged 100 US dollar notes. During the investigation, however, no evidence was acquired as to the origin of those notes. Over the course of years authorities found that the same notes were found in Latvia, US and Britain.
Through analytical efforts police managed to narrow down the possible location of the printing house. It was eventually discovered in Latvia.
The volume of forged currency is the biggest ever discovered in Latvia’s history.
It was possible to uncover the group of counterfeiters thanks to cooperation with the US Secret Service.