1991_10 The Daily Collegian October 1991

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N,
ews
The Daily CoUegian • October 22,1991
Counterfeit: Bookstore discovery only part of problem
Continued from page 1
they're being passed right now and
if you're not looking for it, you
wouldn't be able to tell."
The local branch of the Secret
Service confirms that it has its
handsfull.
"We get anywhere between
Sl ,500 to $4,000 in counterfeit cur¬
rency weekly," said Resident
Agent Rick Nelson of the Fresno
office of the Secret Service's Sacra-
men to district His office investi¬
gates all the counterfeit money
recovered from Fresno to Modesto.
"We ha ve our share: Los Ange¬
les, New York and Miami are the
three major centers," he said.
Tracing the origin
Nelson said an increasing
amount of counterfeit money is
closely tied to drug trafficking and
originates outside the United
States.
Of the 37 percent of last year's
counterfeit money which was pro¬
duced in other countries, Nelson
said, "Most of that comes from the
drug cartel. More and more drug
sellers are also manufacturing cur¬
rency."
He said that drug traffickers
generally self counterfeit money,
not circulate it.
"A lot of times ... it will cause
battles between factions," he said.
They're selling both products."
Though the amounts involved
are smaller, the Fresno counter¬
feiting scene is not without in¬
trigue.
Nelson said that as a result of
an undercover operation that in¬
volved making "a coupleof buys,"
a Fresno man was sentenced last
December after distributing
$60,000 in counterfeit money.
"He wasn't passing it at all,"
said Nelson. "He was strictly sell¬
ing."
In a plea bargam made after the
man's arrest, he took Secret Serv¬
ice agents to Los Angeles, where
$1.2 million was seized from the
man's contacts. Nelson said he be¬
lieved the man was sentenced to
eight years in prison.
Beating the problem
To combat the ever-increasing
sophistication of photocopiers and
offset-printers, the US. Treasury
Department on July 27 announced
new printing methods and design
for its currency.
"We estimate that by the end of
the decade, color copiers will be as
commonplace in the office as black
and white are now," said Nelson.
"As more people ha ve access, well
see more color-copied notes.*
Termed "securify enhance¬
ments," one change consists of a
band of polyester one-sixteenth of
an inch thick, on which "USA
TWENTY" or "USA 100" (or the
numerical value of the bill on
which it appears) is printed; the
band runs through bills vertically
to the left of the picture. The poly¬
ester can't be reproduced by the
reflective light used in photocopi¬
ers, said Nelson.
W
Toother development consists
of microprinting the words "The
United States of America" re¬
peated around the portraits on
bills. The microprinting cannot be
read without a magnifying glass,
and therefore cannot be legibly re¬
produced.
These changes in currency are
being phased into circulation, and
have not yet had a noticeable ef¬
fect cm the Secret Service's efforts,
Nelson said.
Because $1 bills are not usually
counterfeited, the changes will not
apply to them.
'In addition to offset printing,
which Nelson said accounts for 95
percent of all counterfeit money
and is still superior to color copi¬
ers, there are other ways to create
counterfeit money.
Stretching your dollar    ■
One labor-intensive method is
the "raised" or "altered" note.
"This is a testament to the fact
that you and I and the average citi¬
zen don't look at our money," said
Nelson.
In fact the "raised" note, so
named because in alteration the
value of the bill is raised, looks like
something the Little Rascals might
have put together.
The ends of a $1 bill are clipped
off and the ends ofa 510 or $20 bill
are taped on; the creator of the
new bill could conceivably ex¬
change the big portions of the
clipped bills at a bank, then use the
new bill as well, making up to $60
from$l.
"You wonder why anyone
would take them because they look
so bad," Nelson said.
Headded that much of counter¬
feit exchange occurs in places that
are busy, such as convenience
stores, where money is not care¬
fully scrutinized.
Another method that Nelson
said agents have seen coming out
of South America is bleaching,
which involves bleaching out a $1
bill and reprinting a larger denomi¬
nation on the paper.
The copied or printed bills are
superior to these methods, but are
still not comparable to the real
thing.
Detecting a counterfeit
"If you compare (a suspected
counterfeit note) to a genuine bill
of the same denomination, the1
difference jumps out at you," said
Nelson, who recommended that
as the best way to detect counter¬
feits.
Some bills are extremely realis¬
tic, complete with small red and
blue fibers running through the
paper. Quality and the transitory
nature of money exchanging are
the reason why Nelson's office and
the other 139 Secret Service offices
in the country are so busy.
Center:
Childrens'
needs to be
studied
Continued from page 1
settings wherechildrenare learned
holistically, providing in-service
education and other community
service activities that encourage
public and private agencies to
work together to improve the
quality of education, and conduct¬
ing program and policy research
to document what schools and
state and local governments have
done and could do to improve
upon education.
The Center will be established
immediately with several CSU
campuses getting involved in the
system wide program.
The CSU system graduates
some 10,000 students per year in
ihe children-services areas such as
education, social work, child de¬
velopment, nursing and recrea¬
tion.
Munitz sees the Center as a
building block for improving the
relationship between schools and
social services.
"For too long schools have gone
one way and sodal service agen¬
cies have gone another," Munitz
said. "The center will establish a
multi-service approach to serving
children,
"California's children are the
futureof CSU and thefutureof the
state Wecannotignoretheirneeds
or those of their families," Munitz
said. "We do that at the risk of
failing our duty as educators,"
LSAT Prep "ourse
Offered here on campus at
The University Business Center
Prepared by the authors of  —
For Dec. 7, 1991 Exam -
Nov. 9, 16 & 23
For Feb. 8, 1992 Exam -
Jan. 18, 25 & Feb. 1
Cost:  $155 including the Barron's and Cliffs texts
For more information or to register
call 278-2352 or come to PB182
The University Business Center
School of Business and Administrative Sciences
California State University, Fresno •
College Bowl
"The Varsity Sport of the Mind"
College Bowl is an
intercollegiate academic
competition where questions
are drawn from standard
college curriculum.
Registration forms available in the
6Uident Activities Office. U6U
Room 306.
"Most people aren't aware they
have (counterfeit bil 1 it," said Nel¬
son. "Most of the bills go from
person to person to person before
someone detects it as being
counterfeit."
Mission possible
Nelson said that tracking
counterfeiters is as exciting and
dangerous as movies portray the
profession to be, though he feels it
is safer than being a uniformed
police officer.
"We have the bullet-proof
vests, and we do the raids," he
said. "We do get people killed in
the line of duty."
He said in spite of the risk in¬
volved, he finds this type of work
preferable to the Secret Service's
other primary function, which is
protecting presidents, presidential
candidates, foreign heads of state
and the spouses and children
under 18 of these people.
Though the Secret Service is an
exclusive employer, with 1,950
employees nationwide, and it
tends to keep a low profile, its
presence seems to be well-known
in Fresno.
CSUF has more graduates
employed with the Secret Service
than any other single university in
the country.
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