A Brooklyn, N.Y. man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Hartford on Monday to one year time served in prison and three years supervised probation for a currency counterfeiting offense.
Michael Stevens, 26, was arrested in May of 2019 after he tried to use counterfeit cash at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Enfield, according to U.S. Attorney John Durham’s office. A search of his car turned up $600 in counterfeit U.S. $50 and $20 bills.
An investigation by Durham’s office found Stevens and others used hundreds of dollars of counterfeit bills at stores in New Britain and Vernon. Investigators also found the Eastern District of Virginia had activated a criminal warrant for Stevens, after a federal grand jury in Richmond indicted him for counterfeiting offenses in February of 2019. That case was transferred to Connecticut for prosecution.
In January, Stevens pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to falsely make, forge, counterfeit and pass Federal Reserve Notes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
“In pleading guilty, Stevens admitted that, in January 2019, he and others passed approximately $21,800 in counterfeit currency at locations in Fredericksburg and Richmond, Virginia,” Durham’s office said.
Stevens was detained between May 7, 2019 and January 31, 2020, when he received bail, but his bond was revoked three weeks later after he was arrested in New York $3,800 in allegedly counterfeit cash. He has been detained since March 6.
