Head of dollar counterfeiting ring gets 15 years

The man in charge of a counterfeiting network responsible for faking an estimated $70m in US bills has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Israeli national Itzhak Loz - who is described as one of the most prolific counterfeiters in US history - was also ordered to forfeit $20m and other assets, including a warehouse in New Jersey which was used to print the counterfeit $50 and $100 banknotes.

The criminal activity went undetected for many years in Israel and the US and relied upon a "close-knit and loyal network of distributors bound by family ties, loyalty and greed," according to US Attorney Dana Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia. Loz and 12 co-conspirators were indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2014.

Along with his criminal associates - who included brothers Arkadiy and Eduard Bangiyev, Ronen Fakiro and Rishon Le Zion - Loz manufactured the counterfeit currency on offset and lithography printing machinery in Israel and the US.

The fake bills "were extremely high-quality notes [and] replicated the many security features of genuine currency," according to the Department of Justice, which said Loz attempted to recreate and produce the security features of the most recently issued $100 bill but was unable to do so.

Raids in May 2014 led to the seizure of $2.56m in counterfeit $100 bills from Loz’s New York storage unit and other assets, including over $200,000 in genuine US currency, along with jewelry, watches, diamonds, bank accounts, luxury cars and real estate.

All 13 defendants named in the original indictment have pleaded guilty.  Nine defendants have been sentenced, while the remaining four are awaiting sentencing.


Image courtesy of Shutterstock /Rashevskyi Viacheslav