High school students charged in counterfeit money case

Four of the five juveniles were arrested Wednesday during classes at Red Bank High School in Hamilton County. No names were released because all five were younger than 18 when the investigation started, police said.

“We know they made between 300 and 400 tens, twenties and hundreds,” said Red Bank police chief Larry Sneed. “We haven’t recovered half of them yet.”

Sneed said they “started making them in January and early February.”

He described the quality of the fake money as “real good” and said one fake $20 bill was used to pay a fine at Red Bank City Court.

Sneed said an investigation was continuing and additional arrests were possible. He said the fifth juvenile was arrested several days ago.

Sneed said some of the suspects had posted bonds and been released.

Red Bank High principal Wade Kelley said the counterfeiting occurred off campus. School officials said some of the juveniles are members of the school’s football team.

The five teenagers were charged with criminal simulation, a class E felony, Sneed said. Two of them were also charged with theft under $500, a misdemeanor.

Sneed said the investigation started in January when a fake $100 bill was passed at a grocery store in Red Bank. The store surveillance tape showed that a high school student who works as a cashier changed the money, the chief said.

Sneed said investigators found that the bills were printed at a student’s home in Chattanooga. He said the suspects used a home computer, a color laser printer and standard paper to make the bills.

“The thing is, these were all the new-style money; the ones that the Treasury Department said couldn’t be easily copied,” Sneed said.

He said the Secret Service assisted in the investigation.

Sarah Beth Pulliam, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office of the Secret Service, said the problem is “not just kids making counterfeit money.”

She said advances in technology have made it easier for anyone to make counterfeit money. The key to detecting a suspected counterfeit bill is to “take a second and compare it to other bills,” Pulliam said.

Sneed said counterfeit bills were passed at restaurants, a service station, a pharmacy and at the school.

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Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com