Three Alaskans are facing federal charges for passing counterfeit money at stores in the Anchorage and Eagle River area, authorities said.
Forty-two-year-old Eugene David Downey Jr. of Anchorage is charged in a four-count indictment for passing “several” counterfeit $50 bills at Anchorage stores between August and November of 2013, said the U.S. attorney’s office in a statement.
In a different case involving two people from Chugiak, 28-year-old Matthew Lee Daley faces a seven-count indictment and 30-year-old Christa Louise Speiser faces four counts of making and passing counterfeit $100 bills in Eagle River. They are accused of making the fake money with a computer and laptop at their home, the statement said, and “conspiring to make and pass counterfeit money.”
In both cases, the counterfeiters used genuine $1 and $5 bills that were bleached and reprinted with $50 and $100 bills. However, they do not appear be related.
Downey is in state custody, Daley was arrested Friday and and an arrest warrant has been issued for Speiser.