How fake dollar cartel was traced to Uganda

Mr Ryan Andrew Gustafson in in court early last week over charges of counterfeiting and money laundering. PHOTO BY ABUBAKAR LUBOWA. 

By Ed Blazina

In Summary

In a carefully woven scheme an American national creates a cartel which he effectively uses to supply fake dollars within Africa and Europe. His operations are finally brought to a halt as police track him down in Uganda. Sunday Monitor takes you through an intricate investigation that has been on since 2007.

A $2m (about Shs5.54b) international counterfeiting operation began to unravel with the purchase of a $3.85 (about Shs10,679) cup of coffee in Oakland a year ago.

Federal authorities say Mr Ryan Andrew Gustafson, 27, set up an operation in Uganda that involved an elaborate reshipping process, an Internet network of contacts, rubber hand molds and bills hidden in fliers about a children’s charity.

But he made two mistakes: He used a Pittsburgh contact already known to local authorities and he left a fingerprint on a document despite regularly using the molds to avoid detection.

Federal officials released details here Thursday that led to counterfeiting and other charges against Mr Gustafson, an American living in Kampala, Uganda.

Mr Gustafson, who previously lived in Texas and Colorado, was arrested in Uganda December 11 on similar charges there and it’s not clear when or if he will be extradited to face charges here.

US Attorney David Hickton and Eric P. Zahren, special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh office of the Secret Service, said the scheme to produce bogus $20, $50 and $100 bills has been going on in Africa and Europe since 2007.

The investigation used normal investigative techniques such as confidential informants as well as more complex facial recognition technology and sending a prosecutor to Uganda to build a case against Mr Gustafson.

The investigation began last year when a man used a fake $100 bill to buy coffee at Peet’s Coffee in Oakland on December 26. It was detected by a bank employee when the shop deposited its receipts at the end of the day.

Identifying the first culprit
The secret service used video surveillance to identify the man who used the bill. The man, who became a confidential informant, was identified by the initials J.G. in a 15-page affidavit prepared by Special Agent Keith E. Heckman of the Secret Service.

Mr Hickton and Mr Zahren refused to identify the informant, but the dates of that and another purchase match counterfeiting charges filed in March against Joseph Graziano.

Mr Graziano is a Downtown man accused of passing fake bills made in Uganda as he was awaiting trial on charges he stole $2.4 million while he was a trust employee of BNY Mellon. Mr Graziano’s attorney, Martin Deitz, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Investigators said they knew J.G. used a postal box at a UPS Store on the South Side and on February 19 tracked three packages delivered there from a firm known as Beyond Computers in Kampala.

Those packages led to Mr Gustafson in two ways: the person who mailed the packages in Uganda became a confidential informant and identified him and investigators lifted his fingerprint from a document in the package received by J.G.

Mr Hickton and Mr Zahren said Mr Gustafson used a series of people in the US and elsewhere to ship packages containing hidden money several times in an effort to make it difficult to trace them back to him.

Mr Gustafson, who used aliases Jack Farrel and Willy Clock, found shippers on one of two password-only websites he created for those who wanted to participate in counterfeiting.