FLORENCE, SC – Michael James Bembry, 28, of Florence, South Carolina, has confessed to his role in a multi-state counterfeit operation that flooded businesses with fake cash. Bembry pled guilty in federal court to conspiracy to manufacture and pass counterfeit money, and manufacturing counterfeit money, offenses spanning both South Carolina and Pennsylvania. The scheme, active since 2015, involved at least nine individuals and a staggering $100,000 in bogus bills.
According to court documents, Bembry and his crew weren’t printing money from scratch. They were *washing* it. The operation involved stripping genuine $1 and $10 bills of their ink using cleaning fluid or bleach, leaving behind blank, legitimate currency paper. This paper was then fed into printers using a genuine $100 bill – a “parent note” – as a template to create convincing counterfeit $100 bills, all bearing the same serial number as the original.
The counterfeit operation wasn’t confined to one location. Bembry and his co-conspirators set up makeshift printing facilities in several residences within Florence, South Carolina, and even a room at the Roosevelt Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Once printed, the fake bills were put into circulation by purchasing small-value items at various businesses, allowing the perpetrators to receive legitimate change. It was a brazen attempt to turn worthless paper into usable cash.
Law enforcement first caught wind of the operation in May 2015, when officers in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, seized multiple counterfeit $100 bills, a genuine “parent note,” a printer, and other counterfeiting materials from a vehicle Bembry was driving. The trail didn’t end there. In July 2016, Bembry and an accomplice were caught passing a counterfeit $100 bill at a business in Bryson City, North Carolina.
Bembry agreed to plead guilty to the Pennsylvania charges in exchange for their transfer to the South Carolina court, streamlining the prosecution. U.S. District Judge Bryan Harwell accepted the plea and will determine Bembry’s sentence after a pre-sentence report is completed by the U.S. Probation Office. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. This isn’t just about a few fake bills; it’s about undermining the integrity of the U.S. financial system.
The investigation was a collaborative effort, led by the U.S. Secret Service and supported by the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, the Florence Police Department, the Egg Harbor Township Police Department, and the Bryson City Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Bradley Parham of the Florence office is prosecuting the case, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The feds are sending a clear message: counterfeiters will be caught, and they will pay the price.
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Key Facts
- Agency: U.S. Secret Service
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Press Release
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