New Jersey man sentenced for making counterfeit cash with bleached $1 bills, officials say

NORFOLK, Va. — A New Jersey man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for using bleached $1 bills to make counterfeit $100 bills, authorities said this week.

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According to NJ.com and the Philly Voice, Hollis Forteau, 38, of Willingboro, led a counterfeiting conspiracy involving multiple defendants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a news release Monday.

“The members of the conspiracy profited by using $100 counterfeit bills to purchase items at a retail store, and then returning those items at another branch of the same store in exchange for genuine currency,” the release said. “Forteau made the counterfeit notes by printing images of $100 bills onto bleached $1 bills. He distributed them to the rest of the group in exchange for a substantial cut of their proceeds.”

A U.S. Secret Service application that tracks counterfeit money found that more than $235,000 in similar phony $100 bills have been used nationwide since 2019, according to the release.

In January 2020, authorities arrested three other people in connection with the case near Williamsburg, Virginia, NJ.com reported. Forteau’s arrest came in September 2021 after Secret Service agents discovered a social media video that showed him throwing cash, according to the news outlets. A printer could be seen in the background of the footage, the outlets reported.

U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson sentenced Forteau on Monday in Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Charges are pending against other suspects involved in the case, NJ.com and the Voice reported.

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