FAT PETE AND AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST COUNTERFEIT MONEY OPERATION

When Nicholas Megaloudis used two $50 notes to buy some burgers and fries at Hungry Jack’s in Sylvania, Australia’s biggest counterfeit operation began to unravel.

Those two dodgy but well-made notes sparked a seven-month global investigation into the manufacturing of almost undetectable fake $50 notes and the seizure of enough polymer and paper to make $43.73 million worth of counterfeit currency.

By the time Australian Federal Police, NSW Police and the US Secret Service arrested the gang in November 2010, they had made close to $1 million worth of fakes, which they were distributing in Australia and America.

The Secret Service seized $375,000 in fake notes from David Higson, an Australian living in San Diego. Simultaneous raids by Federal and NSW Police seized $400,000 from two addresses in Sylvania. In all, seven people were arrested here and overseas.

Last Friday, the last person in the gang — former bikie Agapitos (Pete) Megaloudis, known to police as “fat Pete” — was sentenced to 18 months home detention.

Details of the operation that had been suppressed by the courts can now be revealed.

On seized computers, police found programs capable of producing fake $50 notes; on mobile phones there were pictures of real $50 notes and serial numbers. The fear is the files may have been passed on to other crooks.

AFP Sergeant Neal Rogers said the operation had not been going long when authorities, including the Reserve Bank of Australia, became aware of an influx of counterfeit money.

On April 27, 2010, four days before Nick Megaloudis bought the burgers, the AFP received a report from the Reserve Bank asking it to “investigate high-quality fake banknotes’’.

In August 2011, telephone intercepts heard Okkerse discussing details of visiting small tourist towns in the US to offload the currency. They also talked about other countries that could be targeted.

An associate of Okkerse had been sent to the US to off-load the dodgy dough but came unstuck when one of the notes among the $3300 he tried to pass at a money exchange was “purple’’.

To read the complete article, see: Hungry for money. How a burger and fries takeout at Hungry Jack’s brought down $1 million faker Fat Pete and Australia’s biggest counterfeit money operation (www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/hungry-for-money-how-a-burger-and-fries-takeout-at-hungry-jacks-brought-down-1-million-faker-fat-pete-and-australias-biggest-counterfeit-money-operation/story-fni0cx12-1226856394215)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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