A West Palm Beach counterfeiting case turned out to be ab inside job - an secret Service employee had been stealing and spending
counterfeit notes. -Editor
When U.S. Secret Service agents started investigating reports someone was going on shopping sprees with counterfeit $100 bills at
Macy's stores in Palm Beach County last year, they never imagined the culprit was one of their colleagues.
Cynthia LaCroix, 51, former office administrator for the Secret Service's West Palm Beach branch, eventually admitted she had been
stealing forged bills that were supposed to be burned or shredded. Though the agency is best known for protecting the president and other
dignitaries, it also investigates financial crimes, fraud and counterfeiting.
Earlier this year, LaCroix pleaded guilty to possessing counterfeit notes and lying to federal investigators when they questioned
her.
Authorities said LaCroix spent the phony money at local malls and pocketed authentic change. Federal prosecutors recommended she serve
12 months in federal prison.
But Friday, LaCroix's previously clean record and her tragic motive convinced U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra to sentence her to
six months of house arrest and two years of probation. He said imprisonment was unnecessary.
Sobbing as she apologized profusely in federal court in West Palm Beach on Friday afternoon, LaCroix said she stole the money so she
could help her son, who struggled with drug addiction for years before dying from a drug overdose. She is now raising his two young
children.
"I made really bad choices," LaCroix told the judge. "I know that saying sorry is not enough … but I did not do it for
myself."
She said she has been devastated and humbled by the loss of her son, the loss of her job, and the fact she will likely lose her
government pension after 30 years of service.
La Croix initially told agents she had been taking counterfeit money for a few months but later admitted she had been taking counterfeit
notes from the agency since 2010, prosecutors wrote.
"One can only imagine how much counterfeit the defendant passed in the four years before she was discovered," Assistant U.S.
Attorney Alexandra Chase wrote in court records.
I don't know what the procedures are in every Secret Service office, but that's one office procedure that has to change. The
notes ought to be immediately inventoried and defaced and/or cut up before going into a burn bag for destruction. -Editor
To read the complete article, see:
Ex-U.S. Secret Service worker
sentenced for stealing phony notes from agency
www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-secret-service-counterfeit-20150925-story.html)
Wayne Homren, Editor
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