Two men used a computer and a printer in their homes to pump out counterfeit $20 and $100 bills that they then used throughout Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, police said.
Ruben Almon Carranza, 21, of 504 Union Cemetery Road, Greensburg, and Christopher Patrick Showalter, 27, of 131 Altman Road, Apt. 2, Jeannette, will face a preliminary hearing March 17 before Greensburg District Judge James Albert on charges of forgery, conspiracy and illegal use of a computer.
State police at Greensburg said the pair passed fake bills worth more than $500 between May and August 2009.
Trooper Jason Swope said in an affidavit that both men confessed.
Showalter told police that he and Carranza agreed during a May 2009 telephone conversation to make the bogus bills using Carranza's computer and Showalter's printer.
"Showalter related that Carranza had a template downloaded on his computer that would allow them to print counterfeit money," the affidavit stated.
Showalter said he got nervous after the pair began making phony $20 and $100 bills in his Jeannette home, but agreed to let Carranza take the printer back to his residence, police said.
Showalter gave a fake $20 bill to another man, who used it at the Sonic restaurant in Hempfield in May 2009, authorities said.
A search of Carranza's home last July turned up a package of Southworth fine linen paper, a piece of paper with a $5 bill printed on it and a computer tower, according to officials. A forensic examination of Carranza's computer showed numerous files for counterfeit money, police said.
Authorities said Carranza admitted using a computer program to get images of $20 and $100 bills, then changed some of the serial numbers. He confessed to using several forged $20 bills at the BP service station on Route 30 in North Huntingdon and passing bad bills at a market in either Churchill or Hazelwood and during Greensburg Community Days, police said.
Carranza denied passing fake money at Lora V's, formerly in Greensburg, or at the Giant Eagle in North Huntingdon, where bogus bills also turned up in 2009, police said.
Investigators said three bogus $20s turned up May 5, 2009, at the BP station where Carranza admitted spending them. Five counterfeit $20s and a bogus $100 bill turned up at the Giant Eagle. Two phony $20 bills were passed in 2008 at the Orange Julius in Westmoreland Mall in Hempfield.
In 2010, a Secret Service officer gave police a list of other unsolved cases with bogus bills that matched those from Carranza's computer, court papers indicated.
They included $20 each at the Walgreens in Bethel Park, the Irwin exchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Mann's Drug Store in McKeesport and the Wal-Mart in Indiana.
Other bogus $20s turned up at the S&T Bank in Irwin, Taco Bell in Hempfield, Buy N Fly in McKeesport and a former National City Bank branch in Hempfield.
Police said two fake $20s were passed at Lora V's in 2009. The amount of bogus money used during Greensburg Community Days was not detailed in court papers.
The two men received notice from Albert's office that the charges were filed.
