Reacher TV series -- Is this crime doable? (Spoilers in OP and beyond)

Cafe Society
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Disclaimer: I haven’t read the books or seen any of the Tom Cruise movies.

My question is about the crime in Season One of the Reacher, the 8-epsode TV series starring
built-like-a brick-refrigerator Alan Ritchson.

I just binged Season One over two nights. LOTS of killing (but in fairness, most [not all] of them were bad guys who really needed killing), some humor, some character background, and a bit of sex. In summary, Reacher is a monosyllabic, straight arrow, man of honor and is quite likeable.

Spoiler follows.

The crime that Reacher, et al., finally uncover is pretty g.d. clever. I want to know if anyone has done or is doing this. It’s a massive counterfeiting operation. Here’s how the bad guys solved the paper problem. Unlike the currency of other countries, US bills are all the same size, no matter the denomination. The crooks collect small denomination US currency (mostly ones, not sure if others), wash off the ink, then reprint the bills as pre-1990 $100s (before metallic thread). They don’t circulate the bogus bills in the US, but ship them overseas where they are purchased by other bad guys–drug lords, traffickers, terrorists, hell, Satan himself for all I know. The point is that this denomination is what international criminals favor in their transactions.

Could this be done?

If I have described the counterfeiting operation incorrectly, someone please correct me. Also, other comments about the series welcome.

Yeah, there were action-show/cop-show cliches, but that didn’t bother me. The head bad guy was played by San Antonio native Bruce McGill (he was the guy who rode the motorcycle up the stairs in Animal House.) I liked both women characters, because each was highly competent but also loyal and relatable. I seriously wanted peach pie when the final episode was over. The dog was okay.

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Absolutely.

The cash office where I work has actual samples of counterfeit bills used in training cashiers to recognize the real fake thing. Have a very nice “$100” bill with a Lincoln watermark. Why they bleached a $5 instead of a $1 I have no clue but not only is it possible people actually have done this. And I have held the actual item in my own hands.

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WAG, so it would have the imbedded security strip.

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:astonished: Wow.

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It looks like bleaching US currency for counterfeit purposes goes back to at least 2010.

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Yes. There are other security features of course, but mostly on newer bills, and overseas they arent as rigorous.

They have the issue of too much cash, they wouldnt want more.

The major issue is using them overseas- who would buy them in bulk? And the buying would have to be in wired money, and of course that is traced. Buying the wire has cash limits and the US Fed track funds liek that.

So, if you took several hundred thou and bought rights to land and had contractors build your house in say- Mexico or some other South of the Border nation (paying for everything in cash)- fine.

I guess you could buy gold and ship it back.

Depositing it into bank accounts has the same issue with American money laundering laws.

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Most certainly prior to this being seen as necessary,

U.S. currency paper is composed of 25% linen and 75% cotton, with red and blue fibers distributed randomly throughout to make imitation more difficult. The paper is made specifically for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing by Crane Currency in Dalton, Massachusetts and it is illegal for anyone other than BEP to possess this paper.
https://www.bep.gov/currency/how-money-is-made

Maybe not surprisingly, information about US currency ‘paper’ isn’t just a simple Google away!
I’d bet the red and blue fibers are an anti bleaching measure.

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People South of the Border know how to check that those $100 bills are genuine, too; perhaps even more so than Americans.

You’ve seen To Live and Die in L.A., right? :slight_smile:

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Be suspicious of anyone that has a poker chip collection but owns no cards!

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I would expect there are foreign manufacturers who would manufacture this paper or a close imitation.

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I’ll note that Season 1 of Reacher was based off the plot of the first novel in the book series that inspired the show.

The counterfeiting operation in the book seems to be pretty much the same as it was in the TV show.

The book came out in 1997. The article that @crowmanyclouds linked to is from 2010 and calls it a “new” technique. Is it possible the book was published before this practice was being used by criminals in real life? Might it have inspired it?

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The fibers have been there since I was a kid in the 1960s. And perhaps from long before then. They’re a simple anti-counterfeiting measure from way back when since they don’t exist in ordinary paper and are too fine to print.

I’m not sure how well they do or don’t survive bleach. They definitely are not a recent anti-bleaching measure but may be a legacy anti-bleaching measure.

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I doubt they need to send the fake notes to the USA:

The rest of the world holds a great deal of U.S. currency, i.e., cash. Although the amount can’t be precisely tracked, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors recently estimated that foreigners held $950 billion in U.S. banknotes at the end of the first quarter of 2021, or about 45% of all Federal Reserve notes outstanding, including two-thirds of all $100 bills.

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/oct/innocent-greenbacks-abroad-us-currency-held-internationally

There is no way of knowing how many fake Benjamins are in circulation outside of Nort America.

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My mom has traveled extensively, all over the world. And she’s reported that, everywhere she went, the locals were all happy to get American currency, but they always wanted it to be crisp, brand-new bills. They wouldn’t be interested in decades-old Benjamins.

This might be partly due to the fact that the US is an outlier, among nations, in never demonetising old currency. In most of the world, a decades-old bill might be worth something as a collector’s item, but it won’t be worth face value as currency.

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True, lots of USD outside the uSA. But my point is- you know how $10M USD somewhere (pick a country). What are you gonna do with it now?

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Buy something that you can sell on for genuine currency. I read somewhere that dealers who sell high-end motorcars are used to cash buyers.

Of course, since you are a criminal, you may well have “employees” who would be happy to be paid in USD rather than TRY or RUB.

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In the USA, and most nations, this also requires a form for cash purchases over $10000. In the USA it’s a F8300.

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Is that the stock F8300? Are you sure you don’t want the F8300 Elite Edition, with the tow package and the heated seats? And hey, I can get one for you without cruise control, if you really insist, but we’ve got one with cruise control right here on the lot, you could take it home this afternoon.

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There is no legal limit for cash payments in the UK.