Four Danbury men jailed on counterfeit money charges

Suspects held after Secret Service, local cops take down fake money operation
By Melissa Bruen
STAFF WRITER
Updated: 12/12/2008 07:09:30 AM EST

DANBURY -- Four Brazilian men living in Danbury were indicted Wednesday, one on charges of manufacturing counterfeit money and the others for having or using it.

Wesli Camargo, 33, of State Street, is charged with making counterfeit $100 bills, as well as possession of counterfeit bills, and three counts of aiding and abetting the passing of counterfeit bills.

Camargo told Secret Service agents he had been making $100 bills for about six months and selling them for $30 each, according to an affidavit filed in court. The Secret Service handles counterfeiting cases.

With the help of state and local police in Connecticut and North Carolina, the Secret Service found about 750 counterfeit $100 bills linked to Camargo, the affidavit says.

Three of Camargo's customers -- Epaminondas Jose Soares, 41, of South Street; Joister Pacheco Ataide, 27, of South Street; and Jean DeOliveira, 20, of Fairfield Avenue -- have also been charged.

Tom Carson, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said all four men are being held without bail and the Office of Homeland Security has immigration detainers on them.

Soare and Ataide are each charged with four counts of possession and passing of counterfeit bills. They were arrested Nov. 5 after police in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., found more than $35,000 in counterfeit money in their vehicle during a traffic stop.

Police also found a laptop, a suspected counterfeit Brazilian identification card, a counterfeit money detection pen, and a small quantity of hydrocodone, a prescription pain reliever, according to court documents.

Soares admitted he bought money he knew was fake from Camargo and then passed it off as real money in stores in Florida and throughout Connecticut.

Soares said he and Ataide bought goods with the counterfeit money and then returned the goods for real money. He also admitted they stopped in North Carolina intending to use the fake money that police found in their car, the affidavit said.

Secret Service agents in the New Haven bureau have been looking for the two men since Oct. 18, when they were contacted by detectives from the West Hartford, Manchester and Waterbury police departments, all of which had received complaints from stores that claimed two men purchased goods with suspect bills.

The two were caught on video surveillance cameras in a number of stores, according to the affidavit.

When agents compared money seized from BJ's Wholesale Club and Target stores, they found bills with identical serial numbers.

When they realized Soares and Ataide fit the description of the two wanted men, Roanoke Rapids police e-mailed their photos to the Secret Service in New Haven. The men are being transported to Connecticut to face the federal charges.

DeOliveira is charged with possession of counterfeit bills. He was arrested Nov. 24 after David Herstin of Katonah, N.Y., admitted buying fake money from him and ccoperated with agents by asking DeOliveria to meet him at the New York Sports Club on Mill Plain Road.

When DeOliveria showed up, the agents were waiting for him. They confiscated more than $6,000 in fake bills he had on himself and in his vehicle.

DeOliveria then agreed to cooperate with the agents, arranging an opportunity for them to to buy counterfeit money. DeOliveria led them to Camargo's State Street apartment, where Camargo was found to have more than $22,100 in counterfeit bills.

Agents also found a computer, scanner, printer, bleaching equipment, an ironing board, boxes of photo paper and source plates -- all of which they suspect Camargo used to to make counterfeit currency.

DeOliveria and Camargo will be arraigned Dec. 22, Carson said. A date for Soares and Ataide's arraignment has not been set.

"If convicted Camargo, Soares, Ataide and DeOliveira each face up to 20 years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the counts in which they are charged," Carson said.

Additionally, Camargo, Soares and Ataide may be ordered to pay restitution to the businesses they victimized, he said.

Contact Melissa Bruen at
mbruen@newstimes.com
or (203) 731-3350.

http://www.newstimes.com/danbury/ci_11200273?source=rss