For more than three decades, Iranian regime has been printing billions of counterfeit US dollar bills, while back in 2017, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated a network of individuals and entities involved in a large-scale scheme to help Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) counterfeit currency to support its destabilizing activities. This network employed deceptive measures to circumvent European export control restrictions and procured advanced equipment and materials to print counterfeit Yemeni bank notes potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the IRGC-QF. As the dollar printing facilities which were bought by Reza Shah Pahlavi have already become almost old-dates, the Tehran regime now is attempting to buy newer machinery from various sources – including the United States through underworld network by offering five-times more price for printing machine, ink, paper and other requirements.
It also is learnt, in addition to its decades-old practice of producing counterfeit US dollars, the Tehran regime is looking to buy exactly the same machinery, paper, ink and other requisites for producing counterfeit Euros. Once such a dangerous plot of the Iranian regime is accomplished – it shall pose a serious threat to the American and EU economy.
For circulating Iran’s next-phase counterfeit American dollars and Euros, IRGC, in collaboration with a number of its franchises, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Afghan Taliban is setting up networks in Dubai, and other major cities in the United States, Britain and European Union nations. Furthermore, with the help of an underworld network, IGRC is also trying to establish links with casinos and financial institutions in the targeted countries.
According to a July 1992 report The Los Angeles Times, the government of Iran, in an unorthodox effort to ease its own budget deficit and make trouble for the American economy, is printing and circulating billions of dollars of counterfeit US $100 bills. The counterfeit bills, described as “nearly perfect”, are being circulated with the help of Syria through the international terrorist network and are showing up in Europe, Asia, Africa and the former Soviet republics, according to the report, issued by a panel of Republican House members.
But the Iranian regime denied the allegation stating it was not forging US dollars. British newspaper The Independent in its report further said, “According to the task force, the Iranian mint is using printing presses purchased during the Shah’s rule and American-trained chemists to produce the bills, which are being distributed through the Third World. Congressman Bill McCollum of Florida said Tehran intended to print up to dollars 12bn (pounds 6.3bn) of counterfeit US currency a year, also to help cover its foreign currency shortfall.
“The task force says the fake banknotes are being initially sold at half their face value, and have already surfaced in the Middle East, Europe and the central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. Syrian officials, it charges, are aiding their distribution through Syria and Lebanon. The investigators said boxes containing up to dollars 500,000 of bogus currency had been reported”.
In 1996, The Washington Post in a report said, “A Middle East counterfeiting operation is producing “the highest quality family of counterfeit $100 US bills Treasury officials have ever seen.
“It was the first government confirmation of what House Republicans, European bankers and terrorism experts have alleged since 1992: that a bogus “superdollar” is flooding overseas markets and undermining faith in the US dollar. A number of foreign banks have refused to accept US $100 bills, one of the most widely held paper currencies in the world, fearing the money may be counterfeit”.
In February 1996, Las Vegas Sun in a report said, “Before his 1979 overthrow, the late Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran bought and installed in the Tehran Mint the same kind of presses that his American patrons used to print the US greenback.
“Some members of Congress and independent experts now believe that the Islamic radicals who ousted the shah might have turned those presses into a weapon against their sworn foe, using them to produce the best phony $100 bills ever seen by the US Treasury Department”.
In April 2010, The Sydney Morning Herald in a report said, “At least $US4 million (US$4.3 million) in counterfeit American currency has flooded into Iraq since December.
“US military officials are unsure how much of the counterfeiting is simply criminal and how much might have been an Iranian attempt to influence Iraqi elections last month”.
In September 2012, Austin-America-Statesman in a report said, “At least $4 million in counterfeit US currency has flooded into Iraq since December, and US and Iraqi officials are trying to determine how much of the counterfeiting is purely criminal and how much might be an Iranian attempt to influence Iraqi politics.
“Though some of the bills were crudely made and easily detected, US military officials said, much of the money seized so far has been sophisticated fake $100 notes that require special printing presses, ink and paper.
“In the Middle East, such capabilities typically belong to Iran and its proxies, notably branches of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, the officers said, citing recent briefings from the US Secret Service”.
In September 2018 report Salaam Times said, “Iran, now facing a shortage of US currency, is smuggling US dollars from Afghanistan and replacing them with counterfeit bills, say Afghan officials”.
It further said, “Some Iran-backed individuals are injecting counterfeit US dollars into the Afghan market. Nearly 20 people have been arrested and brought to justice since the beginning of this year … [for] allegedly circulating counterfeit currency, including forged afghanis”, Popal said”.
In 2009, Vanity Fair in a report added a new name in the list of manufacturers of counterfeit US dollars, and it was North Korea.
And just six months ago, counterfeit US dollars, worth one billion, were confiscated by the Turkish law enforcement agencies in Istanbul. Until now, five countries are named as manufacturers of counterfeit American dollars – Iran, Syria, Lebanon and North Korea. Peru has also been added into the list of countries involved in this illegal practice.
The counterfeit bills manufactured by the Iranian regime are being circulated worldwide with the help of Syria. In Syria, the bills are packed in small quantities for distribution through drug networks based in Lebanon, where they are exchanged for as much as 40 to 60 cents on the dollar.
The Iranians have been reluctant to distribute the fake bills in the United States. According to information, only when Tehran and Damascus were convinced that their high-quality counterfeits would pass the scrutiny of sophisticated banks, counterfeit dollars began entering the United States and Canada. The counterfeit money has been distributed in the United States through banks that launder drug money, the report asserted. Generally high-quality counterfeit dollars are mixed with large cash deposits in narco-money laundering banks, making up as much as 10-30 percent of the deposited dollars. Most alarming fact here is that only a very small fraction of the counterfeit dollars is discovered or detected by the banks.
Counterfeit dollars manufactured in Peru are carefully created mainly in rural facilities throughout the Peruvian countryside using cheap labor and then hoarded in stash houses controlled by violent gangs in Lima. Once there, the goods are packed into parcels, loaded onto planes or hidden inside luggage, pottery, hollowed-out Bibles, sneakers, children’s toys or massive shipping containers bound for major US ports of entry, such as Miami.
The product’s ultimate destination, according to the US Secret Service, is generally New York, New Jersey, Boston and the greater Northeast.
It is here, federal authorities say, that a few powerful organizations pass the product to splinter groups that control the streets, reaping huge financial rewards before authorities have time to react.
It’s an illicit trade that bears an uncanny resemblance to narcotrafficking, and while there is some overlap between the two activities, this “product” has nothing to do with cocaine.
But the profits created by smuggling the counterfeit currency known as the “Peruvian note” – generally considered the finest fake money on the planet – are just as staggering, if not more so, according to the Secret Service. Responsible for producing and distributing an estimated 60 percent of the world’s counterfeit US notes, more fake American money comes from Peru than any other country, according to the Secret Service, which has been combating the currency’s rise since 2003.
According to Voice of America, four years ago, counterfeit US dollars, worth 20 million were seized in Peru, while according to Reuters, three years ago, another consignment of six million dollars were seized. There has also been another report stating counterfeit dollars, worth 30 million, were seized in 2016.
In a report, Washington Post said, Peru is making finest quality counterfeit US dollars, while it has already become number one producers of counterfeit dollars. Some media reports suggest – Peru is the “Capital of US dollars”.
Production and distribution of counterfeit currency of any targeted nation is a matter of serious concern as it greatly hampers the economy. At the same time, once any country is involved in this crime, it can obtain required machinery and raw materials through various ways, which may not come under the radar of law enforcement agencies of the victim nations.
