Arrests Lead to $17.7 Million in Bogus $100 Bills

Two men who spent eight years trying to perfect a true-to-life $100 bill were arrested in the Los Angeles area and $17.7 million worth of their bogus currency was seized, U.S. Secret Service agents said Friday.

It was the largest such seizure in the nation’s history, said Al Joaquin, assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service office here.

He said the reproduction achieved in eight years of photo offset printing experimentation by Harold Cecil Cooper, 56, of Buena Park and Wick A. Helmandollar, 40, of Salmon, Ida., was “of tremendous quality.”

Unfortunately for Cooper and Helmandollar, who were taken into custody in a City of Industry restaurant parking lot about 11 a.m. Thursday when they allegedly tried to sell $3.7 million worth to a couple of undercover Secret Service agents, the paper was not quite good enough.

It lacked the tiny red and white fibers of true bank note paper and was slightly thicker, making the fakes discernible when stacked.

But, Joaquin said, the individual bills were good enough “that the average merchant” would not be able to detect them as phonies. He said there would have been “an enormous loss to the public” if they had found their way into the banking system.

As it was, Joaquin told a Federal Building news conference, only about 25 of the bills were passed before the FBI got a tip and passed it along to the Secret Service, leading to the arrests and seizures. He said agents were “reasonably sure” all 25 have been recovered.

Mike Cohen, head of the Los Angeles office’s counterfeit squad, said $4 million in fraudulent $100 bills was confiscated from a Buena Park public storage facility Thursday night and $10 million more--along with plates and printing press--was seized Friday morning in Salmon.

The previous record for counterfeit money seized was $15 million confiscated in New York City in 1983, Joaquin said.

He said the pair bought their “high-tech” press in 1978 and set to work. It was not until about two weeks ago, he said, that they came to the Los Angeles area to market the fruits of their labors. They allegedly were expecting to get 25 cents on the dollar from the people who turned out to be undercover agents.

Cooper, a cement worker by trade, and Helmandollar, a bartender and amateur typographer, were arraigned Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Ralph J. Geffen on charges of possessing counterfeit money for distribution and sale. He set bail at $25,000 each. They face possible sentences of 25 years each if convicted.