Canoga Park Teller Held in Counterfeiting Investigation : Crime: Paulina Tran, 23, is suspected of helping falsify payroll checks. Police say the scheme may have targeted up to 40 Valley-based companies.

A bank teller in Canoga Park was arrested in connection with a multi-million-dollar check counterfeiting scheme that focused on 30 to 40 San Fernando Valley-based companies with large payrolls, authorities said.

Paulina Tran, 23, of Canoga Park was arrested Thursday at the Bank of America at 22004 Sherman Way, where she had worked for six months, said Cpl. Wes Workman of the Long Beach Police Department. Tran is suspected of providing payroll checks to counterfeiters for about two months, police said.

Long Beach police became involved in the investigation after some of the checks were cashed at local banks, police said.

Tran was booked on suspicion of forgery and criminal conspiracy charges at Long Beach City Jail, Workman said. She was released on $10,000 bail about 6 p.m. the same day, he said. So far, police have arrested about a dozen people in connection with the crime.

Tran is accused of providing counterfeiters with teller-stamped payroll checks, which she either personally delivered or faxed to her associates, police said.

Using high-tech color scanners, computers, embossers, laminators and bank-grade paper, counterfeiters copied and reproduced the payroll checks, police said.

Counterfeiters also forged credit cards, cashier’s checks, identification cards and were involved in illegal weapons sales, investigators said. About $6,000 in cash, 27 weapons, false driver’s licenses and a few ounces of rock cocaine also were seized, police said.

Most of the checks, valued at between $900 and $1,000, were cashed by couriers, who received 10% of the profits, at banks stretching from San Diego to San Francisco, investigators said. As many as 30 to 40 Long Beach residents were cashing checks for the group, police said.

Tran was arrested as part of an investigation that has continued since Sept. 29, when 12 people were arrested at two locations in Garden Grove, Workman said.

The case was cracked by an undercover Long Beach police officer, who infiltrated a ring of mostly young men after a large number of counterfeit checks began turning up in Long Beach nearly a year ago, said Long Beach Police Sgt. Chris Marino.

Investigators have not been able to trace the money and speculated that the ring might be working for gangs with roots in Hong Kong, he said.

The counterfeit ring operated since October, 1992, using willing tellers who received a percentage of the profits for their cooperation, police said.