Bulgarian authorities dismantled counterfeit money print shop

A print shop for counterfeit money was disrupted by the Prosecutor's office and the chief directorate for combatting organized crime in a joint operation in Shumen, Northern Bulgaria. Two middle-aged men with previous convictions for crimes were detained, District Prosecutor Orlin Kuzdov said on October 21. The men were producing counterfeit dollars, euros and Bulgarian levs (BGN) that were difficult to distinguish from the genuine ones.

The counterfeit banknotes found had denominations of 50 leva (BGN) and 500 euros. They were made with precision and high quality.

Delyan Dimitrov, Deputy District Prosecutor of Shumen: "Apart from being difficult to distinguish, they have also passed through ATMs undetected... Very well made fake banknotes. According to the explanation that one of the suspects has given in the course of the pre-trial proceedings, 100,000 BGN were produced in denominations of 50 BGN."

Forensic tests are yet to be appointed on the equipment, which was used to test whether the money would pass through the banking system. 750 100 BGN notes and 1,000 500 euro notes were detected.

Orlin Kuzdov, District Prosecutor of Shumen: "This is a very serious attack against the entire financial system of Bulgaria and the European Union."

One of the suspects is in custody and the other is under house arrest. Both are accused of producing counterfeit money and of using machines for their criminal activities. Their punishment could be up to 6 years of imprisonment.

Images by Ministry of Interior