RAPID CITY, S.D- Found guilty of forging and passing hundreds of thousands of dollars in counterfeit bills, a Rapid City man now faces more than three years behind bars.
Michael Ogden was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison with another three years of supervised release.
He will also have to pay restitution once the court has determined the full amount of fake money he and two others spent. At last count, that could be more than $120,000.
Presiding Judge Jeffrey Viken remarked on the quality of the forgery, saying it was some of the best counterfeit work he has seen.
Ogden used bleached $10 bills and his skills as a graphic designer to reprint them and transform them into $100 bills.
Lawyers for the United States government say the bills were able to pass normal means of spotting fake currency because Ogden used the paper material from actual money.
Target stores in Rapid City and Sioux Falls were among the biggest victims. Between the two locations, they identified $3,500 in fake bills.
