Carinthian Counterfeit Vendor Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

In Carinthia, a 34-year-old received three years imprisonment for producing and selling counterfeit Euros on the darknet. In total, according to the Public Prosecutor, the Carinthian created more than 6,000 50-euro bills. The man had offered a fake driver’s license on the darknet and had several weapons in his home.

The defendant had ordered many of the supplies in 2016. From China, he had purchased special printers for printing the counterfeit notes and paper that closely matched that of the paper on the notes themselves. Once he had obtained all the necessary material to print the euro look-a-likes, he started to do exactly that.

After three months of work, the counterfeiters had sold more than 2,180 fake euro notes. All 2,180 were purchased by 375 customers, according to “his balance sheet.” While the marketplace itself was not revealed during the hearing, the priesthood explained some of the details of the defendant’s entrepreneurialism. At the time that he had sold 2,180 notes, he had printed another 12,000 and had 3,100 set to be cut.

“For the qualitatively inferior fifties, I charged five euros apiece, for better quality nodes, twelve apiece,” the 34-year-old said during his interrogation by judge Oliver Kriz. By the time the defendant had collected $20,000, he purchased supplies for a new workshop.

Public Prosecutor Nicola Drinker explained that this was not an offense to take lightly. “This is not just about economic damage. The damage remains attached to each individual who receives a counterfeit banknote,” the prosecutor said. Already, a judge sentenced a 28-year-old who had bought counterfeits from the Carinthian. Kriz said that the defendant had explained the details to his customers and provided further information.

That information came out during the interrogation with the police, following the arrest. When the police raided his property and workshop, they found the fake driver’s license, along with other fake identity documents. They also found the cache of weapons, one of which was a machine gun, the Prosecutor said.

For the 34-year-old Carinthian, a prison sentence of three years was passed down as punishment. Only one of the three years is final, though. He may not be required to serve the additional two. The 28-year-old, another Carinthian, had bought 26 euro notes from the local counterfeit producer. For this, he received a fine of 960 euros and 16 months in prison.