Marseille man jailed for counterfeit euros

déc 18, 2011

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Michel Vialle, a 51-year-old man from Marseille, was already known to the Marseille police for dealing drugs. So he branched out into counterfeit banknotes.

Nicknamed the « Canard », or Duck, Vialle started manufacturing euros, and the Algerian currency – dinars. Using stolen paper, he printed 20,000 50€ notes and 10 000 100€ notes and ended up with over 150,000 euros profit.

Vialle might well have got away with his counterfeit crimes had he not made two errors. The first was to be seen burning some of the counterfeit notes. A witness approached later, picked up some of the burnt 20 euro banknotes and handed them to the police in Marseille. Once they were found to be false, the police investigated and discovered Vialle’s second error. He had left a toothpick near the burnt notes – and it carried his DNA.

Marseille police, along with investigators from the OCRFM – France’s Central Office for the Repression of Counterfeit Currency – connected the banknotes to a theft of paper which took place in Marseille in November 2006. Armed thieves broke into a lorry carrying paper used for printing money and made off with the raw material necessary for producing fake banknotes.

Following the DNA trail to Vialle’s door, the police found all the evidence necessary to prosecute. In a small wardrobe, he had stashed 5 computers, 2 paper-cutting guillotines and 500 100-euro counterfeit banknotes.

Vialle’s crime and fake money could have led to an easy life. Instead, he’s in police custody, facing a lengthy prison sentence. His money making crimes carry a maximum sentence of thirty years in jail.