Police arrest suspected counterfeiter in sophisticated scheme

Scott Sonner

Wednesday, March 8, 2000 | 9:18 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - A man suspected of printing $1 million worth of counterfeit checks in Nevada was arrested after an alleged accomplice was stopped in a rental truck paid for with a fake check.

The traffic stop late Monday led police to a Motel 8 where they found the suspect, Jerry Lee Euritt, 36 of Sacramento, Calif., with other people's personal bank account information.

"This guy had a very sophisticated (computer) system that allowed him to basically counterfeit anything," said Detective Sgt. Todd Shipley of the Reno Police Department's Financial Crimes Unit. "He had some extremely high-end equipment that I wish I had."

Euritt was charged Tuesday with 10 counts of forgery, 10 counts of possession of a forged instrument, 10 counts of obtaining and using personal identifying information of another and one count of counterfeiting seals.

Shipley said Euritt is suspected to have been involved in the manufacturing and passing of more than $500,000 worth of counterfeit checks in the Reno area and a similar amount in the Las Vegas area over the past two years.

"He was getting information from behind businesses, primarily banks, from their trash cans and using that personal identifying information to fabricate checks," he said.

The counterfeits were so good that most bank tellers and law enforcement authorities wouldn't be able to tell them from the real thing, he said.

The joint investigation with the U.S. Secret Service will lead to the clearing of several hundred cases of fraud against Reno businesses, Shipley said.

Investigators knew for some time they were dealing with one individual or group based on the handwriting on the checks and their style, he said.

Lyna Guadalupe Suarez, 29, the driver of the rental truck, was charged with one count of possession of a stolen vehicle. Police listed no hometown for either.

Reno police stopped Suarez in the stolen rental truck Tuesday and determined it originally had been rented with a counterfeit check using a local resident's bank information.

They obtained a search warrant and served it at the motel where Euritt and a second alleged accomplice, Bunnie Lee Hatt, 31, were living. Euritt had a camera set up outside his room to see people approaching, said Shipley.

"He didn't answer the door and we had to break it down and we found he had been watching us on a television monitor," Shipley said.

Hatt was charged with one count of possession of a forged instrument and one count of uttering a forged instrument.

Like many recent Nevada counterfeiting cases, the suspects were drug abusers apparently using the money to buy methamphetamine, he said.

But Euritt was "not like most criminals," he said.

"He is very computer literate. He understands the art side of doing this," Shipley said. He had the same kind of laser printer Reno police recently purchased for $2,500 and a variety of high-speed scanners.

"It's not the kind of stuff you'd got down to the local Office Depot and buy for $1,000."