FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — Four people arrested last fall for allegedly printing and spending fake money have been indicted on federal counterfeiting charges, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Allen Vanover, 35 of Fayetteville; Mary King, 47, of Fayetteville; and Garrett Nichols, 31, of Lowell, are each charged with one count of uttering counterfeit obligations or securities.
Nichols and Vanover also face one count of aiding and abetting counterfeiting obligations.
April Stults, 26, of Fayetteville was indicted on two counts of aiding and abetting counterfeiting obligations.
Between October 2017 and December 2017, Stults, Vanover and Nichols printed more than two dozen 10- and 20-dollar bills and four 100-dollar bills, according to the indictment.
Fayetteville police arrested Stults, Nichols and King in November 2017 after investigators found counterfeiting equipment, fake bills and drug paraphernalia inside Stults’ apartment on Buchanan Avenue.
Nichols told police he knew Stults had been using a printer to make counterfeit money, and he took the printer to keep her from getting in trouble.
Nichols said the bag he took from Stults’ unit contained “funny money” that she and King had been using to buy pills. Nichols also said he tried to pass some of the fake bills at Sonic.
Police found several sheets of copy paper with images of $5, $10, $20 and $100 bills inside the trash bag, according to an arrest report.
Stults, along with Vanover, was arrested again for forgery on Dec. 6, 2017, when police learned she’d been printing fake money from a home in Prairie Grove.
Stults said was counterfeiting money to “get back on her feet,” according to an arrest report.
Stults, Vanover, Nichols and King were being held Wednesday (Feb. 14) without bond at the Washington County Detention Center.
All four have pleaded not guilty to the indictment. Their trial is set for April 2 in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.
Counterfeiting U.S. currency is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
