By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com
A Lodi woman was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to two years in prison for possession of counterfeit money.
Tami Kishi Deanda, 43, pleaded guilty on Nov. 9, 2009. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb Jr. sentenced her to three years of supervised release.
She is the final defendant to be sentenced in this case, which involved creation and distribution of counterfeit $100 bills, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento.
Between January 2006 and July 2008, Deanda, along with co-defendants Clinton Earl Irons, Holly Armada Haworth and others made and passed the bills throughout the Central Valley, according to court documents. To manufacture the bills, they used degreaser and other tools to "wash" the ink off crisp $5 bills. Then they used a laser printer to print images of $100 bills onto the washed $5 bills.
The counterfeit bills looked authentic except for various security features that remained on the washed bills, including the $5 embedded strip and the watermark of Abraham Lincoln.
Since the first counterfeit bills in this case appeared, more than $277,000 in counterfeit currency has been recovered. Bills from the series were recovered outside the United States, including one in Mexico and three in Iraq. The bills recovered in Iraq were passed by codefendant Joseph Deanda, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
In all, Tami Deanda produced at least $30,000 bills, the news release says.
Among other defendants, Irons was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison, Joseph Deanda to 1-1/2 years and Haworth to one year in prison.
Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.
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