SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) – A man from Lodi, California pleaded guilty to attempted passing of counterfeit currency and possession of counterfeit currency, U.S. Attorney Kyle Reardon said on Monday.

Clinton Earl Irons, 33, made and passed counterfeit $100 bills throughout California along Tami Kishi Deanda, Holly Haworth, Joseph Deanda and others. Between January 2006 and July 2008, Irons and the others used $5 bills and transformed them into $100 bills.

They used a degreaser to remove the ink from the bills. Then, Irons, using computer hardware and software produced realistic looking images that he printed with laser. The counterfeited $100 bills looked almost authentic except for various security measures that can´t be washed out, such as the watermark.

Irons sold the counterfeit bill to others so they could counterfeit the currency on their own. He produced at least $30,000 in counterfeited bills. He was caught by a Lodi police officer who found a counterfeit $100 bill in Iron’s wallet. Some of his counterfeited bills have been found in Mexico and Iraq too.

Joseph Deanda was responsible for passing the counterfeit bills in Iraq. He got them from Tami Kishi Deanda who learned how to produce them from Irons itself.

Another individual involved, Holly Haworth was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Joseph Deanda was convicted to 18 months of imprisonment. Tami Kishi Deanda pleaded guilty on November 2009 and is waiting for her sentence.

Mr. Irons faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 3, 2010.