Two Balinese residents were arrested in Surabaya, East Java after allegedly attempting to deposit US$1.5 million of fake bills at a local bank.
Oki Ahadian, who heads the criminal investigation unit at Surabaya City Police, said yesterday that the two suspects, identified as 42-year-old IWW and 56-year-old SMJ, had brought 15,000 one hundred US dollar bills and attempted to make a deposit. Bank tellers followed procedures while assisting them, during which they discovered irregularities.
“Each [US] dollar has a serial number, and after [these were] checked it showed that these ones don’t exist,” Oki said, adding that the bills were also imperfectly printed.
Authorities then took the bills for examination, and it was found that they were fake bills.
IWW and SMJ told the police that they obtained the counterfeit money from someone in Bali, adding that they have used the money for personal expenses so far. They traveled to Surabaya intending to deposit the money so they can write checks.
Under Indonesia’s criminal code (KUHP), they each face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
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