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A duo from Mississippi who travelled to Pineville, North Carolina, to defraud a jewelry store has just been charged for buying luxury watches and jewelry using counterfeit US dollars.
According to the allegations in the indictment, Robert Lewis Elliott and Devin Alonzo Elliott, along with another individual, went to the jewelry store on June 26th and informed the employee that they wanted to purchase approximately $300,000 worth of high-end watches and jewelry.
The defendants allegedly gave $1,000 in cash deposit and agreed to return the following day to finalize the transaction.
The indictment says that when the two men returned to complete the purchase, R. Elliott gave a $10,000 stack of genuine $100 bills that the store employee verified using an electronic counter and counterfeit detection pen.
But the accused allegedly used a sleight-of-hand technique to swap the authentic bills with a stack of counterfeit notes before repeating the process using the same stack of genuine bills until all the counterfeit money was placed in the safe.
When the store employee requested proof of identification to complete the sale, R. Elliott said he wanted to buy more jewelry and needed to go to his car to get more cash and his identification.
The defendants then fled with a Patek Phillipe diamond watch worth $90,000; an Audemars Piguet watch valued at $48,000; a Cartier watch ($25,000) and four Rolex watches ($76,300).
They also took a rose Cuban link chain worth $32,000; a gold bracelet ($17,500); a bangle bracelet ($8,200); diamond earrings ($1,000) and 24k pointer earrings ($2,000).
If convicted, the two men face up to five years behind bars for conspiracy to pass counterfeit obligations and 20 years for passing counterfeit obligations.
