A Mississippi duo has recently been charged with scamming a jewelry store in Pineville, North Carolina, by purchasing luxury watches and jewelry with counterfeit US dollars.
According to the charges in the indictment, Robert Lewis Elliott and Devin Alonzo Elliott, together with another person, went to the jewelry store on June 26th and instructed the employee that they intended to buy around $300,000 in high-end watches and jewelry.
The defendants allegedly gave a $1,000 cash deposit and agreed to return the next day to complete the purchase.
According to the indictment, when the two men returned to finalize the purchase, R. Elliott handed over a $10,000 stack of genuine $100 bills, which the store employee validated with an automated counter and counterfeit detecting pen.
However, the accused allegedly utilized a sleight-of-hand technique to exchange actual bills for a stack of counterfeit notes, then repeated the operation with the same stack of genuine bills until all counterfeit money was deposited in the safe.
When the store employee asked for evidence of identification to complete the transaction, R. Elliott stated that he intended to buy additional jewelry and needed to go to his car to collect more cash and identification.
The defendants then left with a Patek Phillipe diamond watch for $90,000, an Audemars Piguet watch worth $48,000, a Cartier watch ($25,000), and four Rolex watches ($76,300).
They also stole 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 may face up to five years in prison for conspiracy to pass counterfeit obligations and 20 years for passing counterfeit obligations.
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