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The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) filed an indictment against three persons on counterfeiting charges. In a today’s press statement the prosecutor said that two were Croatian citizens, K.M. (23) and A.P. (21), while M.F. (40) had a dual Croatian and Bosnian citizenship.
The indictment was filed due to suspicions that the trio was circulating forged €50 bills. After the forged money was received from Croatia, the defendants were placing it in BiH. The Prosecutor’s Office said the defendants released at least 25 bills. The BiH Penal Code sets out a long-term prison sentence for this offence.
This is a second indictment within a month that involved citizens of neighboring countries spreading counterfeit banknotes on BiH soil. In late October, as the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) reported, prosecutors indicted three Serbian citizens. In mid-July, one of the accused bought a bus ticket with a 100 KM counterfeit bill. Soon after, the police caught up with them and after searching their rented apartments found another seven counterfeit bills.
In the first six months of this year, a total of 1.312 fake bills and coins of all currencies and denominations have been seized, representing a 76 percent drop from the same period in 2011, according to the BiH Central Bank’s records. The most frequently forged were 20 KM bills followed by 10 KM and 50 KM bills. One KM coins were most frequently faked followed by 5 KM and 2 KM coins.
Euros were the most copied of currencies, especially in 50, 100 and then 20 € notes, followed by US dollars and one bill of the British Pound (in the denomination of 20 GBP) and Swiss Frank (a denomination of 1,000 CHF).
Published August 24, 2012
