Anatasios Arnaouti

Anatasios Arnaouti (born July 21, 1967) is a criminal from Manchester, England who led one of the most ambitious ever forgery operations before being jailed in 2005.

At the time of the arrest of Arnaouti and his accomplices, police seized over £2.5million worth of counterfeit £10 notes and $3.5 million worth of counterfeit $100 notes, but the total number of notes produced is unknown as their printing operation had been in production for several years, and was capable of producing tens of thousands of notes each day. The extent of the crime was considered so severe that it could have compromised the UK and U.S. economies.

In "Operation Gait", the UK National Crime Squad working jointly with the US Secret Service infiltrated and uncovered the operation in December 2002. Simultaneously a BBC undercover documentary team also infiltrated the operation and secretly filmed the printing presses in operation, providing information on the gangs' distribution methods which the police had not uncovered. Although the notes produced by the gang were not perfect, the gangs' principal difficulty was not in producing the notes but in getting them into circulation, leading the gang into carelessness in finding people to buy the counterfeits, which is how the BBC found the gang.

On June 14, 2005, Arnaouti was sentenced to 8 years in prison for conspiracy to make counterfeit currency, conspiracy to pass counterfeit currency and conspiracy to handle stolen goods.

External links

* [http://www.nationalcrimesquad.police.uk/media/article.jsp?id=109 National Crime Squad press release]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4087404.stm BBC News report]
* [http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/men/news/s/162/162271_downfall_of_10m_fake_notes_gang.html "Manchester Evening News" report]