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Fake Canadian tokens linked to Mass. company
Michigan
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It is the largest scam of its kind in Canadian history, law enforcement officials say: a meticulously executed plot that for the last three years produced 5 million counterfeit Toronto subway tokens, silvery specimens so finely minted they rivaled the real ones produced by the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa.
For the people who sold them in Toronto's pubs, bingo halls, and outside the locked gates of subway stations at night, the bogus tokens netted a cool $9 million, the officials say. Now, after a massive international sting involving the FBI and Canadian authorities, the ring has been busted and the trail of fraud apparently leads to Massachusetts.
Yesterday, Howard Moscoe, chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission, said Canadian authorities are considering charges against a Bay State coin-manufacturing firm that allegedly produced most of the counterfeit tokens.
''It's our submission that this manufacturer should have known, had they been doing due diligence," Moscoe said. ''It seems pretty unlikely to me that somebody could produce a transit token and not check out who they were making it for."
Moscoe, FBI officials, federal prosecutors, and Canadian police declined to name the company because no formal charges have been brought. Moscoe said the Toronto Transit Commission did not want to jeopardize its legal strategy, as the investigation is ongoing. ''Only the FBI has talked to them," he said. ''We're preparing for a meeting."
Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, released a statement last night saying local authorities are also looking into the matter. ''While there is no sign of impropriety regarding MBTA tokens, the Toronto matter has been brought to the attention of the MBTA Transit Police's investigative unit for review," he said.
Until February, the alleged token scam ran undetected, by relying on an underground network of buyers, runners, and sellers. The operation began with the production of the dime-sized tokens in Massachusetts, authorities say.
Moscoe said the coins were perfectly weighted to slip through Toronto's collection boxes. Each one carried the Toronto Transit Commission's coat of arms, its motto (''Service, Courtesy, Safety"), and its name in bold block letters.
From Massachusetts, court documents say, the tokens were shipped in boxes of 20,000 via UPS and FedEx to Niagara Falls, N.Y., where runners loaded them into cars and drove them across the border. Once in Toronto, illegal vendors sold them wherever commuters needed them, for far less than the $1.90 a real token costs.
Canadian officials say they have busted token scams before, but never one of this scope, financially and geographically. ''There's no question it's the largest," Moscoe said.
The first break in the case occurred two years ago, when a Southern coin-making company contacted Toronto transit officials to say that ''suspicious guys" had approached them, asking the firm to produce tokens for the city of Toronto, Moscoe said.
Although the men slipped away, Moscoe said, investigators developed leads that have resulted over the last several weeks in 100 charges against 21 people, including alleged middlemen, vendors, and ringleaders.
In February, Toronto police arrested three Canadian brothers: Reginald Beason, 47, and Alexander Beason, 36, who were charged with fraud; and Alfredo Beason, 49, who was charged with possession of fake tokens. In a sting in Niagara Falls, FBI agents arrested an alleged transporter for the ring, Andrea Dawson of North York, Ontario, whom agents said they had witnessed loading boxes of tokens into her silver Nissan outside a car wash.
On Wednesday, Toronto police arrested the alleged ringleader, Ainsworth Slowly, 38, dubbed ''The Other Man" by the Toronto Transit Commission, and charged him with multiple counts of fraud. He has yet to enter a plea, police said, and has been released on bail. Canadian authorities have also seized two of the manufacturing dies allegedly used to stamp out the metal tokens.
Now, Canadian officials say they want to know whether the Massachusetts company was deliberately taking part in the scam.
''We don't know yet -- there's more work the FBI has to do," said Adam Giambrone, vice chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission. ''There's still the possibility [it was unintentional], but it seems somewhat unlikely given the volume -- and the Toronto Transit Commission is not that cryptic a name -- so you'd think it would be obvious what they would be using them for."
In the meantime, Canadian officials said they are preparing to dramatically redesign the Toronto transit token to prevent counterfeiting. Moscoe said the new design, to be produced by the end of the year, would include metal in two tones, similar to the Canadian $2 coin. Then, Giambrone said, transit officials hope to phase out tokens altogether and develop a ''smart card" similar to those used in New York and being introduced on the T.
For the people who sold them in Toronto's pubs, bingo halls, and outside the locked gates of subway stations at night, the bogus tokens netted a cool $9 million, the officials say. Now, after a massive international sting involving the FBI and Canadian authorities, the ring has been busted and the trail of fraud apparently leads to Massachusetts.
Yesterday, Howard Moscoe, chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission, said Canadian authorities are considering charges against a Bay State coin-manufacturing firm that allegedly produced most of the counterfeit tokens.
''It's our submission that this manufacturer should have known, had they been doing due diligence," Moscoe said. ''It seems pretty unlikely to me that somebody could produce a transit token and not check out who they were making it for."
Moscoe, FBI officials, federal prosecutors, and Canadian police declined to name the company because no formal charges have been brought. Moscoe said the Toronto Transit Commission did not want to jeopardize its legal strategy, as the investigation is ongoing. ''Only the FBI has talked to them," he said. ''We're preparing for a meeting."
Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, released a statement last night saying local authorities are also looking into the matter. ''While there is no sign of impropriety regarding MBTA tokens, the Toronto matter has been brought to the attention of the MBTA Transit Police's investigative unit for review," he said.
Until February, the alleged token scam ran undetected, by relying on an underground network of buyers, runners, and sellers. The operation began with the production of the dime-sized tokens in Massachusetts, authorities say.
Moscoe said the coins were perfectly weighted to slip through Toronto's collection boxes. Each one carried the Toronto Transit Commission's coat of arms, its motto (''Service, Courtesy, Safety"), and its name in bold block letters.
From Massachusetts, court documents say, the tokens were shipped in boxes of 20,000 via UPS and FedEx to Niagara Falls, N.Y., where runners loaded them into cars and drove them across the border. Once in Toronto, illegal vendors sold them wherever commuters needed them, for far less than the $1.90 a real token costs.
Canadian officials say they have busted token scams before, but never one of this scope, financially and geographically. ''There's no question it's the largest," Moscoe said.
The first break in the case occurred two years ago, when a Southern coin-making company contacted Toronto transit officials to say that ''suspicious guys" had approached them, asking the firm to produce tokens for the city of Toronto, Moscoe said.
Although the men slipped away, Moscoe said, investigators developed leads that have resulted over the last several weeks in 100 charges against 21 people, including alleged middlemen, vendors, and ringleaders.
In February, Toronto police arrested three Canadian brothers: Reginald Beason, 47, and Alexander Beason, 36, who were charged with fraud; and Alfredo Beason, 49, who was charged with possession of fake tokens. In a sting in Niagara Falls, FBI agents arrested an alleged transporter for the ring, Andrea Dawson of North York, Ontario, whom agents said they had witnessed loading boxes of tokens into her silver Nissan outside a car wash.
On Wednesday, Toronto police arrested the alleged ringleader, Ainsworth Slowly, 38, dubbed ''The Other Man" by the Toronto Transit Commission, and charged him with multiple counts of fraud. He has yet to enter a plea, police said, and has been released on bail. Canadian authorities have also seized two of the manufacturing dies allegedly used to stamp out the metal tokens.
Now, Canadian officials say they want to know whether the Massachusetts company was deliberately taking part in the scam.
''We don't know yet -- there's more work the FBI has to do," said Adam Giambrone, vice chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission. ''There's still the possibility [it was unintentional], but it seems somewhat unlikely given the volume -- and the Toronto Transit Commission is not that cryptic a name -- so you'd think it would be obvious what they would be using them for."
In the meantime, Canadian officials said they are preparing to dramatically redesign the Toronto transit token to prevent counterfeiting. Moscoe said the new design, to be produced by the end of the year, would include metal in two tones, similar to the Canadian $2 coin. Then, Giambrone said, transit officials hope to phase out tokens altogether and develop a ''smart card" similar to those used in New York and being introduced on the T.
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<< <i>''It's our submission that this manufacturer should have known, had they been doing due diligence," Moscoe said. ''It seems pretty unlikely to me that somebody could produce a transit token and not check out who they were making it for." >>
This man needs to read "The man who stole Portugal". A nonfiction account of a con artist who managed, through a few (badly) forged documents, to convince the firm that had the contract to print the currency for Portugal to print millions of escudos for him using the same printing plates. After all, why make fake plates when you can get the legal printer to make them with the real plates.