CUPERTINO (KRON) — A Cupertino man used US mail to send thousands of packages to people all over the country and overseas stuffed with counterfeit money, police said.
The alleged mastermind of this one-man counterfeit ring was based in Cupertino, police said. He is 43-year-old Eric Carl Aspden, of Cupertino, and he allegedly sent hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit $20 bills he was selling to customers by mail.
Aspden was arrested at his Cupertino home on Tuesday after he was caught up in a sting by undercover cops in Fairfax, Virginia, where the counterfeit 20s had been circulating. Seized at his home were printers, dozens of ink cartridges, paper cutters, and reams of 100-percent cotton fiber paper.
Deputies wouldn’t detail exactly how the transactions went down. But they did say he was selling the counterfeit cash for less than face value and is thought to have raked in at least a $100,000 a year. A lot of those fake 20s are out there in circulation, police said.
A former pharmacist, Aspden is facing five felonies in the case and more charges are pending.