Original subtitles

This is a CNBC original.

In this episode of American Greed, one man's bold scheme to get rich quick.

The opportunity was there for them to make easy money.

Albert Talton puts a modern twist on one of the nation's oldest crimes, making

counterfeit money.

This one was different because this was just a computer and several printers

that were utilized to print this large amount of counterfeits.

Dalton circulates more than $7 million in phony cash around the globe.

He was almost proud of what he'd done, his perverted version of the American

dream. And launches the U .S. Secret Service into the largest manhunt of its

kind. Secret Service kicked in the door.

They rushed in, guns drawn.

Whenever a new strain of counterfeit U .S. currency is discovered, samples are

sent to this high -security government facility in Washington, D .C., and

in a room known as the specimen vault.

Basically, our goal is to stay one step ahead of the counterfeiter.

Few people are allowed inside this room, but American Greed has given an

exclusive tour.

Here, in this archive of counterfeit money, forgeries are cataloged and

like fingerprints in a criminal database.

This would be an example of a pretty high -quality counterfeit of our current

style of 100 that's in circulation.

The knowledge gained from studying these bogus bills is part of the government's

ongoing war against counterfeiting.

At the front line is the U .S. Secret Service.

The organization is best known for protecting the president, but the

original mandate was to safeguard our money.

The service was created in 1865.

when roughly one half of all U .S. currency was counterfeit and the

economy was buckling. So this would be an example of one of our earliest

counterfeits, dates from the late 1800s.

Over the years, the Secret Service has succeeded in stamping out illegal print

shops at home and abroad.

Today, the number of counterfeits in circulation is less than a fraction of

percent. But businesses and consumers still face the dangers of fake money.

Counterfeit is like a hot potato.

The person who's left holding it is the one who actually loses.

You don't get reimbursed if you find out you actually have a counterfeit 20 on

you and you take it into the bank.

You're not going to say, oh, I'm sorry for your loss. Here's a genuine 20 to

replace it.

Counterfeits can pass undetected from customers to stores and back again.

Most forgeries aren't spotted until the money turns up at the bank. That's when

the Secret Service is called into action.

In 2005, the Los Angeles field office uncovers a new strain of counterfeit

currency. The bills are sent to the government specimen vault for Kelly

inspection.

Forensic examination shows that it was made with recycled newsprint.

Computerized enlargements reveal the tiny dots characteristic of inkjet

printers.

Counterfeits made with ordinary consumer technology are usually poor imitations,

but this bill is in a class by itself.

An untrained eye could easily mistake this for the real thing. At first

the details appear crisp and clear.

It seems to have the right color, weight, and feel.

I would say from a quality perspective and the level of effort that was put

this particular type of counterfeit that he was producing, that you were dealing

with an above -average quality counterfeit operation, especially from a

perspective.

And that spells trouble for the agency.

High -grade counterfeits are usually made the old -fashioned way, with

plates and printing presses.

That type of setup is hard to conceal, but a digital counterfeit operation can

be almost invisible.

Computers and inkjet printers don't take up a lot of space.

Nowadays, because the machines are so small, it can be anywhere from

living room or bedroom, even the backseat of a car. If they're just using

those all -in -one devices, they don't even need a computer attached.

Finding the printer behind this new breed of counterfeit will be like

needle in a haystack.

Special Agent Christopher Toledo from the L .A. Counterfeit Squad tracks this

growing number of forgeries.

It was very minimal at that time, you know, 20 to 30 per week at the very

By the end of the year, it was in the hundreds per week.

And most of the passing activity here in Los Angeles was in and around the

downtown area.

Over the next two years, the number of counterfeit $100 bills skyrockets.

The money bleeds from the L .A. area into the rest of the country.

Losses reported by retailers and private citizens total hundreds of thousands of

dollars each month.

Secret Service Special Agent Matthew Mayo is part of the Los Angeles

squad. Because of Mayo's ongoing undercover work, he cannot be shown on

The Secret Service worked multiple investigations on this case and arrested

people in this case that just couldn't lead us to the manufacturer.

Less than 20 miles from the L .A. field office in Lawndale, California, the

counterfeiter is hard at work in his secret print shop.

His name is Albert Talton.

The 44 -year -old has built a sophisticated counterfeiting ring made

trusted friends.

Talton's pal, David Goldberg, is enlisted to help make the build.

In a telephone interview, Goldberg explains how he got involved.

I just happened to come by the house.

to play chess with him one day and looked up and there in the oven was

I'm like, why do you have money in the oven?

And that's how I actually found out about it because he hadn't even told me

about it.

Initially, I believe he offered me $60 an hour to help him put it together.

Next in the ranks of Talton's distribution chain are two friends who

brokers selling the counterfeits.

Troy Stroud, who's already been in trouble with the law, is one of Talton's

dealers. They had a long -standing relationship.

I believe they actually emanated in prison.

And once they both got out, they kind of reunited, reunited in this conspiracy

as it may be.

Paul McCorry is another Talton broker.

He and Albert have been best friends since about the age of 17, 18 years old.

For the most part, he never really did dirt with any of us for the longest time

until this last case.

Talton's distribution system works like illegal drug trafficking.

Stroud and McCrory buy the counterfeit money from Talton for roughly $15 per

$100 bill. The money moves to lower -level brokers who sell it again at a

price. So it goes until the bill winds up.

in the pocket of someone who spends it in a store.

That person has paid as much as $50 for the fake $100.

The system keeps the money from being traced back to Talton.

Some of the other players, as you start going down the pyramid of distribution,

really did not know Mr. Talton. I mean, there were second -tier, third -tier

operations of distribution that had nothing to do with Mr. Talton, had no

knowledge of him.

At the end of the distribution chain are many of L .A.'s gangs.

Selling counterfeit cash works like a crime many gangs are already familiar

with, selling drugs.

Doing business with gang members also helps ensure secrecy.

It's easier to trust a gang member than it is to trust someone else because you

know basically a gang member is a criminal.

You don't rat out nobody that's either a part of the gang or nobody that you

deal with.

Amongst gang members.

That's something that'll get you killed.

Gang members are warned about how to use the money and not get caught.

The lower -level individuals that were passing the counterfeit had been given

instructions by the people that they had received the counterfeit from to only

take one counterfeit note at a time into a business, into a store.

The rest is easy.

Buy inexpensive items and get genuine currency as change.

With this system in place, Tolton's money spreads through L .A. like

Up next on American Greed, Albert Tolton sets in motion one of the most

notorious counterfeit money operations in history.

This is definitely the largest volume out of one digital operation that we've

seen.

44 -year -old counterfeiter Albert Talton is a self -made man.

He's taught himself how to copycat U .S. currency.

And now he's operating one of the most successful counterfeit rings in history.

In a telephone interview, David Goldberg, who helps Talton make the

counterfeits, discusses his longtime partner in crime.

He's the type of person that if he sees something he wants to do, he'll figure

out how to do it.

Takes the time to sit down and master things, but he's very cocky once he

masters it.

Dalton spent his childhood in Englewood, California, a neighborhood troubled by

gangs and drug dealers looking to make easy money.

The nickname is Englewood, always up to no good, because it's just crime

riddled. Drugs, drug addicts, prostitution,

typical ghetto type.

I mean, there are good spots in Englewood, but the area he lived in, it

nice street. But you can't stop the surrounding areas from roaming that

territory.

He never joins a gang, but he isn't immune to their influence.

We still grew up in the various neighborhoods.

Just because we didn't feel the need to join a gang doesn't mean you don't know

them.

After high school, Talton studies electrical engineering, but drops out

earning his degree.

Around this time, Talton begins dating Allison Sewell.

He always strived that he did not want a 9 to 5.

Now, whether it was being self -employed or just finding another way to hustle

besides the drugs or gangs, being gang affiliated, he always just...

Never felt like he was reaching his full potential by working for someone else.

Hustling to make extra money becomes a pattern for Talton.

Friends call it doing dirt.

The longer that I've known him, he's been doing dirt.

Most of the things I've been arrested for in my life have been either working

with him or something I learned from him.

But Talton isn't an average criminal.

He is intelligent, resourceful.

and has the unique ability to copycat just about anything.

I remember when he first heard the Bose radio system, and he was wondering how

he could get it in his car without using their speakers or whatnot, so he

actually took the Bose speaker apart, figured out how they got so much bass

of a little speaker, and then started making stereo speakers for his car from

scratch.

He uses his ability as another way to make easy money.

In the 1990s, he begins forging checks and lands behind bars.

He goes back to prison again in 2001, this time for bank fraud.

Assistant U .S. Attorney Matt Jenkins sees a pattern in Talton's crimes.

It became apparent to him at some point that his talent was financials. All of

his crime, maybe not all of it, predominantly had to do with money.

When Talton gets out of prison in 2004, it looks like he's going straight, and

he gets a job at a body shop.

Until one day when his boss shows him a counterfeit bill he's found in the

register. He said he looked at it, said I could do this better.

And so that's all it took. It prompted him. He saw something potentially

lucrative that he could do better, that he was good at, and he did.

The 41 -year -old is determined to copycat the bill.

To him, I guess it was just like breaking down that Bose speaker and

make something similar or better.

He just took the bill and broke it down and tried to figure out how he could

make it look as good as a real one.

Tolton buys an all -in -one printer and scanner.

The startup costs less than $200.

But U .S. currency is a tough nut to crack. Each bill has high -tech features

designed to thwart would -be counterfeiters.

Some of the things that have been embedded in the paper itself, the

paper, such as a security watermark and a security thread, those things, because

they are embedded in the paper, cannot be reproduced simply by putting a piece

of genuine currency on a copy machine and just hitting copy.

It won't reproduce anything that's actually in the paper. It only will

what's on the surface.

One more feature on $10 Bills and Up is color -shifting ink that can be seen

when the money is tilted.

To perfect the image, Talton upgrades to a computer with graphic software.

He just focused his attention on making counterfeit money, and he was always

trying to make his counterfeit notes better, experimenting with different

papers, looking at the way the ink was on the paper.

He would try to clean up the image on the computer.

Trial and error leads Tolton to this construction.

He prints the bills on two sheets of recycled newsprint and glues them

What that allows the counterfeiter to do is to actually print simulated security

features on the inside of one of those sheets of paper, which kind of gives the

illusion that those security features appear to be more genuine than just a

simple... printed simulation on the back of a counterfeit.

Ultimately, Talton's reproduction of a $100 bill is good, but not great.

One of the things that you'll first notice is that it does seem on the

to possess the security features that a genuine bill would have.

But a closer look exposes Talton's forgery.

So if you put the counterfeit next to a genuine and you look at the watermarks,

you can see that a genuine watermark does look... more like the portrait.

In comparison, a simulation looks more like an artistic caricature, like

actually had to sketch it out or draw it out.

Next to a genuine bill, Taunton's security threat is barely visible, and

no color -shifting ink.

But Taunton knows that most stores won't scrutinize the money.

Instead, they'll rely on a counterfeit detection pen.

Because genuine currency is made of cloth, And most counterfeits are printed

paper. These pens are designed to leave an orange mark on genuine currency and a

black mark on paper -based counterfeits.

But as Talton discovers, the pens can be easily fooled.

Talton finds that coating the paper with hairspray tricks the pen into leaving

an orange line.

He even discovers which brand works best.

He tried, like, White Rain, like a cheaper brand of hairspray to treat the

notes. And it didn't appear to work as well. So he switched to Aquanet

hairspray, and that worked better.

Dalton gives some of his bills to an acquaintance to test.

The counterfeits spend like the real thing.

You know, when a person at a retail outlet receives a $100 bill, looks at

runs the counterfeit detection pen over the note, it doesn't cause a reaction.

They assume that, hey, if the pen tells us that it's genuine, then it must be

genuine.

Talton's new scam is taking shape.

He is a smart and thoughtful individual, and the people who get busted and

counterfeit are usually the less smart people who make it and then spend it

the street from their house.

So I think at some point he probably did use it, but probably more as a test

than anything else, because he didn't want to get caught. He's smarter than

that.

He quits his job at the body shop, moves out of the hood and into a comfortable

townhouse in nearby Lawndale.

Business is so good, he can barely keep up with demand.

The word started getting out on the street that he had this product and that

product was working and passing through businesses and not having a problem

really with detection at the point of sale.

So that Mr. Talton's orders began to increase dramatically.

The experienced con man enjoys the spoils of his labor.

He invests in a home for a girlfriend in the expensive L .A. suburb of Woodland

Hills. He buys two Mercedes and an Aston Martin sports car worth more than $100

,000. He came by my office, and this was the first time I saw the Aston Martin.

Just based on his past, I kind of had a feeling he was doing something wrong,

but I just didn't think to that magnitude.

But Tolton's scam hasn't gone unnoticed.

Agents at the Secret Service Los Angeles field office are tracking the bogus

money. Less than $8 ,000 is recorded for all of 2005.

But by 2006, the number jumps to more than a million and continues to rise.

July, August, May, and June. It's just a small sample of what

came in through our office.

We saw the note start to spread not only from the West Coast, but into the

Midwest, the East Coast, into the South. And by 2007, I think that the note at

that point had touched almost every district pretty much nationwide.

The homemade money turns up everywhere, from upscale retailers and big box

chains to mom -and -pop operations.

The lost revenue creates a widespread ripple effect.

When someone passes a counterfeit bill at a store, first of all, that store

bears the loss.

In addition, the stores don't bear the loss on their own. They pass the cost on

to consumers, so it's higher prices for all of us.

I think everyone is victimized by counterfeiters. I think it's a really

crime.

Up next, every scam has a flaw, and the feds think they've spotted Tolton's.

In early 2007, counterfeit $100 bills are flowing through the country at a

frightening rate. Almost $1 million in counterfeit cash has been recorded in

first three months alone.

Secret Service agents know the bogus cash is coming from the Los Angeles

But after tracking down numerous leads, they're no closer to stopping the

counterfeiter.

Forensic analysis shows the bills are being made with an inkjet printer.

The fact that the counterfeiter is using ordinary consumer technology to create

such a successful bill is alarming.

It's actually much more time consuming to do it that way.

To us, it shows more effort on the part of the counterfeiter.

This is definitely the largest volume out of one digital operation that we've

seen.

But agents know something the counterfeiter doesn't. On genuine

are small letters and numbers on the front and back of each bill.

Those numbers correspond to the printing plates used by the government, and they

vary from bill to bill.

With this particular counterfeit, for some reason, those numbers were never

changed. So on the front of the bill, the letters and numbers that were always

seen were H2, H38, and those never changed.

The counterfeiter is copying the same bill over and over, and he has

left a calling card linking millions of counterfeit $100 bills directly to him.

The notorious H2H38 counterfeits have agents scrambling to crush the operation

behind them.

Assistant U .S. Attorney Tracy Wilcheson works with the Secret Service as they

try to trace the money back to its source.

An investigation into a counterfeiting group is frankly a lot like an

investigation into a drug organization.

You start off looking at the end users, the people who are passing the bill at

the stores.

And you talk to those people and see if they will tell you where they bought

their counterfeit. They wanted to essentially cut off the head of the

the printing operation.

They didn't just want to track down who passed the $100 bill at Macy's.

In order to work their way up the chain of distribution, teams of special agents

from the L .A. counterfeit squad hit the streets.

So we started pinpointing the different locations where this money was being

passed, and we realized that the notes were being passed one at a time.

throughout the city of Los Angeles.

Agents will have to chase down millions in counterfeits, one bill at a time.

When suspects are arrested, they're often gang members caught with a single

bogus bill. That gives them a plausible excuse designed to fool investigators.

A lot of the information that we receive is, I sold a car to somebody for $1

,500, and this is one of the hundreds that I received.

When agents push them for answers, they clam up.

The explanation from some of the people that I personally interviewed on this

case were that they were afraid.

They were afraid of reprisals.

They were getting the money from people in the neighborhoods that they'd known

for many years, that knew their families, that knew their brothers and

and they were afraid.

We were getting the lowest possible rung that were arrested here locally and

then trying to work that back up the ladder to the printer eventually.

Unfortunately, as our interviews continued, we were only able to progress

in the investigation before it was stalled out.

The first major break in the case takes place on January 14, 2008.

A man is arrested in Los Angeles after using 10 H2H38 counterfeits at an H

&M clothing store.

Special Agent Matthew Mayo takes part in the interrogation.

The suspect isn't a gang member and has no criminal history.

He was nervous, and I think he knew in the end that he didn't want to take the

rap for other people's activity, primarily the person who gave him the

counterfeit money and also the person down the line who printed it.

To turn up the heat, agents ask him to take a polygraph test, and the suspect

cracks under pressure.

We presented him with a lot of facts, a lot of evidence against him, and he

chose the right road, which was to come clean about it and to tell us the truth.

The information he supplies leads agents to lower -level distributors.

But they'll need people working on the inside if they want to penetrate the

heart of this conspiracy.

They convince a few of the suspects to go undercover.

We will have people who...

want to assist the government for a variety of reasons, we'll work with them

purchase counterfeit money.

They send one suspect in to buy more counterfeit money.

Monitoring his every move.

The seller is Troy Stroud, one of Talton's brokers.

The deal takes place at Stroud's million -dollar home.

Their inside man leaves the meeting with more than $3 ,000 in H -2, H -38

counterfeit bills.

Agents set up a second buy at a restaurant.

This time their man wears a wire.

Agents listen in as Stroud shows off a new product.

He gave a sample $20 bill to the confidential source.

We knew that if he could make the $20 counterfeit bill on par with how he made

the $100 counterfeit bill, that we were going to have a problem.

It was very significant because people, merchants, when they see a $100 bill,

their eyes light up, their ears perk up. They are paying attention to the bill.

They're looking to see if it's counterfeit.

And so it's harder for those bills to get passed successfully.

$20 bills don't get that kind of scrutiny.

Those kinds of bills would just get passed all over the country in a manner

was just frightening.

The Secret Service tracks Stroud's every move.

One day, they follow his white Range Rover to the drive -thru at a Popeye's

Chicken. Mayo has a hunch.

I immediately ran into the Popeye's Chicken, identified myself to the

duty, and asked if I could be allowed behind the counter.

Mr. Stroud arrived at the drive -thru window, passed a $20 bill through the

window to the manager. The manager then immediately passed it to me.

and I verified that it was counterfeit. She gave Mr. Stroud his change so that

we could further the investigation, and we continued surveilling Mr. Stroud

after that.

It was significant because it showed us that the $20 bills were being passed,

were being produced, and that Troy was involved in the organization from

soup to nuts. He was not only selling large amounts to...

confidential informants, he was also passing them himself.

Agents hurry to fit the pieces into the counterfeit puzzle.

Is Troy Stroud the printer and mastermind behind the operation?

To find out, they execute a controversial warrant known as a sneak

It's a tactic that allows them to enter in search of home without their

suspect's knowledge.

We just didn't want the case to die at Mr. Stroud because we had to tell him

that we were there.

We do have to give notice eventually, but we get a certain period of time for

the investigation to continue before we give notice.

While Stroud's away, an undercover team approaches his home.

Secret Service agents Manuel Puentes and Matthew Mayo return to the scene to

discuss their search with American Dream.

While he was gone, myself and some other agents had a professional pick the lock

in the back.

We entered the residence, searched for contraband, specifically counterfeit

currency. We did not find any counterfeit currency inside the

confirmed here that this, in fact, was not a plant. There was no counterfeit

being manufactured here.

That same day, the investigation takes a dramatic turn.

One of the agent's sources gets a call from Stroud.

Stroud is on his way to meet the counterfeit printer.

Agents tail Stroud to this townhouse in Lawndale.

When he leaves, Stroud calls the source and says he's got counterfeit cash and

he's ready to deal.

Up next on American Greed, agents set up surveillance outside the Lawndale

residence and come face to face with Albert Talton and his team.

They were oblivious that we were following them and watching them.

The U .S. Secret Service is closing ranks on a counterfeit money operation,

cranking out millions of dollars in bogus $20 and $100 bills.

The trail has led them to this Lawndale, California, townhouse and the man they

believe is the counterfeiter. To confirm their suspicions, agents prepare to

take out the trap.

Once someone throws something away, puts the trash in the trash can out by the

curb, then it's...

Public domain, anyone can go through it, anyone can look for it, and the

government can certainly come along and take it. And that's what we did.

Early in the mornings, we would come here when it was still dark.

There was not a lot of traffic, so we were able to retrieve the trash and take

it in plastic bags to our office, where we would disseminate the trash.

They've just hit pay dirt.

We found scrappings that were consistent.

with a counterfeiting operation that had some sort of image that appeared to be

counterfeit currency.

We found empty ink cartridge wrappers.

They find a prescription with the name Albert Talton.

So now we knew that that trash came from that residence and that the residence

occupants were Mr. Talton.

And a receipt from a Staples office supply store.

They visit the store and are able to track Talton's purchases through his

Staples reward card.

While Talton was racking up reward points for his illegal activities, he

also leaving a trail for the Secret Service to follow.

It showed that he was buying a lot of ink, that he was there on a regular

and that looking at where we were in the case at the time, all things

considered, it pretty much... pointed to the fact that he was involved in

counterfeiting U .S. currency.

On April 28, 2008, surveillance teams move into a hotel across from Talton's

home. Special Agent Matthew Mayo takes American greed back to the scene of the

stakeout. We had two Secret Service personnel up here virtually

16, 18 hours every day, and they kept meticulous note.

on everything that was going on.

From the get -go, Talton behaves like a man with something to hide.

He thoroughly washes his garbage can, unaware that investigators have already

found telltale signs of counterfeiting in his trash, and routinely moves his

small fleet of luxury cars around the property.

Agents suspect he coats his counterfeit bills with hairspray in the garage.

It's a trick that keeps detection pens from marking his forgeries, but it's bad

for his car's paint jobs.

Surveillance also gives agents the opportunity to get a good look at

accomplices.

Paul McCorry, one of Talton's brokers, arrives almost daily in a bright orange

Mercedes with vanity plates.

He uses its own key to enter Talton's home.

Troy Stroud, another broker, visits in his white Range Rover.

And David Goldberg, who helps make the bills, comes and goes on foot carrying a

red backpack.

At the time that this was going on here in the hotel room where we were

videotaping everything, we also had mobile surveillance units and vehicles

to follow Talton wherever he may go during the day.

On April 30th, Talton leaves his home with Paul McCorry.

Agents follow them to the paper supply store, Paper Mart.

They observe Talton loading large packages into his car.

After Mr. Talton departed, I went in and spoke with the manager of the Paper

Mart and received a copy of his receipt for that day, which showed that he did,

in fact, purchase three bales of paper.

It's enough paper to print $2 million in counterfeit bills.

And it's the same type of newsprint used to make the H2 -H38 bills.

At a second location, the large sheets are cut down to fit an inkjet printer.

Talton unloads the paper into his home.

I don't think they had any idea that we were watching them from the hotel room,

that we were following them when they went to the paper mart, when they went.

to Staples, when they went to different locations, they were oblivious that we

were following them and watching them.

Talton got really successful, and as a result of any successful business, his

demand increased exponentially.

And that's ultimately kind of what brought him down upon himself, because

needed to start getting more people involved.

He needed to go out more often to get supplies, because a lot of people were

buying it.

Selling counterfeit cash has netted Talton roughly $800 ,000.

Businesses and consumers have lost millions due to the scam.

And as long as Talton is a free man, those figures will continue to rise.

But agents must wait a little longer before they make their busts. When we

up to his house, we want to make sure there's money there and make sure he's

actually printing so we can prove that it was him and not someone else from a

different house.

What we were doing was making sure that we knew exactly who the printer was,

exactly who was helping him, and once we were confident that we could take down

the entire organization, then we moved in.

And then they get lucky.

They get word that Talton is preparing to fill a large order.

On May 8th, surveillance of Talton's home shows that many of the key players

present and accounted for.

We had Mr. McCrory in the residence, Mr. Talton in the residence.

We had Mr. Goldberg at the residence.

And based on everything that they had done during that previous week when we

were surveilling them, they had, you know, gone to the paper mart and, you

purchased more newsprint. They had offloaded it into the residence.

So all these things were pointing to the fact that they were actively producing

counterfeit. They could have been producing it that day.

I think once we knew that all roads were leading to this one house, once we knew

that this was in fact the printer, it was time.

Next on American Greed, special agents converge on Talton's home.

On May 8, 2008.

The U .S. Secret Service prepares to take down the mastermind behind a

multimillion -dollar counterfeit money operation.

Special agents are confident that the bogus cash is being made here, inside

Albert Tolton's Lawndale, California, home.

We knew exactly what we were going to do because we had been observing Tolton's

residence for early hours that morning from a hotel location right behind his

residence. So we knew all his movements.

With Talton are key members of his organization, Paul McCorry and David

Goldberg.

After a two -year manhunt, the Secret Service is ready to bust one of the most

notorious counterfeit money rings in history.

Agents move in armed with guns and a battering ram.

Assistant U .S. Attorney Matt Jenkins observes the raid from a safe distance.

I could hear Matt Mayo's voice yelling out commands.

It's like in the movies.

After doing a knock and an out, waiting the appropriate amount of time, then

break down the door.

Secret service kicked in the door. All I could do was stand up and lift my hands

in the air.

They rushed in, guns drawn.

Agents swarmed the suspects.

Mr. Talton was coming out of the bedroom.

I had my gun out, and when Mr. Talton saw that I was armed and face -to -face

with him in the hallway, Mr. Talton quickly went.

to the ground and didn't create any further problems.

In a matter of minutes, Albert Talton, Paul McCorry, and David Goldberg are

handcuffed. A quick search of the house shows they've caught the counterfeiters

in the act.

It just so happened that when they came in, we were in the middle of the

process. I think we had money hanging in the garage drying.

I know we had the glue process out on the countertop, and the printers were

going.

The best thing we saw when we were in there, went to the computer.

One of his rooms was made into essentially a counterfeiting factory.

You move the mouse, get it off, stand by, and there's a $100 bill staring at

your face on the screen. It's like, great.

Recovered $162 ,000 in completed counterfeit notes and nearly $1 .4

in partially completed counterfeit notes that would have hit the streets

probably in less than a week or two at the most.

You couldn't catch him more red -handed?

So we're happy with that.

Troy Stroud is arrested at his home the same day.

U .S. Secret Service agents have just made one of the biggest counterfeit

in the history of their organization.

All four suspects are taken in for questioning.

The evidence is stacked against them.

Goldberg readily confesses. I basically told him myself because I figured I was

calling the act. I might as well go and tell after trying to lie and say I was

just there playing chess.

I said, finally, okay, I guess I might as well tell you no already.

Albert Tolton also fesses up, but he still has a few surprises for

investigators.

What was most surprising is how willing Mr. Tolton was to accept the

responsibility and how it was almost as if he was proud of what he had done and

his accomplishments.

And he told us about how meticulous he was. He told us about the effort that he

put into it.

He told us about going to store after store to find the right paper. He told

about working on the security measures for the bills. And then he told us about

how much money he was making, upwards of a million dollars for all of the

counterfeit that he sold.

I just found myself very interested in him telling this story about how he did

it and kind of why he did it.

So at some point you're sitting across the table, uncuffed, with some guy

telling his perverted version of the American dream, where he's made a lot of

money and very successful.

But at the end of that conversation, you've got to put him in handcuffs and

him back down to jail.

Talton estimates that he made roughly $800 ,000 from his scam.

But because of the economic downturn, he's heavily in debt.

Banks repossess most of his property.

On August 11th, in the U .S. federal courthouse in Los Angeles, Albert

pleaded guilty to conspiracy and manufacturing counterfeit notes.

It wasn't a difficult case to prosecute. There was a lot of evidence. The Secret

Service did a phenomenal job in putting together a really good case against all

of the defendants.

They worked very hard to make sure that the evidence was there so that at the

end of the day, there really was nothing that they could do.

At Talton's sentencing, the judge considers the scope of Talton's

prior convictions, and also Talton's considerable intellect and skill.

I think the court recognized that and took that more than up front, that

who would have other options in his life to do something productive, something

helpful, chose a life of crime instead. And I think those are continually

decisions that Mr. Talton made.

Talton is sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

Sentences for his co -conspirators range from a few months to a few years.

Usually, financial crimes end up with lower sentences, somewhere below two

years, although it does absolutely depend on the amount of loss involved

kind of crime that it is.

In this case, Talton's sentence was quite high by comparison, and I think

reflective of his involvement and the huge quantity of counterfeit money that

put into circulation.

Stores report heavy losses.

The hardest hit are Target, Macy's, and Walmart.

In the final tally, Talton has circulated $7 .2 million of worthless

His bills had reached all 50 states and nine foreign countries.

Talton's former girlfriend, Allison Sewell, believes this will be his last

I think this is it for him.

Because his whole demeanor this time is just different. He's a different person.

I could see him calculating in his head what he could possibly do

to make a living for himself once he gets out.

According to attorney Mack Jenkins, for Tolton to go straight, he'll have to

take a hard look at his greedy past.

He wanted to have the Aston Martin and the two Mercedes.

Seven flat screens. And I think that kind of mentality is definitely going to

have to change because when he gets out, there's going to be no Aston Martin

waiting for him and his TVs are all gone and his houses are all gone.

From a phone inside prison, David Goldberg tells American Greed he's done

dirt, but he's not so sure about talking.

Hopefully this time will be the one that says, OK, I'm done, because he has the

intellect to go ahead and really prosper no matter what he does in life.

It may not be as quick as doing dirt is, but he has the ability to do it. I hope

he does.