Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Curtis Leon Abraham, age 47, of Pikesville, Maryland, today to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for creating and passing $11,680 in counterfeit currency.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Barbara Golden of the United States Secret Service – Baltimore Field Office.

According to his plea, on May 4, 2010, police stopped the car Abraham was driving because a check of the registration number revealed that it belonged to a vehicle that had been stolen from the Maryland State Police on April 11, 2010. Upon examination, the officer determined the registration plate was made of paper and counterfeit, and Abraham’s car was not the stolen State Police vehicle. Subsequent checks also revealed that the defendant's driver's license was suspended. Abraham was arrested.

Police searched Abraham and seized two counterfeit $20 bills from his front pocket, and more than $11,000 in counterfeit bills from a bag inside the vehicle. The currency was in various states of production, with some $20 bills partially cut out or uncut from sheets of paper. Some shredded counterfeit currency was found as well.

At the time of his arrest, Abraham was serving a sentence at a halfway house for violating his supervised release based on his previous federal conviction for bank fraud.

This law enforcement action is part of President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Secret Service for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein praised Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Herring, who prosecuted the case.