Vermilion County Resident Convicted of Counterfeiting For Second Time

URBANA, Ill. – A federal jury returned five guilty verdicts on December 4, 2024, against Jacob R Kirkley, 48, of Bismarck, Illinois, for counterfeiting U.S. currency and selling and possessing counterfeit U.S. currency. Sentencing for Kirkley has been scheduled for May 2, 2025, at the federal courthouse in Urbana, Illinois.

During two days of testimony, the government presented evidence to establish that, on December 7, 2023, Kirkley sold an undercover officer with the Illinois State Police $1000 of counterfeited U.S. currency that he had made for $250. On December 13, 2023, and January 8, 2024, Kirkley sold the same undercover officer another $1000 and $5000 in counterfeit U.S. currency that he had made, respectively. On January 11, 2024, agents of the United States Secret Service and Vermilion County Metropolitan Enforcement Group executed a federal search warrant at Kirkley’s residence in Bismarck and recovered additional counterfeit currency, as well as various items used to create counterfeit currency.

In 2022, Kirkley was convicted of one count of manufacturing U.S. currency and two counts of passing U.S. currency after a 2020 incident where a Vermilion County Sheriff’s Deputy found over $20,000 of counterfeit U.S. currency in his truck and then learned Kirkley had passed counterfeit currency at Carnaghi’s Towing and McDonald’s in Danville, Illinois, and Dollar General in Tilton, Illinois. At the time, the deputy also found over $20,000 counterfeit U.S. currency, plus four printers, a paper cutter, and numerous counterfeit-making implements in Kirkley’s hotel room in the Budget Inn in Danville. Kirkley served 27 months in federal prison for those offenses and was serving a three-year term of federal supervised release at the time that he committed his latest counterfeiting offenses.    

Kirkley remains in the custody of the United States Marshals Service pending sentencing.

At sentencing, Kirkley faces statutory penalties of up to twenty years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine on each of the five counts of conviction.

The case investigation was conducted by the Springfield Division of the United States Secret Service, Vermilion County Metropolitan Enforcement Group, and Illinois State Police. Supervisory Assistant United States Attorney Eugene L. Miller represented the government at trial.