Texas Fugitive Pleads Guilty To Aggravated Identity Theft And Manufacturing Counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes

Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that Joe Eugene Loving (46, Texas) has pleaded guilty to manufacturing counterfeit Federal Reserve notes, false representation of a Social Security number, and aggravated identity theft. He faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in federal prison for the counterfeit notes and false representation charges, to be followed by a consecutive mandatory minimum of 2 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated identity theft charge. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to the plea agreement, on February 2, 2015, the Green Cove Springs Police Department received information that two individuals, later identified as Loving and John Thomas Humphreys, were manufacturing counterfeit Federal Reserve notes in their hotel room at the Astoria Hotel in Clay County. The two men had active arrest warrants for parole violations in Texas and were subsequently arrested at the hotel by deputies from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies found a counterfeit $100.00 note on Loving after his arrest.

During an interview with law enforcement, Humphreys and Loving stated, among other things, that they had been involved in a drug deal in Texas in December 2014 and had been on the run ever since. They estimated printing and passing at least $10,000.00 in counterfeit currency. In addition, they printed counterfeit checks using the identities of others.

During a subsequent search of the hotel room, agents located a box of personal identification information and financial documents belonging to other individuals, a printer/scanner/copier with counterfeit checks lying on top of it, counterfeit currency, and various computer media which had been used to manufacture the counterfeit currency.

A third individual, Paul Corbin Pennington, Jr., was also charged in this case for passing counterfeit currency. Pennington, a maintenance worker at the Astoria Hotel, loaned Loving and Humphreys his computer to watch movies. Loving and Humphreys used the computer to print counterfeit checks. Pennington confessed to law enforcement officers that he had passed counterfeit currency in Clay County.

Pennington previously pleaded guilty to one count of passing counterfeit currency. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 13, 2015. Humphreys previously pleaded guilty to manufacturing counterfeit Federal Reserve notes, false representation of a Social Security number, and aggravated identity theft. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 27, 2015.

This case was investigated by the Green Cove Springs Police Department, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, and the United States Secret Service Jacksonville Field Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin C. Frein.