Serial Counterfeiter Sentenced to Federal Prison

United States Attorney Ronald C. Gathe, Jr. announced that Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick sentenced Trenton Underwood, age 32, of Denham Springs, Louisiana to 36 months in federal prison following his convictions for conspiracy to manufacture and possess counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes, manufacturing counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes, and the possession of counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes.  The Court further sentenced Underwood to serve three years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment and ordered all instrumentalities used in the scheme be forfeited.

According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, in early 2022 Underwood and others made and attempted to pass counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes in exchange for retail and food items in the Middle District of Louisiana.  On February 3, 2022, law enforcement recovered over $1,240 in cut counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes, 66 pages of uncut counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes in various denominations, and items used to manufacture counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes including a printer with a $20 Federal Reserve Note taped to the glass, boxes of linen paper, printer cartridges, paper cutters and dryer seats.

This was Underwood’s fourth counterfeit conviction.  He had three prior state convictions for counterfeit and was on parole for one of these convictions when he committed the above federal offense.

This matter was investigated by the United States Secret Service and the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica M.P. Thornhill.