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Press Release

Four Brooklynites Sentenced In Counterfeiting Caper

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Vermont

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that four residents of Brooklyn, New York have recently been sentenced in United States District Court in Burlington following their guilty pleas to counterfeiting charges. Today, U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III sentenced Lateek Cargo, 27, to timer served in prison, coupled with six months of home confinement. Earlier this month, Daniel Hyacinthe, 24, was also sentenced to time served, coupled with four months of home confinement. Also within the past several weeks, Larry Galbreith, 23 and Malik Delima, 22, were sentenced to 12 months plus one day in prison. The court ordered each defendant to serve a one-year term of supervised release and ordered the defendants together to pay restitution totalling $1000. Delima, who has been incarcerated since his arrest, is finishing his jail sentence. Galbreith was remanded to Marshals custody on the day he was sentenced.

According to court records, on the evening of October 18, 2012, South Burlington Police Officers encountered Hyacinthe, Delima and Cargo at a gas station on Shelburne Road in South Burlington after receiving reports from several businesses in the area that individuals in a car matching the description of the defendant’s vehicle had passed, or attempted to pass, counterfeit $100 bills. After reportedly obtaining consent to search the vehicle, officers found seven counterfeit $100 bills, receipts showing purchases earlier that day at Burlington-area stores that were paid for with $100 bills, and a color printer that had the capability of photocopying documents. The defendants allegedly made the counterfeit $100 bills by bleaching real $5 bills, then making a photo-reproduction of a $100 bill on the $5 bill paper stock.

According to court papers, officers learned that one of the defendants had been staying at a near-by motel. After they obtained a warrant to search the motel room, officers found 13 more counterfeit $100 bills and 28 bleached $5 bills. They also found Larry Galbreith in the motel room.

The defendants are represented to Federal Public Defender Michael Desautels; David Watts; Brooks McArthur; and Robert Behrens. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.

Updated June 22, 2015