Son and father accused of printing fake banknotes ‘to pay for daughter’s medical bills’

An unemployed man has been arrested along with his father in southeast China for allegedly producing and selling counterfeit banknotes to raise cash for his daughter’s medical bills.

Police raided their home in Lixin county, Anhui province in May – confiscating 2.5 million yuan (US$365,000) of fake cash – and the men have been detained since then, Bozhou Evening News reported on Saturday.

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The 26-year-old man told police he had set up the operation with his father, 46, because he needed money to pay for treatment of his daughter’s congenital condition, the report said, without elaborating.

But the jobless man, identified only by his surname Wang, came to the attention of local police with his “big spending that clearly exceeded what he should be able to afford”, according to the newspaper.

“Wang had been researching the technology on the internet since last year and bought equipment so that he could experiment at home,” a policeman was quoted as saying.

Police said when they arrived at the house, three printers as well as gilding machines were running, churning out counterfeit money.

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Police found more than 240,000 yuan in real cash at the property, which Wang told officers they had made from selling fake 100 yuan notes for 8 yuan each, according to the report.

He said he had focused on trying to improve the quality of the banknotes while his father was in charge of printing and selling them.

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