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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fake bills tied to suspects

Thomas Clouse Staff writer

The convincing but fake bills, in denominations from $1 to $100, came trickling in early last year in the Spokane area. But the U.S. Secret Service didn’t get a break until someone paid his rent with the counterfeit money.

That rent payment last June broke open a case that linked more than 13 suspects to investigations by the Secret Service, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, Spokane police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They now face federal indictments, said Kevin M. Miller, resident U.S. Secret Service agent.

“The people who are getting hurt are the small-business owners, the home merchants and the flea markets,” Miller said. Suspects “were making everything from ones to hundreds. It’s still trickling in.”

Those facing indictments of either making, dealing or possessing counterfeit money are Geven Albert Sutherland; Eric Allen Ripplinger; Dennis Joseph Sinclair; David Robert Waldvogel; Stephanie Ann Lee; Frances Ellen Hall; Pamela Kay Lightbody; Albert Lee Brooks Stewart; William Dwight Reynolds; Christopher Wayne Hardwick; Justin David Berger; and Leslie Brooks McDaniel, according to court records.

In addition, Waldvogel and Sinclair face federal indictments from the ATF on firearms charges. Another suspect, Kevin Wesley Nichols, also faces gun charges.

Of those 13 suspects, arrest warrants have been issued but investigators have been unable to locate Nichols, Ripplinger and Hardwick, said Steven Lowhurst, resident ATF agent.

He cautioned homeowners to record the serial numbers of their firearms so that investigators have ways to track the guns if they are stolen.

“These guns are being used by drug dealers to protect their trade,” Lowhurst said. Stolen guns “are a commodity almost exclusively used by the criminal element.”

The Secret Service keeps weekly and monthly totals of reports of counterfeit money. Early last year, reports started piling up in the Spokane area, Miller said.

“Throughout that summer we were just getting bombarded with them and we could not get a decent lead,” Miller said. “Our first break was Dennis Sinclair, when he allegedly paid his rent with counterfeit money.”

Based on information obtained from Sinclair, federal agents asked Spokane police to execute a search warrant at a South Hill home. Information was developed that led investigators to Ripplinger, who was one of two suspects who was allegedly making the fake bills, Miller said.

All told, Miller believes that Ripplinger and Sutherland made $25,596 in fake bills. “These two definitely knew what they were doing,” Miller said.

The money was used for everything for meals at Burger King to purchasing methamphetamine, he said.

During the same time, Spokane County sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Barbieri and Spokane police detectives were investigating identity theft and burglary cases that were tied to several of the same suspects and associates.

Barbieri and Detective Mike Zollars eventually linked 28 burglaries and the theft of 60 guns to Cole Shale and Donald Myhren, both of whom have pleaded guilty to multiple felonies in connection to those cases.

Those stolen guns were linked to Sinclair, Nichols and Waldvogel and that’s when the ATF got involved. “It was too big to grab everybody,” Barbieri said. “What helped us was that everybody took a piece of the pie.”

Jim McDevitt, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, praised the cooperation between all local agencies in obtaining the federal indictments. He emphasized that the April 19 indictments do not prove that the 13 suspects are guilty.

“People need to understand how we share this information,” McDevitt said. “Everybody wants to get to the end game which is get the bad guys off the street and prosecute the criminals.”