Masterminds 3.18 Money Maker

Masterminds 3.18 Money Maker
For almost five years in the 1990’s, university educated Wesley Weber ran the most successful counterfeiting operation in Canada—while still in his early twenties. A self confessed high school nerd and computer geek, he used inexpensive PC’s and simple graphics programs to create almost perfect fakes that fooled store owners, bank officials, and law enforcement agencies from coast to coast. He pumped over 20 million dollars worth of these extraordinary counterfeits into the Canadian economy. 
Wesley Weber
""This is an intriguing insight into the activities of a master Canadian counterfeiter. The subject of the article, Wesley Weber, is/was a distinguished hacker and cracker who used a combination of technological skills and social engineering to produce what is probably the highest-quality counterfeit currency ever detected in Canada. Even more interesting to note is the widescale effect this one guy had, since he and his confederates single-handedly managed to force businesses to stop accepting $100CDN bills, thus affecting literally millions of people. The story is a fascinating look at his brief career, and the dumb, shortsighted mistakes ultimately responsible for his downfall.""
Wesley Weber was a Canadian who succeeded in counterfeiting the Canadian hundred-dollar bill. Because of this, many stores stopped accepting $100 dollar bills until the note was redesigned. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, they are the highest quality computer produced counterfeits of Canadian currency to date.
This was one reason that the 100 dollar bills were redesigned to make them more difficult to counterfeit. The Weber bill is still taught in police colleges as the prime test case for counterfeit.
Wesley Weber was a self-taught mastermind who had spent years tinkering with banknotes to perfect the simulated images and security features. These skills earned him a conviction for cheque forgery ring in 1997, and another for counterfeiting $10 and $20 bills since 1999. He was arrested in October 2000 for passing a counterfeit $100 at an auto parts supplier, but was released on bail a week later. He pled guilty in August 2001, and received a five year prison sentence.[1] Weber was released from jail in August 2006. Accomplices Caporale, Kossum and Hodare all received two year sentences. They were released from jail in August 2003.
Source Wikipedia
The Wesley Weber Case
The Wesley Weber Case 
Wesley WEBER’s organization was based primarily in Windsor, and at a cottage in Lakeshore, Ontario. The group consisted of four core members, with a variety of associates. WEBER and Anthony CAPORALE, a marihuana grower, were the leaders of the group, while Dustin KOSSUM and Ryan HODARE were hired help who were paid $150 an hour. WEBER was a self-taught computer mastermind who had spent years tinkering with banknotes to perfect the simulated images and security features. These skills earned him a conviction for cheque forgery in 1997, and another for counterfeiting $10 and $20 notes in 1999. 
WEBER used a ring of associates to pass the counterfeits, and the group quickly became greedy and spent the counterfeits recklessly. WEBER was arrested in October 2000 for passing counterfeit at an auto parts supplier, but was released on bail six days later. He quickly determined that self-distribution had been poorly conceived, and sought out a former associate who had both legitimate and illegitimate business interests to assist him with distribution. 
WEBER moved his portable printing operations around to a half dozen sites, and police raided a marihuana-grow operation he was running near Sarnia in February 2001. During the raid, police seized CDs that contained digital images of the $100 notes WEBER had been working on. WEBER moved operations to a rented cottage in Lakeshore to try to evade police surveillance. Despite the attention from police, his spending habits continued. He bought vehicles, furniture, vacations and more sophisticated counterfeiting equipment. The group was printing up to $20,000 a day at the Lakeshore cottage. Investigators were able to place GPS transponders on WEBER’s vehicle, and determined that the Lakeshore cottage was a potential printing plant. Police rented the property next door and used it as an observation post. In July 2001, WEBER’s group arrived at the cottage to print an order for their distributor and was caught in the act. Almost $234,000 in counterfeit notes was seized, in various states of completion, and there were enough supplies to print $6.6 million more. WEBER pled guilty in August 2001, and received a five year prison sentence, while CAPORALE, KOSSUM and HODARE all received two year sentences. 
Source The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Blog