A California man has been sentenced to three years in prison for washing the ink off $1 bills in a Kansas hotel room and reprinting them to look like $100 bills.
The U.S. attorney’s office says 51-year-old John Sebestyen, of Mission Viejo, California, also was ordered Monday to pay nearly $20,000 in restitution. Two other co-defendants previously were sentenced in the case.
They were caught after an Overland Park hotel employee reported seeing them throwing trash away in containers that weren’t near their rooms. Prosecutors say the suspects were trying to dispose of evidence that they were altering money.
Charging documents say they used the fake $100 bills to purchase items from retailers in the Kansas City metro area, including Target. In some cases, they returned items for cash refunds.