Local Man Sentenced to Prison for Counterfeiting

An Effingham man has received a Federal prison sentence for manufacturing counterfeit money.

29-year-old Jared Sapp manufactured counterfeit bills that were recovered in Madison, St. Clair and Effingham Counties, and as far away as Colorado.

Sapp's counterfeiting dates back to at least 2016. A number of businesses in Effingham reported in 2017 and 2018 that they had been paid counterfeit money that was later traced back to Sapp. Sapp would also use counterfeit money to pay for used goods on websites or applications like "letgo.com" and "craigslist.com". All told, law enforcement recovered at least 201 counterfeit bills manufactured by Sapp with a total face value of $4,715. The operation came to an end when Sapp was arrested in April 2020 with two printer/scanners and a pile of counterfeit $20s in the trunk of his car.

Sapp was sentenced Wednesday to four years and 10 months in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Effingham Police Chief Jason McFarland expressed his gratitude for all the work which went into seeing justice for this case, stating, “A tremendous amount of time and energy has been exerted, not only by our Agency, but by multiple other Agencies, in bringing this case to a close. Counterfeiting is not a victimless crime; several of our local businesses and individuals suffered financial losses due to Sapp’s unlawful behavior. We diligently sought to identify the perpetrator behind these forgeries and stop those actions in order to further protect our municipality.

Community involvement helped greatly in the initial stages of this investigation – businesses and individuals reported the crimes immediately and assisted in providing descriptions and video footage of the transactions which helped to identify the suspect and tie all the separate cases together.”