Supreme Court won’t decide whether fake money needs to look real for counterfeiting conviction

Court won’t decide if fake money should look real

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has refused to hear arguments from a Wal-Mart cashier who said the fake money she agreed to take from counterfeiters was so poorly made that she shouldn’t have been convicted of working with them.

The court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Crystal Porter, a Wal-Mart cashier in Seagoville, Texas, who worked with counterfeiters to pass off photocopied $100 bills in the store in exchange for gift cards. When caught, she was convicted of conspiring to manufacture and pass counterfeit money.

But her lawyers argued that the counterfeited money was so poor, no one would believe that it was real. Since the money doesn’t look remotely real, they said, Porter could not have conspired to make or pass counterfeit money.

The lower courts threw out her arguments.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the trial judge’s decision to refuse to let the jury consider whether the fake money looked genuine enough to fool anyone.

Her lawyers wanted the jury to consider whether counterfeiting includes making and passing fake money, or making and passing fake money that looks good enough to pass for real money.

The case number is 08-1109, Porter v. United States.