CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison for manufacturing counterfeit $100 bills and then recruiting girls, sometimes runaways, to pass the fake money so he could profit from his efforts. This is the “fifth time in just over eight years” that Marquise Shores, 28, has been sentenced for counterfeiting currency and checks since 2016, federal prosecutors said in a court filing.
Shores’ latest scheme ended on November 12, 2019, when Chicago police officers saw him and a 16-year-old runaway missing from Indianapolis walk out of his home and get into a stolen car, officials said. After the cops arrested Shores and the girl for being in the stolen car, the girl turned over counterfeit currency that she said Shores had given to her.
Federal prosecutors said Shores bleached the ink off of genuine $1 bills and then printed $100 bill artwork onto the whitened paper.
Following his arrest in 2019, investigators executed a search warrant on Shores’ home, recovering 3 desktop printers, 35 ink cartridges, a genuine $100 bill, seven $1 bills that had all of their ink dyed out, 34 counterfeit $100 bills with the same serial number as the genuine $100 bill, and two counterfeit $100 bills with a second serial number, according to a federal court filing.
Using Facebook Messenger, Shores recruited young women and girls to pass the counterfeit money in stores while he waited outside. He would pocket the genuine cash that the women received as change as well as the genuine currency received when the girls returned the purchased items, officials said.
“He committed this conduct week-in and week-out, ultimately manufacturing $92,000 in counterfeit currency and using it to defraud over 100 businesses of at least $84,000,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.
Shores was on parole for “five separate convictions in Cook County, and on probation for another conviction in Minnesota” when he carried out the scheme, which involved at least six women and girls.
In a defense memo to the court, Shores’ attorney described him as “a loving father, devoted son, and a protective brother.”
“Marquise Shores has an extensive criminal history. Yet, there is much more to the life he has led and the life he aspires to lead then [sic] the crimes he has committed,” the lawyer argued, saying Shores was diagnosed with ADHD and was found to have high lead levels in his system as a child.
Shores “voluntarily completed high school and obtained his diploma” and earned a heating and air conditioning certificate while on bail in the federal counterfeiting case, the lawyer said.
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