criminals: crime doesn't pay Frank: skill issue

His amazing ability to counterfeit money is nothing compared to his ability to navigate the legal system.

The twist? The farmer knew all along what Frank was doing, printed his own money when Frank wasn't around, and is now living it up on his own private island.

What a legend! This guy not only made the biggest amounts of counterfeit money ever, but he also made an elaborate system of protected steps and an amazingly clever defense argument to protect himself.

Fun fact. Because of Frank; The Bank of Canada realised just how easy it was to counterfeit American notes and changed its suggested regulation when accepting American notes as tender for Canadian businesses. We used to just accept American and give an exchange rate (their dollar was usually stronger) pretty much everywhere and without much thought of treating it different from Canadian notes (check anything over a $50 note). After Frank though the Bank of Canada put out warnings to all businesses to check anything larger than an American $5 note or just stop taking American notes all together due to them being so easily counterfeited compared to Canadian notes and other International Currencies.

I can't like this guy enough. Crafty AF, willing to put in the research, work, caution and patience, fully aware of the risk, but unwilling to let anyone else be harmed for his choices. More legit than governments who print real money. EDIT, or rather an asterisk* -His girlfriend was harmed. She had to go through the shock and grief of finding out her beloved was living a double life and lying the whole time, and losing the life she thought she had with him. Now I'm embarrassed it took me 2 days to realize that, because the same thing happened to me.

"Catch Me If You Can 2" it needs to be made, and this story is it!

Amazing how Frank had all these plans to get the paper, the printing press and even how to get out of trouble if he was caught BUT... never had a real plan to sell the fake money. Reminds me of these elaborate prison escapes where the inmate just goes back home and is caught later that afternoon.

The fact they wanted 60 years is exactly why I am so happy he got 6 weeks with his smart thinking and lawyer's help.

I can’t believe that Swiss company counterfeited the three hardest parts for him - the paper, the watermark, and the security strip! I’m guessing they no longer offer that service!

I'm a middle-age woman who has never been in any trouble or caused any trouble. What do you suppose it says about the Powers That Be and how they interact with us "common-folk", that I spent the entire video rooting for Frank and hoping super hard that he didn't end up in trouble? Yay Frank! lol

Small correction, Trois-Rivières is not a suburb of Montreal. It's almost 150 km away from Montreal.

It is just a very rare moment in history that such a finely written script, and even finer narration of it comes to pass, this episode should make Simon proud, and make him and his team feel that all their hard work and efforts, were truly worth it!!! Now, coming to the protagonist, Frank. I will put my appreciation of this point - wise, so that I can do justice to him. Point A - The method - here in lies a tale of methodical planning, suffering from failure and getting bogged down by refusals, but still getting up again, brushing aside frustrations and the overbearing fear of getting caught by the law, but still persevering for the cause. Mind you, he tried being clean inspite of having a crooked mind, but mind you again, in his school days he just wanted to make money and be independent. Point B - The effort - Frank proved what others wish to have, but fail on hitting the first roadblock, tenacity!!! As mentioned earlier, his attention to details should be taught in modern day legal business schools, and should be a Class 1 must read and must pass course subject for wannabe criminals, who just know how to flex muscles and flash a gun, to terrorize people!!! His methods all through his flabbergastingly interesting life story, is really heard to be believed!!! Point C - Damage control cum trouble shoot and humanity - Which person amongst us listeners can honestly say that we would not give up hope, when we are caught in the act, and are facing die - hard secret service agents and local police, with an international twist to it?? Breakdown is a must - do, is it not?? Herein Frank shows his character's other side, when the chips are totally down, think!! It is also proven that he was not all - knowing, he should have known that a crime in Canada involving US of A would give Uncle Sam a resounding whack in his backside, when he is just relaxing with a midsummer nap in his family courtyard of Canada. USA will no doubt, leave no stone unturned to get the person who is actually swindling it off it's own money, he will get extradited. But even in such a calamitous situation, he held his nerve, thought hard, and finally got away with it!!! Humanity, well, he never tried to put his girlfriend or the farmer in trouble, he managed to keep them out of his own travails, they should be, as I am!!! His life, and this incident, really deserves to be made into a movie!!! All in all, a not so evil person, but truely, a genius!!!

I recall this channel once remarking that criminals "aren't exactly known for their intellect" - I feel as though Frank thoroughly debunks that.

I can imagine Simon getting this script as a casual criminalist and going "hmmm, this guy's actually pretty smart about his crimes. he should go somewhere else. we only want dumb criminals on cas crim."

Okay... I know I shouldn't be rooting for this guy, but how can you not?

I’m amazed Simon was able to tell this story without cracking up. We need to blooper reel

In a previous life I was a printer. I was asked numerous times by people visiting the firms if I would ever be tempted to print counterfeit money (Pound notes), naturally I always said no. Technically of course it wasn't impossible (The paper being a huge hurdle-they now use polymer) but was very very difficult to do it to any degree of accuracy. What isn't widely known is the ink used is different to conventional oil based printing ink and has a particular property unique to itself. About thirty or so years ago a man in the UK had a press (I think that was a multi unit Heidelberg Speedmaster-NOT CHEAP!) in his large shed (I think he lived on a farm) and printed some money. But he came unstuck when he thought he was being tailed (He was correct) and buried the printed money on his land as well as the blankets (A thin rubber sheet that wraps around a cylinder to transfer the image from the plates to the paper). The problem was the image had imprinted into the semi porous surface of the blankets, so the evidence was there.

Why...Why is it always Switzerland when money is involved...Why always my country...😂

Credit where credit is due: he was genuinely concerned over getting people who weren't involved by their own will mixed in with his criminal activities. He could've just took care of the number 1 and let others drown, but he didn't.

In the 1920's Artur Reis printed so many 500 Escudo notes that they matched the number of legitimate notes of that denomination in circulation. The catch was they were printed by the UK firm contracted by the Bank of Portugal, so no one could tell which was which. That ended up being a crisis for the Bank of Portugal.

Thanks, Simon and the crew, another good story. 👍

What an interesting story! Bit of luck to catch him in the end too.

I feel like this would have been way better as a Casual Criminalist episode. A more biographical dive into the story accompanied by Simon's various reactions and tangents sounds awesome

Just a little note on geography here: Trois-Rivières is not a suburb of Montreal. It's actually 140 km away from Montreal. It's almost half-way between Montreal and Québec city.

The government doesn't like competition

I'm... I'm kind of impressed.

That’s gotta be one of the top 5 plea deals of all time

What a legend...and he is only did what Governments are doing every day with "quantitive easing"

This dude has cash buried in ammo cans everywhere. Haha, that's awesome.

I feel like this should be a movie

I feel.like this would have been a fun casual criminal to get Simon's reaction to how insane this is.

I literally laughed out loud at this one! Amazing. Had to believe he got off with it. Shows how broken the system is.

Darknet Diaries did a podcast on this guy. Interviewed him too. Wild story one of my favorites.

He farmed karma by looking out for everyone even remotely attached to his operation and cashed it in after being caught

Back when I was in college taking graphic arts, our first task was to attempt to replicate a canadian $5 bill. They weren't remotely fancy as they are now but it was still a whole lot of little tiny parts. basically, it was a Kobayashi Maru. But I always wondered if it was even legal to hold such a project, and if it didn't give some of the seedier students a gateway to study how to counterfeit properly. it's what got me to counterfeit some magic the gathering cards, though no real ones. my goal was simply to make customs cards indistinguishable from real ones in look and feel.

Please turn this into a CasCrim episode, a rare one with a happy ending. Poor Simon could really use such a script to read.

This was a roller coaster of a video. Woahh

Great story and told it perfectly

I can’t wait for the Apple TV series, starring Pedro Pascal…

As someone who lives in Quebec. I actually agree with his belief. I'd rather make money by doing illegal (minus anything that has to do with children and sex trafficking) to make money. Making money legally SHOULDN'T be determental to your health

The level of details he put into the planning is definitely something worth learning

There must be something that connects Franks with counterfeiting. I seriously thought for a split second that this was going to be Frank Abagnale Jr's story.

I thought this was a video on Jerome Powell

They told him to be careful because even these big time guys know when the tax man cometh hell hath no fury like the IRS

I'm surprised they haven't found a way to seize the ill-gotten gains. In the US they could use the rather sketchy rico laws to essentially arrest the money.

Well done Frank, this is proof that not all hero's wear capes.

Simon, I feel like this could’ve been a brain blaze video rather than an into the shadows one. Awesome vid either way. Keep up the good work

Still more honest than a banker!

Great video!! Of all the videos on criminals that I have seen I believe he is the only one that got away. He was very smart about everything he did. Compare what he did to what some politicians do with tax payer money. In Canada there was an indigenous man who worked for the department of defense as well as had his own business. His business was given government contracts for indigenous projects. His company was paid over $200 MILLION since 2015. He was paid $4.9 MILLION for 100 hours of work in two years. This fact was only recently discovered. As well a company named GC Strategies DID NO WORK for the government but got paid $20 MILLION! I hope Frank Bourassa has a good life!

Something about this story just had me thinking ‘go frank!’ This is the best story ever.

To think if not for one person, he could've unloaded all the money. And if he did, that would've been that.

I smiled so much at Frank's brilliance that my face hurts!

I’ve read that estimates are around one percent of US currency is counterfeit. I’m like, that’s just two zeros away from the truth 💵

The fact the he got away with this so long is amazing.

This would make a good movie!

Imagine the lawyers face when frank asked is there anything you can do with $200 million. I want to go to court just to say that.😂😂😂😂

Running a large scale quality grow operation can be a fairly stressful business endevor. That is what I heard.

so yes, crime is bad, blah blah, but we can all agree that we were unanimously rooting for frank, right? what a legend 😂

Thanks. Good moral of the story. Crime pays 😅 something great to teach our kids 🤣

5:05 The perfect definition of a business MONOPOLY. Thats cornering a market by means of tradable assets.

Wonderful piece. Well done.

Simon has such awesome content. Love how the number of channels has exploded. Its educational and fun to watch. I just love how he goes off script all time, its part of the entertainment like on Business Blaze.

His motto must have been "Fake it till you make it".

I like how the host states that the part Frank thought would be his “undoing” was asking the paper company, in Switzerland no less, to put a USA $20 security strip on the side. As if they weren’t aware from the jump what was going on. If someone is paying you really well to do a job, then that’s what you do and if you’re gonna do it, be exceptional at it.

Clearly an extremely intelligent and extremely careful man

The only thing wrong with this story is it should have been a Casual Criminalist, so Simon could go on all the possible tangents about money and scream "LEGEND!" a dozen times or so.

The purchase of the gravure presses are reported to the Secret Service. The Swiss would also report the paper to the Secret Service. I'm not seeing this going too far. Frank will ALWAYS be under close scrutiny for the rest of his life.

We have a 3 episode show here in Quebec about him,I recommend it :)

Citation Needed (Citation Pod) did an amazing episode on this absolute unite and referenced this episode as one of their sources. This king of crime, cardinal of counterfeiting is a legend! Oh, and he got the car back, too! Stars and Stones, the legend! Also, no, I am not co-host Tom C. from Citation Needed, Cognitive Dissonance, Dear Old Dads... or am I, lol.

I can't believe this hasn't been made into a movie. Wow!

So you're telling me one guy singlehandedly printed $250,000,000 of the world's finest US counterfeit bills, got caught 1/5 of the way through, admitted to just about the whole thing and reduced a 60 year prison sentence to a $1350 fine while also dodging extradition and simultaneously giving both the Canadian and US legal systems the middle finger and remaining a multimillionaire after the fact? Absolutely mind blowing. I'm not even mad. He deserves it.

All I can say is good luck to him. Hopefully the Secret Service leave him alone, although knowing there’s still 50 million in fake dollars I’m sure they won’t. But good luck to him

Holy moly i just found another simon channel😂

Unfortunately, i just learned Frank passed away in January. A mutual friend called and he told me after I mentioned this video to him.

I have to belive that Frank is out there with a new plan. He is going to get a pardon ,move to the US and run for Congress where the easy money will never end.

Man the less evil or less scary storys on this channel tend to be really interesting

What i fail to understand is how someone can be charged in the US when his crimes were all committed in Canada. I get that it is US Currency, but he did nothing on US soil.

His LinkedIn is gold

The best example to explain it's a LEGAL system not a JUSTICE system

This shouldn’t make me grin… but it does

I can't believe I haven't heard this story. This is one of those "I am not even mad, that's amazing " stories. And I was surprised at how recent. But despite the complex steps he took for secrecy, did he not factor in American extradition or was that conducted more in a grey area?

What a legend. He reminds me of Frank Abagnale.

The weirdest thing about it is that he had so many people involved... Yet since almost all were none the wiser, get got away with it.

Amazed this wasn't on Casual Criminalist instead!

A masterclass in OpSec. Bravo Frank!

Great story. Give your auther a few extra twents this week.

How did he figure out the ink, and the printing plates? None of his history provides experience in detailed jewelry metal work (the plates), or artistic understanding of painting/ printing (the ink). My brother was a printer for over 25 years mainly on German presses. You don’t just buy one and go to printing. Theirs settings you have to work out (plate pressure, ink application to fit the receiving surface, etc), that takes time and not to mention experience on that particular equipment. Not to mention they do breakdown and require a lot of maintenance. I’m going with the police on this one, he had accomplices from the printing press and jewelry business.

Someone who actually followed the "rules for criminals"! Wow!

Frankly, Frank seems to be a living legend.

I live in the USA, and I find it amazing you get more time for counterfeiting money than you do for murder

I highly recommend the book The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter, by Jason Kersten. It's a biography about Art Williams, another huge counterfeiter.

Have you uploaded this video before? I've watched it before quite awhile back or a similar one with the same story. Either way it's a great story and you keep the viewers interested.

Wow. What an honest, stand-up guy.

The dude is a god. Amen to him. Wish him and his family well. Enough said.

Okay just a couple things: 1. 75% cotton 25% linen is super easy to get. They sell reams of it at Walmart. Maybe at the time it was harder? But this exact blend is super easy to get now. 2. The printing press used doesnt matter much. You want a good quality one sure, but what matters are the plates for the press, not the press itself.

And Frank lived happily ever after and sailed off into the sunset what an awesome story

Great episode brother 🔥🔥

when is the movie coming out

😂😅 crime does pay, just ask the government. 😂😅