EFFINGHAM, Ill. (WAND)- An Effingham resident was sentenced to four years, ten months in prison on multiple counts of forgery.
Jared W. Sapp, 29, was sentenced in Federal Court on Wednesday for charges stemming from arrests by the Effingham Police Department in 2020.
During the investigation, Effingham PD received numerous reports regarding counterfeit money being passed at various businesses in and around Effingham between 2016 and 2020.
The investigation eventually led back to Sapp. Multiple search warrants were executed and yielded evidence of a large-scale counterfeiting operation.
Detectives partnered with the United States Secret Service and other area and regional Law Enforcement Agencies, including Effingham County Sheriff’s Office, Caseyville Police Department, and Granite City Police Department, to assist in the investigation.
During the investigation, Police discovered counterfeit bills with the same serial numbers had been recovered in St. Clair and Madison Counties and other states.
Due to the multiple jurisdictions involved, the investigation was referred to the United States Secret Service.
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.”
Chief McFarland went on to affirm, “Effingham Police Department has a long-standing partnership with the Secret Service, as well as a tight network of contacts around the state and beyond. These associations with others in Law Enforcement Agencies provided the teamwork which is necessary to identify, arrest, and prosecute cases such as this. It was a collaborative and time-consuming effort for all involved which ended with a just outcome.”
Police remind that all individuals listed as arrested or issued a citation are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
