Vermilion County man sentenced for Counterfeiting
URBANA — Jacob R. Kirkley, 48, of Bismarck, was sentenced May 2, to four years in prison for his second federal counterfeiting conviction, as well as an additional 18 months in prison for violating his federal supervised release, which was imposed following his first counterfeiting conviction.
When Kirkley completes his combined five-and-a-half year sentence, he will be required to serve three years of federal supervised release.
The sentences followed a trial last December in Urbana where a federal jury convicted Kirkley of manufacturing, selling, and possessing counterfeited United States currency. During two days of trial testimony, the government presented evidence to establish that, on Dec. 7, 2023, Kirkley sold an undercover officer with the Illinois State Police $1,000 of counterfeited U.S. currency that he had made for $250. On Dec. 13, 2023, and Jan. 8, 2024, Kirkley sold the same undercover officer another $1,000 and $5,000 in counterfeit U.S. currency that he had made, respectively. On Jan. 11, 2024, agents of the U.S. States Secret Service and Vermilion County Metropolitan Enforcement Group executed a federal search warrant at Kirkley's residence in Bismarck and recovered additional counterfeit currency, as well as various items used to counterfeit the currency.
At the time Kirkley committed those offenses, he was on federal supervised release for a previous federal counterfeiting conviction. In 2022, Kirkley was convicted of one count of manufacturing U.S. currency and two counts of passing U.S. currency after a 2020 incident where a Vermilion County Sheriff's Deputy found over $20,000 of counterfeit U.S. currency in his truck and then learned Kirkley had passed counterfeit currency at Carnaghi's Towing and McDonald's in Danville, and Dollar General in Tilton. At the time, the deputy also found over $20,000 counterfeit U.S. currency, plus four printers, a paper cutter, and numerous counterfeit-making implements in Kirkley's hotel room at the Budget Inn in Danville.
Kirkley served 27 months in federal prison for those offenses and was serving a three-year term of federal supervised release at the time that he committed his latest counterfeiting offenses. Kirkley was released from federal prison in May 2023, six months before committing these offenses.
At the time of sentencing, the government presented evidence that Kirkley violated his federal supervised release not only by committing a new counterfeiting offense, but also by testing positive for methamphetamine use on eight separate occasions. The government also presented evidence that Kirkley had told the undercover officer during a covertly recorded conversation that 'my name's a red flag for any kind of ... counterfeit material at all,' that he learned how to use 'Bible paper' to counterfeit currency when he was in federal prison the first time, and that he believed he would 'be screwed' and would have 'the book' thrown at him if he were caught counterfeiting again.
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