Jewishguy
04-07-2005, 06:26 PM
April 7, 2005 -- A family of Uzbek immigrants was collared yesterday for funneling nearly $10 million in funny money through their Queens video store, police said.
Yakub Yusupov, 44, and his sons Eduard, 23, and Pinchas, 19, were nabbed yesterday at their home on 167th Street in Fresh Meadows.
Officials said the trio sold counterfeit $100 bills out of New Releases Video Coming Attractions, their film-rental store on Parsons Boulevard in Jamaica, over the last six years.
More than $7 million of the bogus greenbacks have been seized but an estimated $2.5 million is still in circulation, authorities said.
"Money doesn't grow on trees or anywhere legally outside of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
"It's essential to crush any tampering with so fundamental an underpinning of the nation's economy."
The probe into the Yusupovs, which began in November 2003, grew out of an investigation into bootleg DVDs and CDs, cops said.
Yakub Yusupov, 44, and his sons Eduard, 23, and Pinchas, 19, were nabbed yesterday at their home on 167th Street in Fresh Meadows.
Officials said the trio sold counterfeit $100 bills out of New Releases Video Coming Attractions, their film-rental store on Parsons Boulevard in Jamaica, over the last six years.
More than $7 million of the bogus greenbacks have been seized but an estimated $2.5 million is still in circulation, authorities said.
"Money doesn't grow on trees or anywhere legally outside of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
"It's essential to crush any tampering with so fundamental an underpinning of the nation's economy."
The probe into the Yusupovs, which began in November 2003, grew out of an investigation into bootleg DVDs and CDs, cops said.