United States v. Welch, No. 10-4025 (6th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseWelch took genuine $5 notes, cooked them in a microwave, scrubbed the ink off with bleach, and used a copier to counterfeit $50 and $100 notes on the paper. Although counterfeit notes were passed in Ohio, Welch was arrested Arizona, convicted in state court of five counts of forgery, and sentenced to five years on each. He was arraigned in federal court for the Ohio conduct. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and pass counterfeit obligations or securities with intent to defraud the U.S., 18 U.S.C. 371 and three counts of falsely making, forging, counterfeiting or altering, or altering, and passing, obligations or securities of the U.S. with intent to defraud, 18 U.S.C. 471, 472 and was sentenced to concurrent 42-month sentences on each count: 24 months to be served concurrently with the Arizona sentence and 18 months to be served consecutively to the Arizona sentence. The Sixth Circuit remanded for resentencing. The court violated the Ex Post Facto Clause when it calculated his offense level relying on an amendment to U.S.S.G. 2B5.1 that became effective after the illegal conduct, but before sentencing, impermissibly subjecting Welch to a harsher sentence than he was subject to at the time of the illegal conduct.
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