Man gets 6-plus years for $2M counterfeit Darknet scheme that hit Pittsburgh, Uganda stores

The former head of an international counterfeit operation will spend more than six years behind bars for a scheme that used the so-called “Darknet” to flood Uganda and the Pittsburgh region with more than $2 million in fake U.S. currency, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Ryan Andrew Gustafson, 31, also must pay more than $230,000 in restitution, U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady said.

Gustafson — who also goes by Jack Farrel and Willy Clock — is a U.S. citizen who previously lived in Uganda. He was convicted on several charges related to counterfeit currency, money laundering and conspiracy.

Prosecutors said that Gustafson’s counterfeit operation was headquartered in Uganda but also affected retail stores and businesses in the Pittsburgh region — namely, Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, Carnegie and McCandless.

About $1.8 million fake notes were passed and seized in Uganda, and another $270,000 made its way into Western Pennsylvania retail stores, with participants using and exchanging the fake $20, $50 and $100 bills mimicking U.S. currency for actual money, prosecutors said.

“The scheme quickly spread to cities around the country,” prosecutors said Wednesday in a statement. “The bills were being advertised, bought and sold on a Darknet website created by Gustafson called Community-X that was dedicated to the selling and passing of these counterfeit bills.”

The fake cash was disguised in “Give a Child Hope Today” pamphlets shipped to online buyers using forums via the Darknet or “dark web” — terms that describe hard-to-find corners of the Internet often used as criminal marketplaces for illegal and stolen items.

The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection contributed to the investigation.

Gustafson was arrested in December 2014 and given the option of either returning to the United States to face prosecution or remain in a Ugandan prison and face prosecution there, prosecutors said.

Gustafson chose to stay in Uganda — but because he also is a U.S. citizen and failed to prove he was legally permitted to be in Uganda, the country deported him, officials said. He arrived in Pittsburgh in December 2015.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Shardul S. Desai prosecuted the case.

Chief U.S. Judge Mark R. Hornak imposed the 74-month sentence, which will be followed by three years of probation.