University Copier Printed Bogus Bills -- Columbia Students Accused Of Handling $80,000 In Counterfeit $20S

NEW YORK - Three Columbia University students were accused of learning how to make money in college - literally.

The three, and a nonstudent, were charged with using a Columbia University color copier to crank out $85,000 worth of counterfeit $20 bills over the past six months, the Secret Service said.

The bills were being passed successfully at local businesses, said Brian Gimlett, director of the Secret Service's New York office.

They were "not really high-quality counterfeit notes, but if the public will accept them, it's a problem," he said today.

The suspects were planning to print an additional $200,000 worth of bogus bills and sell them in New York, Chicago and Washington, Gimlett said.

Two of the young men were roommates, and a federal complaint said counterfeit cash was found "in plain view in their apartment, including on the table in the living room, and a stack of bills in an open cabinet in the kitchen."

The Secret Service first spotted the bogus bills in May, after some were passed at a bar.

Technicians recognized the counterfeits as the products of a particular type of copier, which was traced to a printing office in the basement of the university's Journalism School.

The school wouldn't identify the copier. Columbia is "re-evaluating the printing operation," said Suzanne Trimel of the university's information office.

In August, according to the New York Daily News, Secret Service agents found a man passing the fake cash and he agreed to cooperate.

Court papers identified the suspects as Keith Blackwell and former Columbia students Edward F. Olulenu, Clifford T. Evans and Derick Warren, all living in New York.

Olulenu, 25, worked in the printing office. The Daily News said the ring was born when Evans, 23, asked Olulenu to run off some twenties. An indictment said Blackwell, 25, and Warren, 23, helped sell the bills.

Blackwell was arrested Nov. 25 allegedly selling $1,060 in bills for $300, and the other three were arrested in the following days. Olulenu had $10,000 worth of bills in the trunk of his car, court papers alleged.

Evans, released on $25,000 bail, told the Daily News: "This was stupid. Real stupid."