A 28-year-old Anchorage man was found guilty in federal court Thursday of trying to spend fake $100 bills at the international airport, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alaska.
Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess convicted Abdikhaliq Hussein after a two-day bench trial, prosecutors said.
Hussein went to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Jan. 14 and tried to pay for a one-way ticket to San Francisco with seven counterfeit $100 bills. An airline employee noticed the fakes by their texture and appearance, including Chinese text in bright pink and red on both sides of the bills, and refused to help Hussein, prosecutors said.
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"After the airline employees explained to Hussein that the bills were false, Hussein tried to use an identical counterfeit $100 bill to pay for $7 worth of drinks and snacks from Starbucks located in the terminal," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Officers arrived and discovered Hussein was in possession of $11,220 in counterfeit currency, which he told police he found in a plastic bag on an Anchorage street, prosecutors said.
Burgess noted during the trial that Hussein was "deliberately indifferent to the money being counterfeit," according to prosecutors.
The maximum prison sentence for trying to use counterfeit money is 20 years in prison.
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