77-year-old 'world's greatest counterfeiter' is heading back to prison

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PROVIDENCE — Louis "The Coin" Colavecchio loves to spin a story, and on Wednesday he spun himself right into 15 months in federal prison.

The 77-year-old, self-proclaimed "world's greatest counterfeiter" received the sentence for his latest criminal escapade: producing counterfeit $100 bills, all the while boasting to an informant that he was going to outwit the latest security features, authorities say.

In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. said he didn’t think Colavecchio would die in jail.

“I think you could con God out of taking your life,” McConnell said.

“I’m not sure you could be rehabilitated. ... You are who you are,” McConnell said, adding, “What I do know is that the public needs to be protected from you.

“Mr. Colavecchio, criminal behavior does hurt people. ... It hurts them economically. Someone is going to pass a bad bill and be stuck with it,” he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald B. Sullivan had urged McConnell not to be swayed by Colavecchio's age and failing health, arguing that "The Coin" had long benefited from both since he was arrested in 1996 in Atlantic City, in what authorities called the biggest counterfeiting case ever involving legalized gambling in New Jersey.

“I would suggest to the court with all due deference he needs to go to jail,” Sullivan said, noting that Colavecchio had been convicted of five crimes since age 55 and was found to have used cocaine while out on bond — an offense Colavecchio explained was only “for sex.”

Acting on a lead from the Coventry police, U.S. Secret Service agents in December raided Colavecchio's Pawtucket home and seized presses capable of producing counterfeit bills with simulations of the security features used in real currency, and about 2,400 fake $100 bills. Colavecchio was charged with manufacturing counterfeit $100 bills and possessing equipment for manufacturing counterfeit cash.

Colavecchio in March pleaded guilty to manufacturing and possessing the counterfeit bills. In exchange federal prosecutors dismissed the remaining count.

Colavecchio, a self-professed ladies man, appeared dapper in court Wednesday in a striped, collared shirt, leather loafers and jeans. He leaned heavily on a cane as he walked into the courthouse and chatted seemingly unfazed with his lawyer, Joanne Daley.

Sullivan relied on Colavecchio's own words as documented in a 2015 autobiographical book, "You Thought it was More, Adventures of the World's Greatest Counterfeiter." In the tale — available in paperback or digital format — Colavecchio with braggadocio traced a lifetime of crime and boasted of his ties to the Patriarca crime family, which he referred to as "The Providence Office."

He recounted a life of hustling, starting in his teens with a plot to steal money from Catholics by marketing rosaries in the names of priests dedicated to missionary work. Instead, Colavecchio said he pocketed the donations.

He wrote of exploits that included bank fraud, insurance scams, robbery, arson and duping "Ma Bell" by creating devices that allowed users to place long-distance phone calls free of charge, Sullivan wrote. He expressed disdain for law enforcement, mocking their "cheap suits" and their dim wits in their inability to track him in crimes.

A talented tool-and-die maker and North Providence native, Colavecchio recounted the thrill of minting slot-machine tokens with such accuracy that even labs couldn't differentiate between his work and the actual tokens. When he was finally arrested at Caesars Atlantic City in late 1996, he had a car loaded with 800 pounds of counterfeit tokens, a handgun and cash. He has since been said to be banned from every casino in the nation — a prohibition authorities say he circumvents by gambling in a wig and dress by posing as a woman.

Through the years, he would be convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses for stealing $100,000 from his 92-year-old aunt in a septic plot; resisting arrest; and drug charges for cultivating kilograms of marijuana in a sophisticated indoor grow operation. For all, he received suspended sentences.

“The self-told account of Colavecchio’s life history paints the picture of a man whose devotion to criminal pursuits absolutely prevented him (and will prevent him) from leading a normal life. He is effectively unable to enjoy life without conceiving new criminal ventures. It is who he is and what he does,” Sullivan wrote.

But Daley countered that “the bulk of the book is fiction.” She emphasized that the informant in the case, too, had ties to organized crime and gave him $1,000 to help him with the latest counterfeiting operation.

The book, she said, was a “venue to tell tall tales.”

Colavecchio, who says he is an honor student at the Community College of Rhode Island, also addressed the court.

“If I’m out here and I’m not in jail; I think I can do some good,” he said.

Colavecchio must surrender Sept. 11. McConnell rejected his request that the date be delayed to allow him to finish the semester at CCRI.

Louis Colavecchio time line

1997: 55-year-old Colavecchio is federally convicted of counterfeiting casino tokens in New Jersey and Connecticut. Is sentenced to 27 months in prison.

1997: Convicted of larceny in Connecticut. Receives a seven-year suspended sentence. He agreed describe how he had made the tokens as part of the deal.

1998: Convicted in Rhode Island of obtaining money under false pretenses for stealing $100,000 from his 92-year-old aunt in a septic plot. Receives a 54-month suspended sentence.

2006: At 64, he resisted a lawful arrest. Received a one-year suspended sentence.

2014: Colavecchio is convicted of drug charges for cultivating kilograms of marijuana in a sophisticated indoor grow operation. The police found cocaine, methadone pills and cash in his home. He received a suspended seven-year sentence.

2015: Colavecchio publishes an autobiographical book, "You Thought it was More, Adventures of the World's Greatest Counterfeiter"

2019: Colavecchio, while on probation, is arrested for producing counterfeit $100 bills. U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. sentences him to 15 months in prison.

— kmulvane@ providencejournal.com

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