A Waterville man pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to charges of selling counterfeit coins in several central Maine communities, authorities said.
Mwashuma M. Sithole, 31, faces up to 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and possible restitution, according to a news release from United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II.
Sithole began ordering counterfeit Morgan dollars on the Internet in May 2014, according to the release, and over the next several months he placed orders online for items that looked like genuine Morgan dollar coins, which were minted from 1878 to 1904 and then again in 1921 and were named after their designer, United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan.
The coins that Sithole ordered and received – at about $2 each – resembled genuine Morgan dollars in appearance, design and weight, but were offered online as counterfeit and made in China, according to the release.
Sithole sold and pawned several counterfeit Morgan dollars in 2014 in Augusta, Newport, Farmington, Lewiston and South Portland, telling buyers the coins were real. Police executed a search warrant at Sithole’s home on Jan. 22, 2015, seizing some 1,200 counterfeit Morgan coins, according to the release.
Authorities said Sithole had to forfeit all the coins seized from him. He will be sentenced after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.
The investigation was conducted jointly by the police departments in the communities where coins were sold, the Maine State Police and the United States Secret Service.
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