At the Sorel courthouse, a man was just charged with a series of crimes related to a record seizure of counterfeit $2 coins imported from China
Published at 11:44 am.
La Presse revealed in July that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) made the plate seizure as part of an investigation into Jean-François Généreux, a Sorel importer who claimed to purchase counterfeit money from Chinese manufacturers for pleasure.
The investigation was launched in January 2023 after 12,000 counterfeit $2 coins were intercepted in a postal package arriving from China. During a search of Mr. Généreux’s home, authorities seized 14,600 additional forged documents.
On Monday morning, the CBSA confirmed that the suspect in this investigation has been charged under the Penal Code and the Customs Act for purchasing, importing and possessing counterfeit currency and making false statements on a customs declaration. Jean-François Généreux will appear in court on December 4th.
Our report showed that Mr. Généreux’s supplier was actually offering $2 CAD coins at low prices and in large quantities on the Chinese online sales site Alibaba. The seller’s page displayed several comments from Canadian customers who had recently ordered tens of thousands of these parts.
When asked by La Presse, Alibaba management immediately closed the supplier’s site.
“We immediately conducted a thorough review of the seller and suspended the product listing and the seller in question from Alibaba.com. “We will impose penalties against the seller after our investigation has been completed,” a spokesman assured.
Numismatics experts have raised alarms in recent years about the increasing prevalence of counterfeit Canadian coins from China.
According to figures from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seizures of counterfeit parts have been steadily increasing for the past five years. However, according to the Royal Canadian Mint, counterfeits remain “extremely rare.”