U.S. DISTRICT COURT - Steven D. Weinhoeft, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that Michael Bell, 33 of Granite City and Kelly Seeger, age 37, of O’Fallon, were sentenced in United States District Court for conspiring to manufacture United States Currency.
A Federal Grand Jury indicted Bell and Seeger on July 18, 2018. The indictment alleged that between November of 2017 and April 8, 2018, the two had manufactured counterfeit currency and possessed items and equipment necessary for counterfeiting.
Bell was sentenced on April 12, 2019 to 15 months of incarceration; Seeger was sentenced on April 11, 2019 to 18 months of incarceration. Both defendants were ordered to serve 3 years of supervised release following their term of incarceration. Seeger’s sentence was higher than that of her codefendant because of Seeger’s more extensive criminal history. The Court, in sentencing the defendants to imprisonment, stated that the nature of criminal activity was serious because of the need to protect the integrity of United States currency but also stated that the defendants’ efforts to counterfeit currency was a symptom of both Bell and Seeger’s downward spiral with the use of methamphetamine.
The Granite City, Collinsville and O’Fallon, Illinois, Police Departments and the United States Secret Service participated in the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ranley R. Killian.