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SALEM, Utah County — A Salem woman is facing criminal charges accusing her of trying to pay for a construction project using movie prop money.
Malerie Simonsen, 36, was charged Thursday in 4th District Court with communications fraud and theft of service, second-degree felonies; and obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony.
Earlier this year, Simonsen hired a neighbor to do remodeling work on her cabin. In July, the victim sent her a bill for $12,720. Simonsen replied that her "credit card payment was not going through and offered to pay $3,500 in cash," according to charging documents.
An envelope with 168 $20 bills was delivered to the victim. But the man "observed that the bills appeared abnormal and obtained a counterfeit detection marker, which showed that the bills were all fake," the charges state.
The man contacted Salem police and they confirmed all the bills had the same serial number, none had a watermark and were all fake, according to the charges.
Two days later, Simonsen offered to pay an additional $9,500 in cash. This time, she allegedly gave the man $10,100 by delivering an envelope with 101 $100 bills inside. Police watched the transaction take place. When they opened the envelope, they found bills "clearly marked 'For motion picture purposes' and 'Not Legal Tender,'" the charges say.
When questioned by police, Simonsen allegedly said the money "came from her mother and she had no idea it was fake."
However, after obtaining a search warrant for Simonsen's Amazon purchase history, police discovered she "made five separate purchases of fake $100 or $20 bills between May 31 and July 16," according to charging documents.
