Fairfax County police Det. Bob Athing of Centreville is the 2002 Financial Crimes Investigator of the Year. Bestowing this honor was the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators at its annual conference, Sept. 4, in Boston.
Athing, 43, is a 21-year employee of the police department; for 13 years, he's worked in the Financial Crimes Section of the Criminal Investigations Bureau. He and wife Teresa have two children, Zach and Kaitlyn.
He was feted for investigating a large counterfeit ring in the Washington Metropolitan area, Denver and Northern California. After three years, he helped break the case.
"I'm on the Secret Service Fraud Task Force, and they gave me the case in 1999," said Athing. "It ended recently with numerous arrests, search warrants and forfeiture of money." The case involved nearly $2 million in fraudulent checks, and the two kingpins — brothers from Silver Spring — are now in federal custody.
"Two businesses and inside sources were involved," explained Athing. "A collusive employee would copy a company check, and then [other checks were written from that copy]. They did them in $2,000-$9,000 increments and, when it was discovered that they were counterfeit, the banks had to pay [and absorb the loss]."
The scheme played out from 1999 through early 2001, with bogus checks cashed throughout the metropolitan area. "They'd recruit people to cash the checks," said Athing. "About 15 people were involved, and we arrested all of them. It was very satisfying to achieve my goal of getting them all."
As for the award, he was both surprised and honored to receive it, but definitely pleased. "It was nice to be recognized," he said. "I knew I put a lot of work into it, along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and [three] FBI field offices."
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs