Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Making Money: From Master Counterfeiter to Renowned Artist

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

Arthur Williams Jr. went from living in the projects in Chicago to making money. Literally. Arthur was one of the most prolific counterfeiters in American history. Now, Arthur uses his gift for good. Arthur shares with Nicole the challenges that face people convicted of non-violent crimes when they transition to life after prison, and how he persevered— despite almost giving up. Plus, Arthur shares how he recreated the un-counterfeit-able $100 bill. Find Nicole's Money Rehab episode with Robert Rooks of REFORM Alliance on probation reform here: https://link.chtbl.com/ze3x_uSK Find the book on Arthur, The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter, here: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Making-Money-Master-Counterfeiter/dp/1592405576

One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that

I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details.

I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your

reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. Today we have a story that sounds like your next favorite true crime series on Netflix.

It's about Arthur Williams Jr. Arthur went from living in the projects in Chicago to making money, literally making money. Arthur was one of the most prolific counterfeiters in U.S. history. So prolific, in fact, that he lost count of just how much money he printed. Now, don't get me wrong. It's pretty fascinating to hear about how Arthur perfected what was then called the uncounterfeitable bill. But Arthur's story goes much deeper. After going to prison a handful of times, Arthur started using his gift for good. He is now a critically acclaimed artist, creating art inspired by money.

It is so super cool and perfectly legal. I'm actually getting one of his pieces for the studio, and I am stoked. Arthur speaks extremely honestly about how difficult it was to transition from the prison system into the workforce. It's a reality I've talked about on the show before. It's an issue I have long been passionate about. Notably, we had Robert Rooks on the show, CEO of Reform Alliance, an organization dedicated

to probation reform started by Meek Mill. If this is an issue you're passionate about too, you can find that conversation in the show notes. Now, despite the systemic challenges that exist for people who go to prison for nonviolent crimes, Arthur is the picture of resilience. And he explains how he found that strength today. And while he doesn't have a show on Netflix just yet, there is a book about him. It's called The Art of Making Money, The Story of a Master Counterfeiter. I've linked that in the show notes as well. And now here's the master counterfeiter himself. Arthur Williams Jr., welcome to Money Rehab.

Hey, thanks for having me. So let's start at the beginning and your early life. What was your relationship like with money? Can you kind of paint the picture of what life was like in your household when you were growing up? Well, I grew up on the south side of Chicago. I'm 31st and Halsted. It's a borough called Bridgeport. Grew up in the projects, so we didn't have no money. My mom was bipolar and she would be in and out of the hospital probably about once a year. And during that time,

I'd have to take care of my brother and sister. So I learned at a young age that money was what you needed to survive. My first experience with it was breaking into car meters so I could go buy groceries. Childhood was pretty tough, but my mom was still amazing. And the time that I broke into the meter, the first time I did it, she actually punished me for it, even though I brought groceries home. She would always tell me God would provide. And I was like, yeah, he provided. He showed me how to do this. And you were 13 at the time, right? Yeah, it's like 12, 13 when we moved into the projects. It was pretty tough because we grew

up in Schaumburg, which was a suburb outside of Chicago, middle class suburbia. And then to go from there to the south side of Chicago was a culture shock, to say the least. You know, it was pretty intense. So when you were 15, you ended up meeting someone who introduced you to counterfeiting. Is that right? Sounds like your life forever changed. Yeah, it sure did.

My mom worked at a restaurant, and so I used to go in there to get a shake or a cheeseburger. It was an interesting place because you'd have all these characters from the neighborhood, politicians going in there, police officers going in there, criminals going in there. And one of them happened to be the person who eventually taught me how to print money. And I ended up stealing a car and my mom couldn't leave work. So he had to come get me. When he signed me out of the police station, as we were walking back to the restaurant, he was telling me that I'm smarter in this. I don't need to be doing the gangs and the stealing and all this stuff. And he just slowly brought me into his world. And I was just kind of his assistant, right? I'd get him his stuff. I'd be there.

Lasted for about nine months. And then something happened to him. You know, South Side of Chicago, that's what happens. People disappear. And then I went back to the streets for a little while. And then later on, reconnected with the counterfeiting. Can you walk me through how counterfeiting was working? I mean, I have no idea what the process is. I'm picturing glue sticks, construction paper. For me, it was an evolutionary process. When the $1,996 bill first came out, there was the press release that you

couldn't defeat the watermarks and the strips and all the security features. And so that challenge, that's what started for me where I said, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to figure it out. It took years. For me, the first thing was figuring out the paper, right? Because everywhere you went, they would mark the money with the pen. And so I started ordering paper from everywhere. This is when they didn't have the internet really and so I just used the yellow pages I'd go through and I looked for paper companies and I'd order paper come to turn out those yellow pages was the paper that I needed to print the money it was bizarre and that happened with me and my girl we were arguing about finding the paper and she threw the yellow pages down and marked it and what the hell it marked yellow right it marked legit and what was really nice about that is it also allowed me

because the paper was so thin it allowed me to implement the strip and the watermark i pressed them together and so by finding the paper i was able to defeat three of the security features just like that. And then the printing was really complicated. Back then, ink jets and lasers and Photoshop and stuff that was just starting to come around. So I had learned how to print with the offset technology, making my plates and mixing my inks. And they considered my bill a hybrid bill because I combined the two. I took the old technology to print certain aspects of the money. And then I took new technology to do like the serial numbers, the seals. And then I got creative with the little shifting ink. You know how I got that pearl on a car where it changes colors? I went and looked it up and it was called House of Color was the name of the place.

It was the very same company that provided the technology to the government. I couldn't believe it, but they sold it for the cars. So I figured a way to turn that into the shifting color ink. So it was a lot of steps. I think at the end of the day, there was like 12 different steps for me to make the money. It was very hands-on, very handmade. It's probably one of the reasons why I didn't print a hundred million, because I probably would have if it was easier. But for me growing up poor and money being survival, even as years went on with the counterfeiting, I didn't ever look at it as a means to get rich. I looked at it as a means to take care of myself and my kids and people around me. I think the most I ever made at one sitting was like a half

a million dollars, which still is a lot of money, right? One sitting is like one day? No, that would take weeks. You know, it had to go through one step and the next. And I burned a lot of money too. Because it wasn't good? Well, there's sometimes things go wrong. Something doesn't work out. There was one time I had a problem with the glue.

When it would get real humid, the money would fall apart. So I had to figure that out. So I would always find ways of making it better. And by the time I got caught, the money was amazing. But that took years. time that I figured out how to make the paper mark, I remember I got really scared. I'm figuring out something that the government has complete control over. I'm figuring out something that makes the world revolve, move. It's an instrument of power. And here I am figuring out how to mass produce it, taking very simplistic things to create this instrument of power. So I remember getting really scared because I'm like, man, I don't want to get killed. I don't want to take me out. Whether you believe in conspiracies or not, you know, you're still playing with something that is very protective. And then after the fear subsided, then I got excited.

Then I was like, OK, let's make some money. But you sold to criminal networks, right? So it wasn't that scary? If you look up Bridgeport 26th Street, it's where the Chinatown crew is from. It's an Italian crew, Italian gangsters, whatever you want to call it. So I grew up around this. So I had outlets that other people probably couldn't have because of where I grew up at. And the money actually, even the way that I got rid of it was an evolution.

At first, I would just hit the road and just spend it at malls. Me and my girl, we'd jump in the rides, we'd shoot out. She'd go through the mall, mall we see how many stores she could hit in one setting and then that got old you can only buy yourself so many things i mean i guess women could buy a million shoes but it got old so then we started buying things for people that we knew and then that even hit a place to where it wasn't appreciated. People around us started to feel entitled to receive things from me. And then that's when we decided to start buying things for kids because I grew up poor. So we just started buying clothes and toys and diapers and dropping it off at the Salvation Army box, you know, in every town we ran.

That was the best feeling I ever felt during my criminal run was when we were just out there free, helping children. We're still breaking the law, but it felt like I was helping kids that grew up the way I did with nothing. And so that gave me a sense of importance, I guess. And it's when I got away from that, when I started selling the money, instead of doing that, is when things went downhill. I was making a lot more money, but there wasn't that sense of purpose anymore. As you said, in 1996, the US Treasury Department

issued currency with a new design and security features aimed at curbing counterfeiting. This new series included this $100 bill, which took you years to figure out how to make so perfectly that it passed through casinos, it passed through banks. How much money do you think you counterfeited over your criminal career? I didn't ever keep track, but I'm sure it was in the millions, maybe 10 million, 15 million. It may be more than that. Funny story, two weeks ago, one of my friends was giving me some money. He said he had something to

give me. So I went over to his house and he said, man, I got this. And I just felt like something was off on it. And it was one of my bills. It was one of my bills. Now, I ended up losing it an hour later because he gave it to me. I put it in my pocket. When I pulled my phone out, it fell out of my pocket. I was so pissed.

I was like, man, I finally get one back. And it still looked great. It looked worn out, but it still was together. And so I'm sure I made quite a bit. Can you still spot a counterfeited bill? Well, I can. So I changed the time clock on the back of it. So if you look at the back of the bill, there's a clock on it.

So I changed the time on it. So that's how I could always know if it was mine. And over the 15-year period that you were doing this, you were arrested three times? Well, twice for this, yeah. One time I got arrested with my dad, and the second time was a situation with my son. It was real sad, you know? My dad actually died on the day that I got out of prison with him. And then my son's mom, who was a Chicago police officer, the irony in that one,

he wanted to be like me and was printing money at her house. And she's like, no more. And then she gave me him. And so here I am just getting out of prison. And now I got this 15-year-old child who was just pretty intense, to say the least. He's doing great now. Just bought him a house. He just had a baby. I'm a granddad now. But they say counterfeiting is one of the hardest things to stop doing.

It's easier to quit heroin than quit printing money. Why is that? It's addictive. I mean, when you see that money coming out and the smell of the inks and there's a romanticism with it. What I always loved about printing money is I could do it by myself. Like even as an artist, I'm alone 80% of the time and I'm fine with that. And with counterfeiting, unlike any other crime, as long as I have my materials, I could go into a warehouse, lock the door, and I don't have to see anybody. I don't have to talk to anybody. I make my money. And then I don't even have to sell it if I don't

want. I could spend it. So it truly is a lone wolf crime. And I like that. And when you were buying things like diapers and clothes and donating to the Salvation Army, did you think of yourself like a Robin Hood? No, I just thought of myself as someone trying to help kids. Even now, I donate a lot of art to charities and a lot of artists still want 50%. I don't do that. I just give them a piece of art, take it, do whatever you can with it. Because I grew up really hard. By the time I was 18 years old, I had six friends murdered. I was shot myself.

But I didn't ever lose my sense of humanity. It didn't make me angry or mean or hateful. It did the opposite, actually. It gave me compassion and just the desire to help people. Can you talk about the transition from life behind bars to life on the outside? It was intense. And I was just tired of being in jail. And when I found painting in prison, there was a piece that would come over me every time I would step to the canvas. And it didn't matter that I was in prison.

The world would disappear and I would feel happy and content with what I was doing. And so I had to go back to that when I got out because I'm cleaning toilet bowls and doing a job. I'm paying child support. I had to get a roommate in order to have a place to stay. So there were a lot of difficulties I had to overcome getting out of prison. And there were many times where I wanted to give up, where I wanted to say, man, I can't do this. And two years after I got out, I almost did give up. Hold on to your wallets. Money Rehab will be right back.

One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a time checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it.

If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits.

Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you.

Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble. So I don't end up making time to make my house look guest friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself.

Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. And now for some more money rehab. This is what's so amazing about art is it always brought me back to center and what was important. And what was important was my freedom. And art would always bring me back to that to remind me that I could find happiness and being content with life with something that I love to do, which was painting. I went through a lot of tough things, but the way that I trained myself in prison allowed me to overcome those things, allowed me to see what was important. Because that's what happens to guys when they get out of prison.

They feel like they missed out on something. They're trying to catch up on things. They want a new car. They want all these things. And what they don't realize is you have to work really hard for them. You can't go sell drugs. You can't print money. You can't steal because that's what most guys in prison were doing to get those things. And now you take that equation out of it. How are you going to get there? You better work your ass off to get there and you better be disciplined. That's what my transition was about. And did you have remorse when you got out?

No, I didn't. I mean, I felt bad that I left my family, but printing money didn't ever feel like a crime to me. I did look at it like other things, like someone who was selling drugs. I looked at it as almost like a victimless crime and that it was the government that was eventually taking a hit. So the way I feel about it today is that I try not to regret too much in life. And I look at all the things that I went through and it led me to who I am right now. If I didn't go to prison, I wouldn't have become a painter. If I didn't learn how to print money when I was young, I wouldn't have been able to do a lot of the things that I did for other people.

So everything that's happened to me, it's like training. Some people go to college to become a doctor or a lawyer or a journalist. I ended up on the streets to become what I am right now. Do I regret what happened with my children? Oh yeah, absolutely. I wish I would have not ever left them. Or my son coming to prison. That was terrible. So those things were painful to me. But I try not to think too much in the past anymore. So if your kid came up to you now and said they wanted to be a counterfeiter, you would be okay with it?

No, not even close. For one, it is breaking the law, right? So I don't want my children breaking the law. But fortunately, my children don't have to go through what I went through either. They don't have to break into parking meters to feed their brother and sister. They're not worried about their friends getting killed. And so when you grow up in that type of environment, you really do look at the world a lot differently than what most people do. Yeah, it sounds like you operated from this philosophy of stealing food to feed your family. And that is understandable. And I have a ton of compassion for that. But now it sounds like you are giving back to the community through your gallery, bringing art, bringing culture into the community you grew up in. Yeah, no, it's been awesome. So like my gallery is on Morgan Street. It's like a block away from where I grew up. And when I moved in over there like eight years ago,

it was pretty rough still. And I just remember people were telling me, all right, why don't you go downtown, go downtown. And I'm like, no, I'm going to stay right here. And it was awesome. I'd have kids come over. We'd paint on my gallery walls. I mean, I literally let the kids paint on the walls, you know. And the community I could see was very pleased the fact that I created something beautiful in the neighborhood. And I did that a few times, and it wasn't just my neighborhood. I did it in Beverly Hills. I opened a gallery during the pandemic, and people used to drive up to see the art. And one lady was coming back from the hospital, and she's crying. She's knocking on my window, and she says, thank you so much for doing this for our community. That was awesome for me. So that is my drive now to help the children and help those getting out of prison and hopefully give people some hope because that's what you really need in life. You need hope. And when you're growing up in such a harsh environment,

it's hard to have hope because some people have told me, aren't you like glorifying your crime? And I said, no, money is a tool. And it's a matter of what we do with that tool. Are you going to do good with it? Or are you going to do bad with it? But it's a tool. You decide what your moral compass is directing you to do. And I used to do the wrong thing. I'd give stuff away. I was still breaking the law. I was still doing something that was going to put me in prison. And now I'm still printing money, but I'm doing it legally, which is kind of irony and it's nuts, but I'm using it for good now. I've long said that money is a tool. It's like a hammer. You can use it to build a house or to

tear it down. And so we end our episodes by asking guests for one tip that listeners can take straight to the bank. As somebody who used money as a tool for negative to tear down that house to continue the analogy and now uses it for good and positive. What would one tip about resilience or money or finding your calling or telling your story be for listeners today? For me, just find a vision and then use that vision to create your financial wealth, right? That's what I've done. And it's been through being very conservative with my money, right? I used to have a real bad problem with spending it because I spent it, you know? Now I hold on to it dearly and I don't just waste it. So have a vision

and then use that tool, which is money, to build the vision. And that's what I've been doing with my art, my career. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at moneynews and TikTok at moneynewsnetwork for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for

investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.