A Prior Lake man who joked about how easy it was to make counterfeit postage meter stamps admitted in court on Monday that he'd done just that thousands of times for nearly three years.
Andre G. Mehilove, who also went by at least two other names, pleaded guilty in federal court in St. Paul to counterfeiting postage meter stamps.
Mehilove, 31, faces as long as five years in prison. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled.
He said he and his friends were amused at how easy it was to make the bogus stamps, noting that scrutiny by the U.S. Postal Service was lax, according to court documents.
He also told postal inspectors that he sent thousands of letters, many of them in bulk mailings soliciting real estate business.
And, court documents say, Mehilove also said he sold some of the phony stamps on eBay to about two dozen buyers.
According to the plea agreement, Mehilove said he created the counterfeit stamps using his personal computer and printer, using copies of postage meter stamps he had bought online.
Court documents show that Mehilove, who also used the names Andrejs Solanikovs and Andre George Solanikov, said he agreed to speak with postal inspectors because he wanted "to put all of this behind" him so he could avoid deportation to Latvia and then repay the Postal Service.
