Louis Colavecchio
- Michael Colavecchio Obituary
- Louis Colavecchio Documentary
- Louis Colavecchio Ri
- Louis The Coin Colavecchio
Benedict Colavecchio lived in Italy until 1903 when he decided to board a boat that was heading for America. After a few months of strenuous travelling, he finally arrived at Providence, Rhode Island.
Louis Colavecchio, 92, beloved husband, father and grandfather, passed away Friday, July 22 at home surrounded by his loving family. He was the beloved husband of the late Maria Grace (Corso) Colavecchio for 44 years. He was the father of Louis V. Colavecchio, MD and his wife Susan Taft-Colavecchio. Louis Colavecchio, MD is a Dermatologist in Narragansett, RI and has over 45 years of experience in the medical field. He graduated from Brown University Medical School medical school in 1976. Be sure to call ahead with Dr. Colavecchio to book an appointment. Louis Colavecchio: Counterfeit Coin Con Artist Louis, “The Coin,” Colavecchio earned his nickname for the immense amount of counterfeit coins he created over the years. He was one of the first men to successfully produce counterfeit coins that could deceive the software inside the slot machines into thinking they were real.
Benedict made it his mission in life to live out the true American dream of being a business owner; he made high quality tools and eventually opened up two large tool shops.
After a few years, he met a beautiful woman named Dora, who he married and had three children with. Their first born son, Ronald, became a Jesuit in Brazil and their only daughter, Angela, married a rich man in Providence.
Michael Colavecchio Obituary
Louis Colavecchio was extremely intelligent, and he became the first person in his family to actually graduate from college. In 1964, Louis graduated from Providence College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business because he inspired to open his own store just as his father had.
Louis saw a steady rise in the popularity of the jewelry market, so he opened up a store called Trop Jewelry Co. in Providence.
After many hours of hard work, this company finally started making a profit nearly ten years after it had opened up. From that point on, his company grew at a steady rate and Louis could finally afford his dream home. Louis brought a $130,000 house in a ritzy neighborhood.
This development was packed full of luxuries; tennis courts, a golf course, and a swimming pool that were available for residents only. They also had an elegant country club that only served high quality foods; Louis quickly grew accustomed to a certain lifestyle.
Unfortunately a few years after he moved, his life started crumbling before his eyes when Trop Jewelry Co. was broken into. Louis was at the store when everything was happening; the thieves tied him up and brutally tortured him.
Louis was left unconscious, only to wake up in a hospital bed and be informed that they took everything. Although the police were dedicated to finding out who did this, Louis and his company had to file for bankruptcy shortly after and none of the jewelry was ever recovered.
It took Louis a few years to get back on his feet, but he was still passionate about running his own business. He managed to open up a second jewelry store named, “Diamonds in the Sky,” which was filled with high quality diamonds and top of line security features.
A plethora of vendors came in and out of the store, to the point that his neighbors became suspicious; they wanted to know what was truly taking place in that store after hours.
They also were curious about the small, black sign that was always posted on the door of the jewelry store, as it mentioned nothing about jewelry. It read,
Most jewelry stores were more open to the public, and nearby store wondered why there were never any customers in the store.
The neighboring store owners never would have guessed that most of his money was actually coming from the casinos and not his jewelry business.
Louis Colavecchio Documentary
Louis was often travelling to Atlantic City on what he told his friends and family to be business trips, but in actuality he spent most of his time spent there playing the slot machines at Caesar’s Palace Hotel and Casino. Starting off, he had some success but he realized he didn’t have a big enough bankroll to support his new addiction.
He started looking for ways he could manipulate the machines into letting him play without inserting any coins, but his efforts were useless.
Finally, he thought there might be a way he could use some of his equipment from the jewelry store to make counterfeit coins to use in the machines. He gathered a couple of their coins and took them home to see what he could do.
Louis had an electric discharge machine that was used for developing different molds that could customize jewelry with various words, logos, or numbers. Before he went straight into the slot machine coins, he first tried to see if he could replicate poker and blackjack tokens, as he was less likely to get caught using this method.
Although he was able to do this with ease, he realized there was a lot more money to be made in the slot coin business, so he went back to focusing on that.
During the counterfeiting process, Louis was very meticulous about every detail that went on the coin, as the symbols on the coins had to match perfectly or the machines would reject them.
Louis was able to play the slots for hours, without ever having to risk any of his own money. He made thousands of dollars a night doing this, all of which he used to maintain his prestigious lifestyle. He would often have a girl by his side at the casinos, and he was always eager to flaunt his money in front of her.
Louis played solely at Caesar’s for months before attempting to try to make counterfeit coins for other casinos in the area.
He eventually started visiting the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Connecticut and had managed to make counterfeit coins that would work there as well. He started expanding how many casinos he had coins for, as he had mastered the art of counterfeiting.
In the meanwhile, Caesar’s took their annual coin inventory and noticed they had a surplus of $10 slot machine coins. They brought the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement in to further investigate, and that’s when they discovered that the extra coins were actually premium counterfeit coins.
They sent word to all casinos in the area; Bally’s Park Place and Showboat Casinos checked for fake tokens and immediately found them.
The security of Caesar’s Palace and all casinos in Atlantic City were asked to be on the lookout for any suspicious people who may be involved in this scandal.
When Louis arrived the following weekend with his current girlfriend at the time, Donna Ulrich, their behavior caught the attention of the guards.
They watched them closely for several hours, making a point to identify which machines they were using. After they exited the building, the police opened up the machines, only to find an array of counterfeit coins.
Soon after this discovery, Louis and Donna were taken into custody. The police found 750 pounds of counterfeit coins stashed away in his car, many of which belonged to other nearby casinos.
His coins were exceptional; Jerry Longo, who worked with the Mohegan Sun in connecting Louis Colavecchio to the crimes there said,
in a phone interview with the Washington Times. There were apparently only very minor differences, not noticeable to the naked eye.
Casinos in New Jersey and Connecticut placed charges against Louis, who agreed to tell them how he had made the tokens in exchange for a slightly lighter sentence. He was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison for his crimes.
He was supposedly working with the Patriarca crime family, but he didn’t rat them out when his crimes were uncovered. Rumors were also going around that Louis was contacted in prison by the U.S. Mint who begged him to reveal how he replicated the coins so flawlessly.
The town of Providence was flabbergasted when they discovered what had been happening at Louis’ jewelry store. His family was known for operating honest businesses and this incidence tarnished the family name forever.
His family looked after the jewelry store while Louis was in prison, but they had his counterfeit tools and equipment auctioned off in hopes that he would never use it again.
Louis was finally released from prison in 2006. To say that he didn’t learn his lesson would certainly be an understatement, as he was arrested just a few months later for attempting to use counterfeit coins again.
After the first counterfeit coin incident, casinos have taken extra precautions to ensure that their slot machines are encrypted with the latest software, so that they would be able to detect counterfeit coins.
Nowadays, most casinos don’t even use coins for their slot machines. Most slot machines are electronic and work off of a reloadable card and some even print off paper vouchers that can later be transferred to currency.
Louis’ cheating tactics were explained in detail on one episode of the Breaking Vegas series that played on The History Channel. The episode was officially released in 2009, and the makers of the show called Louis “The Counterfeit King,” for his impressive handiwork.
Apparently, Louis took part in a numerous arson fires, shootings, and robberies in conjunction with the mafia. This includes the robbery of his first jewelry store, in order to get money from his insurance company.
It wasn’t until after the statutes of limitation for prosecution of these crimes that Louis actually came out and admitted he had committed these crimes.
More recently in November of 2013, Louis Colavecchio was arrested once again, but this time it was in direct correlation to drug trafficking. He was found with over four pounds of marijuana on hand and several plants were also discovered after the police searched his home.
Although he somehow managed to have a note from his physician explaining that he could use marijuana for medical use only, he had no way of explaining why he also had an excessive amount of cocaine in his house too.
Louis Colavecchio Ri
Little is known about Louis’ personal life, but it has been recorded that he has been married twice over the course of his life. He divorced his first wife in 1980 and his second wife drowned to death in 2006.
Many rumors centered on Louis Colavecchio have spread over the years, making it hard to separate the truth from the lies.
Louis The Coin Colavecchio
PROVIDENCE – A 77 year-old Rhode Island man nicknamed “The Coin,” having previously been convicted of, among other things, counterfeiting massive amounts of slugs used in slot machines in numerous gaming venues and casinos from which he is now banned, was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison for counterfeiting $100 bills.
Louis “The Coin” Colavecchio, of Cranston, was arrested in December 2018, when a six-month U.S. Secret Service undercover investigation concluded with agents executing federally authorized search warrants and seizing from Colavecchio’s then Coventry residence $29,000 in counterfeit $100 bills, a mechanical printing press, images of $100 bills, a computer, and other counterfeiting materials.
Colavecchio pled guilty on March 19, 2019, to intent to defraud and possess counterfeit obligations.
According to court documents, prior to his arrest on December 7, 2018, Colavecchio boasted to others that he was already working on a defense should he be arrested again for counterfeiting. If caught, Colavecchio told others he would claim that he was working as a counterfeit deterrence specialist.
In addition to being convicted in 1997 and sentenced to 27-months in federal prison for counterfeiting casino tokens in a massive operation that targeted all of the Atlantic City casinos in New Jersey and the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, Colavecchio has since been convicted of larceny; of obtaining money under false pretenses, after he was caught stealing $100,000 from his 92-year-old aunt; resisting arrest; and for cultivating kilograms of marijuana.
According to court documents, in 2015, Colavecchio published an autobiography detailing his life of crime, including his self-described interaction and activities with the Patriarca Crime Family.
Colavecchio’s sentence, imposed by U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., is announced by United States Attorney Aaron L. Weisman and Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service Stephen Marks.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerard B. Sullivan.
United States Attorney Aaron L. Weisman and Special Agent in Charge Stephen Marks thank the Coventry and Pawtucket Police Departments for their assistance executing court-authorized search warrants in this matter.
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