A counterfeit money investigation that started near Traverse City, Michigan, is believed to have connections to similar activity in 14 other states, Michigan State Police said.  

The five-month investigation into the use and manufacturing of counterfeit currency has resulted in one arrest so far, with a 56-year-old Grand Rapids man now in custody in the Benzie County Jail.  

An MSP trooper was sent to a Dollar General store on Reynolds Road in Benzie County during October 2025 to investigate counterfeit $10 bills that had been passed, police said. During that investigation, the trooper learned of two other incidents under nearly identical circumstances in Grand Traverse County. 

During the next five months, troopers worked with several local, state, federal, and out-of-state law enforcement agencies on the case. The investigation included serving multiple search warrants, and a suspect was identified.  

The Benzie County Prosecutor’s Office then authorized a warrant for five felony counts of uttering and publishing counterfeit bills or notes. 

Troopers said the MSP Sixth District Fugitive Team found the Grand Rapids man on March 27 at a hotel near the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids. He was accompanied by two individuals from Malaysia who had recently traveled to the U.S. 

In the meantime, troopers served a search warrant at the hotel room where they found additional counterfeit currency, a fraudulent check, multiple electronic devices and a printer “along with materials consistent with the production of counterfeit bills,” police said. 

The Grand Rapids man was initially lodged at the Kent County Jail and then transported to the Benzie County Jail. He is “alleged to have been involved in interstate criminal activity, including the local manufacture of approximately $30,000 in counterfeit currency,” troopers said, adding that the Michigan man is also believed to have committed similar offenses in 14 additional states.  

He was arraigned on Monday in Benzie County District Court on the five counterfeiting charges, authorities said. Bond was set at $25,000, and his next court date is April 20. 

Law enforcement agencies in Iowa and North Dakota have also issued felony warrants for the man, police said, “with further charges anticipated.” 

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A Michigan man drove from Grand Blanc, Michigan to Ohio and picked up a 15-year-old girl reported missing from her home, then brought her back across state lines to a hotel in Fenton, according to the FBI.

Chason William-Gregory Pointer, 42, is behind bars after he’s accused of transporting a minor during the early morning hours of April 2, 2026, with the intent that she engage in criminal sexual activity with him. In a federal complaint, Pointer is also accused of coercion and enticement, after online conversations began on Reddit and later moved to Snapchat.

Reddit tip launches investigation

Reddit Inc. tipped off the FBI on April 4, 2026, about a chat it believed involved a missing Ohio minor, the FBI said. The conversation between the two users unfolded from March 30 to April 3. It allegedly included claims that one user, Pointer, investigators said, had driven to meet the other for sex and returned the next day, along with plans to meet at a hotel.

According to the complaint, the minor said they were 18, sent photos that Reddit believed matched the missing teen seen in recent news coverage, and said they lived in Ohio. The chat then appeared to shift to Snapchat, where the apparent minor then provided a different username.

Investigators then traced an IP address linked to the other username to a Comcast subscriber: Pointer, whose listed address was in Grand Blanc. Additional emergency requests linked a phone number to the same online identity, and more searches tied the number to Pointer. Michigan Secretary of State records also listed Pointer’s birth year as 1984 and a Grand Blanc address, according to records.

Ohio police departments get involved

In Ohio, a detective with the Sylvania Police Department confirmed the minor was missing and that she was 15 when she disappeared. The detective obtained emergency Snapchat records for the minor’s account and found a conversation between the minor and Pointer from March 31 to April 3 that “appeared to be sexually exploitive in nature.”

The detective also obtained Snapchat subscriber records for Pointer’s account, and the IP address previously associated with Pointer appeared seven times among the listed authentication actions.

Federal agents then reviewed call records for Pointer and said the phone’s location data suggested overnight travel south toward Toledo. They said after midnight on April 3, his phone moved away from the Grand Blanc area, reached the Toledo area around 2:30 a.m., near the victim’s address, and then showed northbound travel back toward Michigan, arriving in the Fenton area after 4:00 a.m.

At a hotel in Fenton, staff allegedly told investigators Pointer was registered to Room 215. When the FBI and the City of Fenton Police Department went to the room and knocked, they said they spotted Pointer and the missing teen walking down the hallway together and stopped them right there.

Pointer’s arrest

During the encounter, agents separated Pointer from the teen and started patting him down. Investigators said they found a knife in Pointer’s right pocket and a cellphone. Pointer was seated on a second-floor hallway bench and told he was not under arrest and was not handcuffed while questioned, the FBI said.

Pointer told an FBI agent and a Fenton Police Sergeant that he and the teen had been at Buffalo Wild Wings, and that he met her online in a Reddit chat group, court records said. Pointer claimed the teen was looking for “a sugar daddy” and that he drove from Grand Blanc to Toledo, picked her up, then drove to the hotel in Fenton, stopping only at WalMart, and said he was driving a Nissan.

He said he believed the victim was 18 and denied knowing she was 15, but when asked how many times he and the victim had sexual contact, Pointer requested a lawyer, according to the feds. Pointer also allegedly refused to allow searches of his hotel room, car and cellphone.

Pointer appeared in federal court in Bay City on April 6 for an initial appearance and was temporarily detained. He is scheduled for a detention hearing on April 10 at 1:00 p.m.

Records show Pointer was arrested in Oakland County for Assault and Battery in 2019.