Panama City woman pleads guilty to passing counterfeit money

FLORIDA – A woman from Panama City has pled guilty to charges of passing counterfeit money.

The fake bills were reportedly used to make purchases in Brevard, Clay, Duval, and Seminole counties.

Lyndsey Rhea Markland, 41, pleaded guilty to four counts of passing counterfeit Federal Reserve notes, United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced last week. Markland faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each count and payment of restitution to the victims she defrauded, Handberg said.

A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to court documents and public records, in 2022, Markland entered various businesses in Brevard, Clay, Duval, and Seminole counties and purchased gift cards and merchandise using counterfeit Federal Reserve notes. Law enforcement subsequently determined that Markland and her co-defendant, Neal Evan Pollman, 42, of Panama City, were staying at the Comfort Inn in Palm Bay.

The Palm Bay Police Department (PBPD) executed a search warrant at the hotel and reportedly located Markland inside her room. Also located in the room was approximately $30,000 in counterfeit currency and a printer that was used for manufacturing counterfeit Federal Reserve notes, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO).

On April 27, 2023, Pollman and Markland were brought to federal court in Jacksonville from the Bay County Jail. According to the USAO, they were serving a jail sentence for breaking their state probation. Their probation was violated due to several charges related to passing fake Federal Reserve notes.

Pollman was charged with one count of manufacturing and nine counts of passing counterfeit Federal Reserve notes. He is scheduled for trial in July 2023.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the Palm Bay Police Department, the Orange Park Police Department, and the United States Secret Service – Jacksonville Field Office. Assistant United States Attorney Kevin C. Frein is prosecuting it.