A man who walked away from an Alberta prison is now accused of running a counterfeiting operation that drew the attention of the U-S Secret Service.

Surrey mounties arrested 29 year old Nathan Paolinelli and his 24 year old girlfriend Stacey Scharf, seizing 75 thousand dollars in counterfeit U-S cash, and piles of equipment for making phoney credit cards.

RCMP Constable Peter Neilly says Paolinelli walked away from Alberta's Bowden Institution in November.

He was doing time for fraud.

The U-S Secret Service was involved because of the fake U-S bills.

Special Agent David Thompson says they had heard of Paolinelli before.