>> yeah. >> reporter: for bourassa it was a complete victory over the u.s.t was good. i was happy. >> reporter: it didn't bother you conscience at all? >> not, at all. also to the contrary, it was, you know, like, you know, screw you. >> reporter: but the real victims are not the u.s. government, but all the shopkeepers and consumers stuck with fake $20 bills the bank won't accept. >> that comes back to us as a loss. we lose that. so if it was $500 in bills, it's $500 that we take a hit on. >> reporter: what do you say to people who are looking at their $20 bills tonight. watching you on "20/20," what should they look for? >> i honestly don't know how to answer that. >> reporter: because what you made was so good? >> yeah, yeah, it was good. >> reporter: and in the end, it was bourassa's arrogance that caught up with him. authorities began to track his every move, after an undercover agent in one of the criminal groups buying bourassa's counterfeit led them to his small town. he was under constant surveillance, even when he bought a snack at a convenience st

it's me. >> reporter: bourassa made it outside in a small town outside of montreal. of the security features of the real 20s, using the u.s. secret service website as a roadmap. >> reporter: american currency not that hard to copy, you said? >> the easiest of them all. >> reporter: he said he found suppliers on the internet from europe to china that could provide the same security features and used a front company to trick this paper mill in germany to produce the currency paper made of cotton and linen, complete with andrew jackson watermarks. >> once this is done, the rest is nothing. >> reporter: millions of dollars worth of the fakes went out, he says before the mounties and the u.s. secret service finally moved in. >> this is gonna affect the americans and it was important to get this right away, get this off the street, get it off the market. >> reporter: but bourassa's counterfeit was so good, he was able to cut the deal of a lifetime for a criminal. in exchange for turning over boxes of the remaining fakes and plates and special paper, he spent only a month a