A Dorchester man who used bleach to remove the ink from $1 and $5 bills and then used an ink-jet printer to turn them into bogus $100 bills will spend 15 months in a federal prison following his sentencing last week in US District Court in Boston.

Franklin Perry, 53, pleaded guilty in April to one count of dealing in counterfeit currency and two counts of passing and uttering counterfeit obligations of the United States, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

Perry, who was caught up in a larger probe of drug dealing in Boston and Brockton, sold ten counterfeit $100s - priced at $30 apiece, to a "cooperating witness" on June 27, 2018, according to court documents.

About a month later, he used $500 worth of his counterfeit money to buy stuff at a store in Westwood - including a new inkjet printer - and then another $500 worth of bogus bills at another Westwood stores, authorities say.

According to an affidavit by a Secret Service agent on the case, bleaching let Perry use actual currency notes - and it didn't whiten the red and blue fibers or damage the watermarks that are a prominent part of actual bills.