Forged dollars found in home of Olympic star

The US Secret Service is investigating the discovery of thousands of forged dollars in the home of Olympic gold medallist Olga Korbut and her husband.

Korbut, 46, the four-time Olympic gold medal winner, was arrested last week and accused of shoplifting €21 worth of groceries in an Atlanta suburb. She denied the offence.

The counterfeit investigation, grew out of efforts to foreclose on her €270,000 home.

A deputy discovered a "large amount" of counterfeit 100 dollar bills while attempting to serve eviction papers to her husband, Leonid Bortkevich.

About €4,400 in counterfeit bills were scattered on the floor of an upstairs office and stuffed in a plastic bag left near several computers.

According to reports the house had been heavily damaged. Kitchen cabinets, light fixtures and switches had been removed and thrown on the floor, and a window had been knocked out.

Neighbours said they thought Korbut and Bortkevich had left the house weeks earlier. They believed the couple's son, Richard, 22, had remained in the home, the deputy said.

Korbut, a native of the former Soviet republic of Belarus, gained fame as a 17-year-old gymnast, winning three gold medals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

She won a fourth Olympic gold medal in Montreal in 1976.

She moved to Atlanta in 1991 where she has been a gymnastics coach.