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Title: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: pxib on June 11, 2009, 05:37:17 PM $134.5 Billion in US bearer bonds seized in Italy. (http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15456&size=A) It's either the world's largest securities smuggling operation or the world's largest counterfeit scheme. Interestingly:
Quote In order to stop money laundering Italian law sets a ceiling of 10,000 euros per person for importing or exporting money without declaring it. The penalty for violating the law is 40 per cent of the money seized. If the certificates were real, for Italy it would be like hitting the jackpot. The fine alone would amount to US$ 38 billion, five times the estimated cost of rebuilding quake-devastated Abruzzi region. It would help Italy eliminate its public deficit. If the certificates are fakes the two Japanese nationals could get a very lengthy jail sentence for fraud. Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: Oban on June 11, 2009, 07:24:23 PM ...or it could be some very unfortunate Japanese government employees attempting to get a better flight out of Italy...
Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: rattran on June 11, 2009, 07:37:41 PM Or it could be a made-up news story. Every article I can find uses almost the exact same wording, with no attribution except the AsiaNews story. Either it's an amazing scoop, or someone is creative.
Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: Abagadro on June 11, 2009, 08:47:11 PM US bearer bonds (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Abagadro/thHans-gruber.jpg) Guess he won't be sitting on a beach earning his 20 percent. Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: Azazel on June 12, 2009, 07:19:11 AM Anything on this in the local media, Falc?
Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: Venkman on June 12, 2009, 07:43:16 AM US bearer bonds (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Abagadro/thHans-gruber.jpg) Guess he won't be sitting on a beach earning his 20 percent. :awesome_for_real: That was exactly what my first thought was too! Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: Broughden on June 12, 2009, 11:50:24 AM Bloomberg Financial News is running with the story and has their own reporter in Japan working it.
The government agencies they talked are all running around trying to confirm the story themselves it seems. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=ayy1QKcwcGN0 Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: Lantyssa on June 12, 2009, 12:25:10 PM ...or it could be some very unfortunate Japanese government employees attempting to get a better flight out of Italy... Ha ha ha.Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: pxib on June 14, 2009, 06:10:32 PM Bloomberg quotes Italian authorities: (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601092&sid=afJXAA1ahZyo)
Quote The bonds, with a face value of more than $134 billion, are probably forgeries, Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Guardia di Finanza in Como, Italy, said today. If the notes are genuine, the pair would be the U.S. government’s fourth-biggest creditor, ahead of the U.K. with $128 billion of U.S. debt and just behind Russia, which is owed $138 billion. The seized notes include 249 securities with a face value of $500 million each and 10 additional bonds with a value of more than $1 billion, the police force said on its Web site. Such high denominations would not have existed in 1934, the purported issue date of the notes, Mecarelli said. Moreover, the “Kennedy” classification of the bonds doesn’t appear to exist, he said. So a big clumsy fraud? Bizzare. Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: Triforcer on June 15, 2009, 01:52:38 AM Pfft. Amateurs. They should have dreamed big, like this guy:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/050108dnmetbillion.b623795f.html Title: Re: So much money it's not even funny... Post by: Oban on June 15, 2009, 10:13:41 AM So it turns out they are known Filipino scammers, :roffle:
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