Two Japanese nationals were arrested by Italian customs agents for smuggling what appeared to be 249 half billion note US treasury/Federal Reserve bonds -- a total of 134.5 Billion dollars.
The question is -- are they counterfeit? If they are counterfeit, the point of origin is North Korea. This is what the NORKS do. There number one export (their only export?) is counterfeit merch and money. They are the world's leading counterfeiters; they love printing American money. but this is a whole other thing. Frankly, I never understood why the Americans didn't blow those counterfeiting factories to smithereens years ago (along with their nuclear weapons program).
Smuggling Or Counterfeit-Printing?
Ok, this was rumored several days ago, but now I can find actual news reports -- at least, outside the US:
Milan (AsiaNews) – Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US government securities worth a billion dollar each.
Those sound like Bearer Bonds - at least the Kennedy ones do.
We no longer issue those (nor does pretty much anyone else) for obvious reasons - they're essentially money and can be had in VERY large size, making them great vehicles for various illegal enterprises.
But folks: This is $134.5 billion dollars worth.
If they're real, what government (the only entity that would have such a cache) is trying to unload them?
If they're fake, this is arguably the biggest counterfeiting operation ever, by a factor of many times. I've seen news about various counterfeiting operations over the years that have made me chuckle, but this one, if that's what it is, is absolutely jaw-dropping.
The cute part of this is that if the certificates are real Italy just got a hell of a bonanza - their money laundering laws provide for a statutory 40% penalty for failure to declare instruments and cash in excess of $10,000 Euros, which means they'd garner a close-to-$40 billion dollar windfall.
That ought to help their budget problems!
Notice, by the way, that the US Media has totally ignored this story - even though the securities in question are allegedly US instruments.
Gee, I wonder why? Might the authorities know they're real and be just a wee bit nervous that disclosure of a sovereign attempting to covertly dump nearly $140 billion in debt could cause a wee bit of panic, given that we're running nearly $200 billion a month in deficits?
Inquiring minds want to know what's really going on here.
Photo of the stash:
Tee Cee, who sent me the story, wrote:
If the bonds turn out to be fake - here's my very educated take on who, why, what, how:
The two culprits are reported as being "Japanese" citizens. More likely -they are Japanese citizens of Korean ethnicity with connections to communist North Korea (short history - Korean communist movement was hatched and still major-league funded and supported by ethnic Koreans born and raised in Japan (it's a racist "thang you know"): it is practically out in the open knowledge inside Japan - that Japan born ethnic Koreans with ties to communist n. korea send literally -no exaggeration -boat loads of cash made in Japan (by ethnic Korean owned enterprises) to their comrades in n. korea (it is one of the major means of economic support for n. korea)
Communist pals - China and North Korea; likely the communist Chinese allowed some Korean comrades to see/possess US fed reserve/treasury bonds - for counterfeiting purposes; likely they would be splitting any gains if successfully sold to/in euro market and or into swiss bank accounts - for later use
if the bonds are real - similar deal as above (obtained by North Korea, from comrade commies in china, smuggled to Switzerland by ethnic Korean communist Korea sympathizers who hold Japanese citizen ship
if either of above is true - we now know how/what keeps the evil communist dwarf in business
From Asia News:
Bonds worth US$ 134.5 billion are seized. This is the largest financial smuggling case in history. But are they real? Concern over ‘funny money’ or counterfeit securities is spreading in Asia. The international press is silent.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US government securities worth a billion dollar each.
Italian authorities have not yet determined whether they are real or fake, but if they are real the attempt to take them into Switzerland would be the largest financial smuggling operation in history; if they are fake, the matter would be even more mind-boggling because the quality of the counterfeit work is such that the fake bonds are undistinguishable from...
