[April Lexington]

They could be paper certificates of non-bearer bonds, but then, why sneak. They are registered to someone so the USA will figure it out eventually. Maybe someone has looted a hedge fund and was trying to stash the bonds in a safe deposit box until the heat is off? I have suspected some of the Madoff cash ended up in Switzerland because the USA was going ape over Swiss secrecy during the heat of the Madoff case. Either something is up or something is not up.

[April Lexington]

Clarification... Madoff didn't have anything close to $143 billion...

[NVDave]

Paper certs of non-paper or registered bearer bonds are like transporting your tax returns from 10 years ago. Why bother?

BTW — here’s what a real bearer bond looks like:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_07Vo5mDNg18/SjG0o3s-hAI/AAAAAAAAACw/qZFWJmppPak/s1600-h/bond1small.jpg

The interest “coupons” on the bottom of the bond would be clipped off and sent in to receive payment, hence the missing coupons on the left.