Posted on 06/12/2009 8:49:34 PM PDT by PacificDiver
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 the real ones.
What caught the policemen’s attention were the billion dollar securities. Such a large denomination is not available in regular financial and banking markets. Only states handle such amounts of money.
The question now is who could or would counterfeit or smuggle these non-negotiable bonds.
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’s eliminate its public deficit.
If the certificates are fakes the two Japanese nationals could get a very lengthy jail sentence for fraud.
As soon as the seizure was made the US Embassy in Rome was informed. Italian and US secret services were called in to assist the Italian financial police.
Some important international financial newspapers had already reported on the existence of ‘funny money’ circulating on parallel, i.e. unofficial, financial markets.
For AsiaNews a few points need considering:
When it comes to Italy the world press has tended to focus on Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi’s personal problems rather than on stories like the bonds smuggling affair which has been front page on Italian newspapers.
The fear of counterfeit bonds and securities has spread across Asia with the result that real securities are also considered with suspicion.
During the Second World War several countries at war printed and put in circulation perfectly counterfeit enemy money. It is also historically established that some central banks, like the Bank of Italy 65 years ago, issued the same securities twice (identical registered number and code). This way they could print more money with legal tender than they officially declared. The main difference though is that 65 years ago the world was involved in a bloody war, which is not the case today.
Obama's fixin' to correct that situation.
Japan has stockpiled enough enriched uranium to make approx 1000 Nukes
When I first saw this story, I didn’t pay much attention to it. After reading some of the thread and linked in news articles, I’m starting to think it could be HUGH and SERIES.
coincidence?
Geitner meeting with Japan/Russia.
http://www.reuters.com/article/usDollarRpt/idUSN1151467420090611
The finance ministers' session will aim to set an agenda for a July 8-10 gathering of political chiefs in Italy, where U.S. President Barack Obama will join other world leaders.
Russia said on Wednesday it would reduce the share of U.S. Treasuries in its reserves and buy bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund.
My guess is that they paid off the usual suspects within the Italian government, but got screwed by another faction within the Italian government. Happens all the time. One government departments says okay, another government department says not okay. Besides, the Italian government gets a large percentage of that confiscated bondage if it is real. That motive is very clear.
If so, that would be cool... to think how impressed the ladies would be here in Dallas ;-)
This will be easy to cover up. The owner of the $ will just send a few thousand $ to Snopes.com and push out the cover story that this is an urban legend.
THOSE ARE MINE!
I had them in the backseat of 1988 toyota tercel. When I left the ‘Fall and Crawl” tavern, I noticed the back windows smashed out. I did not think anything of it then. When I sobered up, about 20 miles down the road, I though WTF! Where is my Billions of dollars in bonds?!?
(So, do I fill out fo form or somthing to get them back, or what?)
No, they’re mine. I had them stuffed in a mattress. My daughter threw it out and surprised me with a new mattress.
Where do I go to reclaim them?
Hmmm. Maybe Don Johnson should have tried to help...
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20139648,00.html
Do they have the full delivery package?
As I said, I would doubt if they did NOT have nuke capability, or at least all the parts that just need to be assembled.
Not mentioned in the article is that they also had 500 copies of BO’s birth certificate.
I agree the whole thing stinks. But if it were a nation-state with an embassy in Switzerland, why send the money across two borders in suitcases? Diplomatic pounch works a lot better.
So the candidates are: (1) nations without swiss embassies; (2) bad guys. We may get an answer. But we will probably never know the real answer.
Let's hope this is the far-reaching of my overly active imagination and that Japan was not behind this. If they are, it spells something ominous.
Doesn't this have an odd feel to it?
Are the Japanese dumping our debt? What’s going on here?
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