Posted on 06/10/2009 10:45:08 PM PDT by Xenophon450
ROME —
Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities.
According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan. The daily did not say on what charges they have been detained, but the two may have been detained on suspicion of attempting to take a large amount of securities out of Italy without declaring it because the paper said they had not declared the bonds.
Say, what brand of carry-on luggage comes with a false bottom? Do they have wheels?
You’re jumping to conclusions. They are only nominally described as Japanese. Meaning they were either traveling under Japanese passports or declared they were Japanese citizens.
They could be working for anyone, but why they did they get caught? Was the transaction being watched for some time?
Correct. This should be front page news for weeks. I doubt these guys were picked up because they looked nervous. Some agency caught wind of this and nabbed these guys at the border.
What are the Italian laws regarding undeclared monies?
I knew that the rise in the Euro made travel to Europe expensive but Holy Cow!
LOL
Your explanation is logical to me. Use these fake bonds as collateral and at more than one place
Interesting post/thread (scrolling through all). Thanks to all posters.
You say fake story, then say someone tried to pass some of them off to one of your broker dealers. This would seem to confirm the story, albeit with fake bonds.
Fake bonds or not, if this is a true story, it's still a serious concern. The amounts here are way out of whack with scammers/counterfeiters using this for collateral. Unless authorities or the reporting agency mistakenly said billion when they meant million, we're talking an agenda of major proportion--way beyond personal enrichment. We'd better hope the story is as fake as a $500 million paper bond.
From the last paragraph of the article you linked;
It is also historically established that some central banks, like the Bank of Italy 65 years ago, issued the same securities twice (identical registered number and code). This way they could print more money with legal tender than they officially declared. The main difference though is that 65 years ago the world was involved in a bloody war, which is not the case today.
Could our government be trying to pull off the same type caper or do I need more tin-foil??
The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities
There is something kinda fishy / sushi about this truckload of bonds. Either real stupid or extremely stupid case.
One of you is a lot poorer this morning because your couriers just got caught crossing into Switzerland...
Years ago when common stock certificates were still printed and sent by your broker to you if you wanted them, but mostly just sat.
Anyways, a mob company had the cartage contract for Wall Street and some wiseguys took briefcases of GM shares to Europe and borrowed against them and disappeared.
They had better spend that 134 bil fast. Pretty soon, it will barely buy a loaf of bread and a jar of Jif at Walmart. But it will still make good kindling.
“One of you is a lot poorer this morning because your couriers just got caught crossing into Switzerland...”
How archaic and stupid these idiots were/are.
I just buy billions ($’s) of US Treasury Bonds via the ETF method from my broker. (SHY,TLO, TLH etc.)
No need for couriers or the danger of lugging them around.
I can sell them at anytime when the market is open and have my broker send an electronic deposit where I want the money sent.
The cost is cheap, I can buy and sell billions at a time for less than $16 for each round trip action. I learned this from 0b0z0’s financial backer/advisor, George $oreA$$.
His checks were only worth 12 million. These treasury amounts make that look like a pittance.
Maybe they have a chalet and figure it would be cheaper to take US Treasury notes, convert to US dollars and burn them for heat.
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