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2 Japanese carrying $134 bil worth of U.S. bonds detained in Italy
Japan Today ^ | Thursday 11th June, 06:18 AM JST | JapanToday

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.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Japan
KEYWORDS: 200906; 20090603; bearerbonds; bonds; counterfeit; fakebonds; italy; japan; japanese; mafia; meyerhardt; milan; milancell; stephenmeyerhardt; switzerland; tbills; tm; treasurybonds; undeclaredbonds; undeclaredusbonds; usbonds; ustreasurybonds
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To: pissant
"North Koreans?

T-Bills in $500 million denominations are a whole lot harder to fake than good old Ben Franklins.

But, the mind races with speculation. People participating in legitimate business don't have false-bottomed briefcases with $134 Billion in unregistered, untraceable monetary instruments.

21 posted on 06/10/2009 10:57:04 PM PDT by Big_Monkey
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To: pepsionice
These were bearer bonds and the government doesn't issue them anymore because they were convenient for drug deals and terrorists. This is a HUGE number $134 billion in bearer bonds? Yowzers!
22 posted on 06/10/2009 10:58:23 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: KoRn

/mark


23 posted on 06/10/2009 10:58:35 PM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: pepsionice

My initial hunch like a poster above was that North Korea might be involved.


24 posted on 06/10/2009 10:58:56 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Xenophon450
Whomever owns the bonds should have hired Sandy Burglar to slip them into his socks and just Waltz right in!
25 posted on 06/10/2009 10:59:13 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: Big_Monkey
Maybe the Japanese are truly worried about being nuked back into the stone age? I doubt even the Emperor has that kind of liquid wealth laying around...
26 posted on 06/10/2009 11:00:33 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: Xenophon450
two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million,

The treasury issues pieces of paper which are each worth half a billion dollars (plus interest)?

27 posted on 06/10/2009 11:00:58 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: Big_Monkey

No individuals could do this.
So the only answer is that they are working for the Japanese government or one of the large Japanese banks.

They are certainly trying to dump them on the sly.
So the question is “What do they know that they aren’t telling us?”


28 posted on 06/10/2009 11:01:11 PM PDT by djf (Man up!! Don't be a FReeloader!! Make a donation today!)
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To: Xenophon450

Very interesting, and bizarre. I presume something big was going down.


29 posted on 06/10/2009 11:02:09 PM PDT by TheWasteLand
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To: April Lexington

Exactly, why even bother if the convenience exists. I have hardly ever heard of someone traveling with physical certificates, perhaps it happens more than I believe, but I suspect not. When I bought bonds it was a strictly digital affair, of course I never owned 135+ billion in bonds, maybe they get special decoder rings after the first billion ;-P.


30 posted on 06/10/2009 11:02:21 PM PDT by Xenophon450
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To: wideminded
Bond receipts of $500 million tend to be sold to sovereigns. Something very strange here. I wonder if these two guys were doing the Steve McQueen motorcycle trick?
31 posted on 06/10/2009 11:03:34 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: SpaceBar

WTF, eh.


32 posted on 06/10/2009 11:03:38 PM PDT by Ciexyz (I heard Joe the Plumber speak 03-30-2009.)
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To: pissant

“North Koreans?”

No, the north koreans would be lucky to have 2 wooden nickels and 100 trillion zimbabwe dollars.

Only the english, chinese, and japanese have that amount of US treasuries.


33 posted on 06/10/2009 11:03:49 PM PDT by staytrue
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To: Xenophon450
You’d hope they get something for that kind of dough! Even a prepaid Starbucks card would be nice!!!
34 posted on 06/10/2009 11:04:27 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: April Lexington

Anybody with Photoshop and a really good printer.


35 posted on 06/10/2009 11:06:13 PM PDT by Pelham (California, formerly part of the USA)
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To: staytrue

They are expert counterfeiters


36 posted on 06/10/2009 11:06:28 PM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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To: djf
They were trying to cash them out or do a forex transaction without catching any publicity.

I have to agree. Probably China wants to dump US treasuries without causing a world wide currency crises.

37 posted on 06/10/2009 11:06:44 PM PDT by staytrue
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To: Xenophon450

????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????????


38 posted on 06/10/2009 11:07:16 PM PDT by cookcounty (He who controls the Language controls the Debate.)
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To: wideminded
"The treasury issues pieces of paper which are each worth half a billion dollars (plus interest)?"

Just look at our trade deficit. We'd go broke just printing the bonds if we didn't offer them in huge denominations.

While they are going technically untraceable. The US treasury I'm sure already knows who they belong to. As others have pointed out, there's only a few entities on the planet - Saudis, Chicoms, Japs that get these things.

39 posted on 06/10/2009 11:08:16 PM PDT by Big_Monkey
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To: Xenophon450
Governments don't have to sneak T bonds into Switzerland. They just have their central bank transfer the values around the globe as necessary to balance accounts. If Japan is trying to pull a fast one by doing an end run there is something very wrong. I think this story is either erroneous or scary.
40 posted on 06/10/2009 11:08:17 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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