Mafia blamed for $134bn fake Treasury bills

Financial Times ^ | June 18, 2009 | FT reporters

[10Ring]

One summer afternoon, two “Japanese” men in their 50s on a slow train from Italy to Switzerland said they had nothing to declare at the frontier point of Chiasso.

But in a false bottom of one of their suitcases, Italian customs officers and ministry of finance police discovered a staggering $134bn (€97bn, £82bn) in US Treasury bills.

[10Ring]

These guys were just trying to commit the securities fraud that Americans won't commit (now that Madoff is in the klink).

[Puppage]

“I hear ‘tings, Joey, I hear tings”

[ghost of nixon]

The mafia? Who could possibly be on the other end of that transaction? The dollar amounts are way too large for even large-scale criminal activity.

[Roccus]

From the article;

"Whether the men are really Japanese, as their passports declare, is unclear but Italian and US secret services working together soon concluded that the bills and accompanying bank documents were most probably counterfeit, the latest handiwork of the Italian Mafia."

That's some really good sleuthing there.

[ClearCase_guy]

I still don't understand how anyone hoped to use a $1B (face value) "Kennedy Bond" as a financial instrument when -- according to our government -- there is no such thing as a $1B Kennedy Bond.

This is beyond selling someone the Brooklyn Bridge. This is selling someone the bridge that connects New York to Ireland.

Doesn't a forgery have to have a little credibility?? The whole thing is very weird.

[ravingnutter]

Did they come to that conclusion based on the Kennedy bonds? ; )

[Principled]

Whatever is going on, it’s not what the gov says.

A lot stinks about this “nothing to see here, move along” line.

Someone is dumping bonds before the crash and they don’t want to let it out. Tin foil is on, yes.

[WayneS]

WHICH mafia?

The democrats or the republicans?

[BGHater]

Oh sure, the Gov’t has never used the mafia before.

[WayneS]

This is selling someone the bridge that connects New York to Ireland.

What? You got one of those for sale? If so, I'm interested.

[PGR88]

WTF???

Two guys carrying $134 billion in fake bonds, and fake passports, get released - and now no one knows where they are????

[mewzilla]

They’re probably swimming with the fishies by now.

[AAABEST]

So far, none of the explanations, including the one contained in this article, seem to wash.

If it was a criminal enterprise then why would they simply let the international criminal counterfeit smugglers go?

This has yet to be explained satisfactorily, and anyone in a position to shed light on it has, thus far, been evasive and coy.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Don Bernanke sends his regards.

[Nephi]

Wow, it took them this long to come up with a cover story? What a load of bs.

[OneWingedShark]

I’m just waiting to see the headline: “Bogus Treasury bills traced to US Treasury” [/cynic]

[TommyDale]

Yakuza, maybe. Mafia, I doubt it.

[mewzilla]

FWIW, an expert I saw interviewed on FNC was of the opinion a government had to be behind this, especially if these were indeed counterfeit. The expert remarked that only a government would have the tech to concoct forgeries this good.

[mewzilla]

My money’s still on the PRC.

[Texas Fossil]

The mystery deepened on Thursday as an Italian blog quoted Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Como provincial finance police as saying the two men had been released. The colonel and police headquarters in Rome both declined to respond to questions from the Financial Times.

“They are all fraudulent, it’s obvious. We don’t even have paper securities outstanding for that value,’’ said Mckayla Braden, senior adviser for public affairs at the Bureau of Public Debt at the US Treasury department. “This type of scam has been going on for years.’’

Strange indeed, if they have been released and the treasury says they are "obviously" forged. Someone is obviously wrong. If they were forged they would certainly be in custody, if not it is obvious they would have been released.