Posted on 02/21/2012 4:25:59 PM PST by ColdOne
POTENZA, Italy (Reuters) - Italian police said on Friday they had seized about $6 trillion worth of fake U.S. Treasury bonds and other securities in Switzerland, and arrested eight Italians accused of international fraud and other financial crimes.
The operation, co-ordinated by prosecutors from the southern Italian city of Potenza, was carried out by Italian, Swiss and U.S. authorities after a year-long investigation, an Italian police source said.
It began as a investigation into mafia loan-sharking, but gradually expanded as prosecutors used telephone and computer intercepts to unearth evidence of illegal activity surrounding Treasury bonds.
The fake securities, worth more than a third of U.S. national debt, were seized in January from a Swiss trust company where they were held in three large trunks.
SNIP
Police videos showed images of the trunks, with "Federal Reserve System, Treaty of Versailles" stamped on the side in large, golden letters.
Bond certificates marked "Chicago, Illinois, Federal Reserve Bank" and other securities, some for one billion dollars, were also shown.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
hunh. Say, Mr. Daley, ya know anything about this?
You don’t sell that quantity of bonds to individual widows and orphans. Some huge investor was in their sights, and I wonder if some nod, wink was going on from the investor end too.
Rats!
That’s what Barack was going to use to pay off a third of our national debt!
ML/NJ
I thought it was the government that was supposed to come up with fake money.
No, no no,,,,those aren’t fake...thats QE3.
This story doesn’t pass the smell test. $6 trillion worth of fake U.S. Treasury bonds? I have never heard of anyone counterfeiting 1925 Duetch Marks. Or 1865 Confederate Dollars. Or even American one dollar bills. What do you think $6 trillion dollars worth of REAL U.S. Treasury bonds are worth? $5.50? Counterfeit? $.05?
Isn’t this the 2nd time fake bonds have been found? Remember Glenn Beck was on tear about this awhile back they found them on a train and then it went hush hush?
Wonder if “Turbo Tax Timmy” had a hand in their publication?
$875 billion in Malaysia[2005], $2 trillion in the Philippines[2001],
So....when China comes, bonds in hand, to get their money we can say with some credibility “These look like counterfeit bonds - we are not going to honor them.”
So what’s the difference between the fake ones and real ones. Not a whole lot; maybe just who gets paid for them.
Only slightly jokin...
Two ways the scam can work, One they insinuate that the current holders don't want to bring attention to themselves by and will sell them for pennies on the dollar, or they present them to idiotic bankers for safekeeping, and then use their bank statements as collateral on loans. They use old bonds because the government has not printed bonds for many years. It's a variation on the old 1,000 bill scams.
Ironically, these fake bonds are worth more than the real ones.
[ref whistle!] Oh! Pilin’ on! Fifteen yard penalty!
;’)
Thanks ColdOne.
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