Italian mafia caught with $ 6 TRILLION in fake US treasuries [no joke!]

[jmdrake]

Most ironic part of it all, very important to distinguish them from the real fictitious instruments.

+rep. It's all counterfeit anyway.

[Acala]

Zerohedge now has posted an explanation of the bonds. It is at least plausible. And really jaw-dropping. It's all about the gold, baby. Anyone who thinks gold isn't the real money on this planet is in for an eye opener.

[swissaustrian]

Start watching at 20:00 for a similar case:

[Zippyjuan]

Large amounts of fake notes of different types have been popping up about yearly lately. A lot seem to be created about the time of WWII - note these are dated from the 1930's.

From 2009: http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15456&size=A

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.

[legion]

Some weird stuff happened back in 1934, but I doubt this is one of those events.

[Bruno]

What a creative serial number

[TheOraclePaul]

Can someone explain how exactly a criminal would profit off these? Wouldn't they have to bring them to a financial institution or the Federal Government itself to 'cash them out'? Upon doing that, they would quickly realize that they were fakes upon inspecting the serial numbers etc... So how does this benefit a criminal? Seems like an easy way to verify they are fraudulent, but I might be missing something...

[Steven Douglas]

Can someone explain how exactly a criminal would profit off these? Wouldn't they have to bring them to a financial institution or the Federal Government itself to 'cash them out'? Upon doing that, they would quickly realize that they were fakes upon inspecting the serial numbers etc... So how does this benefit a criminal? Seems like an easy way to verify they are fraudulent, but I might be missing something...

Right off the top of my head: You wouldn't try to sell a fake Rolex to a watch expert, any more than you would try to sell fake bullion to an assayer. I got scammed in China shortly after becoming a resident there, and received counterfeit money as change without knowing it - about $60 US worth. There's actually a funny story that goes with that, but I became pretty much a Chinese RMB counterfeit expert after that. I didn't know the notes were counterfeit until I actually tried to tender them at a supermarket -- a place, like banks, where no counterfeiter would try to pass their notes.

I'm not sure about the counterfeiters' target market, but I think it's safe to say that it was never intended to be the issuing authority.

[Carson]

There is a Fark thread on this topic. I'm not sure if it can help understand what is happening to us any more than here though. Still some good ones in the comment section like;


Benjimin_Dover
2012-02-18 10:59:54 AM

knowless: how do they know they were fake?

Because they're worth more than real ones.


Comments here;

http://www.fark.com/comments/6949737...overnments-job

[Carson]

Right off the top of my head: You wouldn't try to sell a fake Rolex to a watch expert, any more than you would try to sell fake bullion to an assayer. I got scammed in China shortly after becoming a resident there, and received counterfeit money as change without knowing it - about $60 US worth. There's actually a funny story that goes with that, but I became pretty much a Chinese RMB counterfeit expert after that. I didn't know the notes were counterfeit until I actually tried to tender them at a supermarket -- a place, like banks, where no counterfeiter would try to pass their notes.

I'm not sure about the counterfeiters' target market, but I think it's safe to say that it was never intended to be the issuing authority.

The target market leaves the imagination reeling, does it not?


As does the origination.