Attempt to smuggle 134 billion in US bonds in a suitcase?

I'd tend to agree. However, if it was an absolute top-level issue, we (most likely) would not be reading/writing these lines and the italian cops would have had no chance.

Iraq/Iran/North Korea: Unlikely, amount too high.
Russia, China, Japan: More Likely
US, UK (some "dark" financial pool): Most Likely

 

"This article is full of ignorance of ... finance. US treasury bonds and "federal reserve bonds" (whatever that is) aren't bearer bonds. You don't walk into the bank, hand them a certificate, and ask for money in return. Every treasury bond holder (or their custodian) is registered with the treasury. Which also means it doesn't call into any question about the legitimacy of other treasury bonds."

"Full of ignorance" is, right, SJ. Yours.
No, I don't think you can "cash" a $500 million bond, but you can use it for collateral, like a CD. And the Italian police press release states specifically, "Federal Reserve bonds".
NOT "Treasury bonds".

And if every owner is registered, it would take only a few minutes to determine with certainty that they were fakes.

And as for "Federal Reserve bonds (whatever they are)", well, I'll (re)post a photograph of about 259 of them. They're the paper things under those police hats on that table. Valued at $134 Billion dollars...

 

Me personally I put my cash in a nuclear fall out shelter I built as a basement.


<a href='http://img31.imageshack.us/i/1billionincash.jpg/'><img src='http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/9086/1billionincash.jpg' ></a><br/>

 

That amount is roughly the net income of Itallian organized crime last year, really not that hard to imagine that type of money floating around.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...mafia-makes-them-Italys-biggest-business.html

 

this is an amazing story, didn't know you could fit 100bil into a suitcase

 

I would doubt they are fake. How would they believe a Swiss bank would take them and not seriously check them. It's too stupid to imagine. So assuming they are real.. It had to be a government. Which government and what they were trying to buy is the question. I would think China was up to something.

 

Dude.... I used to trade treasury bonds and cash for several institutions... there's no such thing as "Federal Reserve Bond". It doesn't exist. The fed do not issue their own debt instrument. People used the term "bearer bonds" because those are bonds that are payable to the holders and are thus currency. Otherwise, it's just an accounting record.

If these "bonds" are not bearer bonds, the italians have no standing to confiscate anything. It's like brining a copy of your bank statement across the border - it's not currency - it doesn't need to be declare.

Morons.

 

99.85% of Treasuries are never even printed.

Those bonds aren't real. They aren't even quality counterfeits, as the previous poster is right, the original never even existed. They're a complete fabrication.

There has been a long running scam involving 1934 "Federal Reserve Bonds" - takes 10 seconds with Google to learn that. Christ, I've had scans of these things from at least 2 years ago, when some jackass tried skimming one of my relatives for a finders fee.

The people who got caught are either incredibly stupid, or they have a line on an incredibly stupid mark. Or it's all a publicity stunt - they got caught intentionally, knowing they aren't going to suffer any consequences because they haven't actually done anything wrong - but the buzz will reverberate with the tin foil hat crowd allowing the creation of more future easy marks.

Of course, I don't expect those at the tin foil hat end of the spectrum (and if you believe those are real, that's where you are) to believe any of this, as the harsh bounds of reality have never stopped the spread of an entertaining conspiracy theory.

 

Here's a story on a previous attempt of this scam, only that time they had $2.5 Trillion "worth" of the crap.

http://www.fraud-stoppers.info/alerts/treasury.html

This scam has been running for at least a decade. Can we put this story to bed now? Because it's really quite embarrassing that such an obvious shite story is getting such solid play with the ET crowd...this place sure isn't what it used to be.

 

The money does not belong to an individual or a government. It belongs to AIG or one of the other TARP receivers. Yeah, now you know why banks are not loaning money out...they are smuggling it to switzerland!