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Thread: Can I cash this check for $134 billion please?

  1. #1
    Senior Member WannaBe_80z's Avatar
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    Can I cash this check for $134 billion please?

    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.

    What caught the policemen’s attention were the billion dollar securities. Such a large denomination is not available in regular financial and banking markets. Only states handle such amounts of money.

    The question now is who could or would counterfeit or smuggle these non-negotiable bonds.

    In order to stop money laundering Italian law sets a ceiling of 10,000 euros per person for importing or exporting money without declaring it. The penalty for violating the law is 40 per cent of the money seized.

    If the certificates were real, for Italy it would be like hitting the jackpot. The fine alone would amount to US$ 38 billion, five times the estimated cost of rebuilding quake-devastated Abruzzi region. It would help Italy’s eliminate its public deficit.

    If the certificates are fakes the two Japanese nationals could get a very lengthy jail sentence for fraud.

    As soon as the seizure was made the US Embassy in Rome was informed. Italian and US secret services were called in to assist the Italian financial police.

    Some important international financial newspapers had already reported on the existence of ‘funny money’ circulating on parallel, i.e. unofficial, financial markets.

    For AsiaNews a few points need considering:

    1. When it comes to Italy the world press has tended to focus on Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi’s personal problems rather than on stories like the bonds smuggling affair which has been front page on Italian newspapers.

    2. The fear of counterfeit bonds and securities has spread across Asia with the result that real securities are also considered with suspicion.

    3. During the Second World War several countries at war printed and put in circulation perfectly counterfeit enemy money. It is also historically established that some central banks, like the Bank of Italy 65 years ago, issued the same securities twice (identical registered number and code). This way they could print more money with legal tender than they officially declared. The main difference though is that 65 years ago the world was involved in a bloody war, which is not the case today.
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  2. #2
    Hood Rich FlashLackey's Avatar
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    That is an absurd amount. If it's real, how could any organization miss that? And how could anyone who knows how to get hold of that not realize how dumb carrying it all around at once would be?

    Also, how do the Italians justify taking a quarter of the amount found? If it belongs to someone else, shouldn't it go back to them and then criminal charges/fines be levied just against the criminals? How does anyone know that the Italians aren't in on it and had the guys come over knowing that they would score a quarter of it due to some whacky fine structure?
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  3. #3
    supervillain gerbick's Avatar
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    You don't carry around 134 billion in your back pocket? pfft.

    [ Hello ] | [ gerbick ] | [ Ω ]

  4. #4
    Spartan Mop Warrior Loyal Rogue's Avatar
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    Must be fakes.
    Anyone moving that much value in real bonds wouldn't be doing it thru a couple of noname mules using a false-bottom suitcase.

    So this begs the questions, who's making the counterfeit bonds, is this an attempt to further debase the US dollar and crash our economy, and why has the US media been completely ignoring this story?!?

  5. #5
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    obviously they were trying to rescue the italian economy

  6. #6
    Total Universe Mod jAQUAN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FlashLackey View Post
    How does anyone know that the Italians aren't in on it and had the guys come over knowing that they would score a quarter of it due to some whacky fine structure?
    That was exactly my first thought. </tf-hat>

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