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

[swissaustrian]

This is not a joke, that's trillion with a T = $ 6000000000000:

Record $6 Trillion of Fake U.S. Bonds Seized in Mafia Probe
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Italian anti-mafia prosecutors said they seized a record $6 trillion of allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds, an amount that’s almost half of the U.S.’s public debt.The bonds were found hidden in makeshift compartments of three safety deposit boxes in Zurich, the prosecutors from the southern city of Potenza said in an e-mailed statement. The Italian authorities arrested eight people in connection with the probe, dubbed “Operation Vulcanica,” the prosecutors said.
The U.S. embassy in Rome has examined the securities dated 1934, which had a nominal value of $1 billion apiece, they said in the statement. Officials for the embassy didn’t have an immediate comment.
The financial fraud uncovered by the Italian prosecutors in Potenza includes two checks issued through HSBC Holdings Plc in London for 205,000 pounds ($325,000), checks that weren’t backed by available funds, the prosecutors said. As part of the probe, fake bonds for $2 billion were also seized in Rome. The individuals involved were planning to buy plutonium from Nigerian sources, according to phone conversations monitored by the police.The fraud posed “severe threats” to international financial stability, the prosecutors said in the statement.
HSBC spokesman Patrick Humphris in London declined to comment when contacted by telephone.
Phony U.S. securities have been seized in Italy before and there were at least three cases in 2009. Italian police seized phony U.S. Treasury bonds with a face value of $116 billion in August of 2009 and $134 billion of similar securities in June of that year.
The U.S. Secret Service averages about 100 cases a year related to bonds and other fictitious instruments.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...-of-fake-u-s-bonds-seized-in-mafia-probe.html

As a reminder:

the national debt of the United States was only $28 billion in 1934

http://www.quatloos.com/morganthau_bonds.htm

EDIT:

Pictures of the boxes released by BBC, of course they used Chicago

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17076378

EDIT: Here's the initial offering on some kind of offshore banking forum:

Transferring rights over Mother Box Treaty of Versailles 1934-Illinois Bank

We transfer rights over Mother Box Treaty of Versailles 1934-Illinois Bank having the next status:
1. Has been verified by the authorities, being legal, certain and real existence.-
2. With SKR in an Reputable Security House in an European Country .-
3. History of mother box and baby boxes (13 ) certified by a public notary.-
4. Print amount in the front of Mother Box includes:
M.B. Control...G7777xxxxxxxxxxxx
Serial
Sec Code
Public Debt Nº
Total Face Value: Three Trillions
5. Inside 13 baby boxes closed, with certificates, numbers, size and height.-
6. 13 JPG Images (In High Definition) Front, Up, Down, Right, Left, Inside, each with notary seal and sign.-

Transfer rights under conditions as follows:
1. Deal only with direct interested with Bank POF (Proof of Funds) in hands (Non negotiable point).
2. No broker chains or pretenders in the middle.
3. Verification when buyer wants and wish face to face.
4. Meeting with the owner without problem, ever in the European Country.
5. We are able and open mind about any reasonable offer.
6. We not send images, numbers of information in advance.
7. First step for any interested person: LOI and Passport.
8. Second step: We reply with the same.
9. Third Step: Both parties disclose addresses, phone numbers, mails and skype (Owners don´t speak english)
10. Operation is clear: after all previous steps is Box against Money.

If interest please write to secretisimo @ mail. com

h xx p://members4.boardhost.com/offshorebanking/msg/1319204795.html

Start watching at 20:00 for a similar case:

 

[Acala]

What? The? Hell?

In a Federal Reserve Treasure Chest?

I don't know what to think about this. Why would a counterfeiter go to all that trouble and then make the denominations seemingly ridiculous? Or maybe they are only ridiculous en masses but not so ridiculous a few billion at a time? And if they are counterfeit, WHEN were they made? Perhaps as an act of economic war during WWII?

Or maybe some Africans are only impressed by billions of dollars, having been exposed to the Zimbabwe dollar.

 

[specsaregood]

These are NOT "fake" US Treasuries. they are "fake" Federal reserve bonds. The difference is an important one.

 

[Cowlesy]

Hilarious. I'd love to roll into my local JP Morgan branch with a Treasure Chest full of these and say, "Yesss, I'd like to trade these for cash, or gold!!!!"

 

[fisharmor]

How do we know they're fake?

 

[jkr]

D-FAULT!

 

[DrHendricks]

CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN WHAT THIS STORY MEANS??

Especially in conjunction with this:

http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/995-lawsuit-end-tyranny
http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1026-financial-tyranny-final

 

[swissaustrian]

How do we know they're fake?

The denomination of one billion is extreme for 1934
The FED treasury boxes say:
"Chicago
Federal Reserve System"

It should say: "Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago".

 

[Steven Douglas]

The U.S. Secret Service averages about 100 cases a year related to bonds and other fictitious instruments.

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

 

[Acala]

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

Hahahahahaha! Nice catch

 

[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]

QUESTION: Can someone explain how exactly a criminal would profit?

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/Italian-police-arrest-counterfeiters-carrying-$6-TRILLION-in-fake-US-Bonds-remind-people-that-creating-absurd-sums-of-money-out-of-thin-air-is-governments-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.