News Japanese detained in Italy carrying $134 billion

[gravenewworld]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090612a2.html

If the bonds are indeed verified to be real, the 2 could be fined up to 40% of what they were carrying. Man, looks like Italy might get a $60 billion dollar aid package from the US treasury.
Who has that kind of access to that much money? Are they spies? Arms dealers to the world? Yakuza?

 

[Cyrus]

Holy MOLEY!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Gotta be fake. Who issues $134B in physical bonds these days?

 

[gravenewworld]

Gotta be fake. Who issues $134B in physical bonds these days?

If they're fake then this has to be the biggest counterfeiting scheme in history. If they're real, which country is trying to get rid of them? Is Japan losing their faith in the US economy and secretly trying to dump US securities onto the market? That would be bad news for the US economy if the countries who hold our debt start dumping our securities. If they're fake, is a country trying to destabilize the US economy by dumping vast amounts of fake money into the world market? Germany did it to Britain and tried to do it to the US during WWII.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Is Japan losing their faith in the US economy and secretly trying to dump US securities onto the market?

And why would Japan be storing these bonds in Italy? As opposed to...I dunno...maybe Japan?

 

[LowlyPion]

Some of those $500M bearer bonds may be mine. I think I misplaced a couple the other day making the bed.

 

[kyleb]

I suppose it's best not to ask how your bearer bonds wound up in your bed.

 

[gravenewworld]

And why would Japan be storing these bonds in Italy? As opposed to...I dunno...maybe Japan?

Because they were on their way to Switzerland to conduct an anonymous bank transaction? More info from Bloomberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=afJXAA1ahZyo
Could be the biggest attempt of fraud in history.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Because they were on their way to Switzerland to conduct an anonymous bank transaction? More info from Bloomberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=afJXAA1ahZyo
Could be the biggest attempt of fraud in history.

If the Japanese government was really going to physically transport 130 billion dollars in bonds to Switzerland, don't you think they'd use a direct flight? Instead of, well... losing 40% of it? I don't see how any government would expect to dump all their bonds on the market and not have someone notice; I mean seriously, there are only three creditors in the world with that much US debt

 

[gravenewworld]

If the Japanese government was really going to physically transport 130 billion dollars in bonds to Switzerland, don't you think they'd use a direct flight? Instead of, well... losing 40% of it? I don't see how any government would expect to dump all their bonds on the market and not have someone notice; I mean seriously, there are only three creditors in the world with that much US debt

Who knows what is going on? Why didn't they just do a computer transaction? Maybe they were worried about someone noticing that amount of money moving? Interestingly the G8 summit is going on very soon in Italy. The story gets weirder and weirder.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Who knows what is going on? Why didn't they just do a computer transaction? Maybe they were worried about someone noticing that amount of money moving? Interestingly the G8 summit is going on very soon in Italy. The story gets weirder and weirder.

But... how could you not notice that much money moving? Who are they going to give 130 billion dollars to, and in return for what, in such a manner that nobody notices? Unless the government just decided to spontaneously fund every criminal organization in existence it would be impossible to get any bang for your buck while keeping a transaction like that hidden.

 

[f95toli]

I think we can be quite sure that if a government for some reason wants to physically move high-value bonds they would simply use a diplomatic courier (no customs) and a direct flight.

Also, if you follow the link to Bloomberg above you will see that there is indeed something strange with the bonds; e.g. some of the notes are suppose to be $1 billion bonds from 1934, but bonds of that denomination did not exist back then.

So I think we can be pretty sure that these were forgeries; probably "props" for for some kind of fraud.

 

[LowlyPion]

So I think we can be pretty sure that these were forgeries; probably "props" for for some kind of fraud.

You'd think that before making change for one of those, you'd want to check to be sure it was real. I know I sure would.

 

[Phrak]

Also, if you follow the link to Bloomberg above you will see that there is indeed something strange with the bonds; e.g. some of the notes are suppose to be $1 billion bonds from 1934, but bonds of that denomination did not exist back then.

Looks like someone didn't do their homework.

 

[gravenewworld]

Details are still scarce. The story is real, however, the US Treasury still remains tight lipped. If they're so fake, why is it taking so long to dismiss them? Maybe they are really good counterfeits? Is N. Korea playing dirty?

http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/22605120/counterfeit-bonds.htmSounds like a good spy movie to me.

 

[Vanadium 50]

however, the US Treasury still remains tight lipped.

Why is it the US Treasury's job to provide fodder for the media?

 

[gravenewworld]

Why is it the US Treasury's job to provide fodder for the media?

The story is already broken. The public already knows. Even if the US Treasury never says anything directly to the public, the media will eventually find out. What's your point?