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

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

 

[oppie2005]

really odd....i read something eerily similar to this, months ago. It was about some guy that worked for some extremely rich "ancient asian" family..cant remember all the details....or very many of them for that matter. It was some conspiracy theory thing.

 

[DSAbug]

Crash the treasury market already.

 

[Bonzo]

I I guess Ben doesn't like competition in counterfeiting.

 

[DCFusor]

(Joke) Who says they're fake? Why, the guys who'd have to pay them if not. Heh.

I mean work it out - if they're (obviously?) fake, why the threat to financial stability? Going to buy plutonium with them? Code for "we really gotta make sure everyone knows this is really bad news" since there's no loose plutonium around to buy, particularly not in Nigeria - we've been burning bought Russian (and our own) plutonium in MOX reactors to get rid of it. The stuff has more than minor handling problems, no amateurs need apply. Plutonium is kind of gold colored...the real threat? Bu then again, cops always like to spin the bad guys as worse than they are - to justify inappropriate force, and to cast themselves as heroes saving the world. Just like any other action movie where we have to be shown just how evil the bad guy is so the good guy can go completely postal on him later to cheers - else we'd realize the good guy is pretty vicious/evil himself.

Yes, there was a conspiracy (or some kind of tin foil) theory that some old bonds from previous wars, owned I think by Chinese, were going to be forced to pay out, and they were selling pieces of the lawsuit against the US gov to force the payout. My thought at the time was even if it was true - good luck suing the government out of huge amounts of money. Those civil dispute laws are only for us "little people" Government long ago exempted themselves from most all of that, and in this case the numbers were big enough that Congress would hop on some special legislation to make it null anyway.

There are entirely too many people in the world dreaming of "that one big score" - they make for easy prey, which encourages the bad guys to keep trying that kinda crap. I prefer to let them play with one another as long as they leave me out of it.

 

[pmbug]

really odd....i read something eerily similar to this, months ago. It was about some guy that worked for some extremely rich "ancient asian" family..cant remember all the details....or very many of them for that matter. It was some conspiracy theory thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiasso_financial_smuggling_case

 

[swissaustrian]

Start watching at 20:00 for a similar case:

 

[bushi]

(Joke) Who says they're fake? Why, the guys who'd have to pay them if not. Heh.

...it was my immediate thought, I like your thinking DCF!

Imagine that scenario:

• Mafia has all sorts of ways to launder money - buying legit securities by scam funds is one of them, if Hollywood is to be believed
• Team America has figured one of their laundering operation out
• They move in, they declare the stuff they confiscated "fake", to the tune of 6 Trillions (who says so...) and voila! that & that much of sovereign debt paid, and couple of mafiosos out of their big money.

I obviously don't think that 6Trillions of fake obligations could be even sanely believed to be sold to suckers, I mean, c'mon! Global GDP of "real" economy estimated around 70trillions??? Who would bother trying to stash so much, if it couldn't be possibly sold, no way? I know criminals are not necessarily the brightest guys in the room, but ones who can try and sell this kind of stuff, are definitely not the dumbest of them...

 

[DoChenRollingBearing]

Hey, I want one of those $1,000,000,000 Gold Certificate thingies...

 

[DoChenRollingBearing]

Barron's, the big financial newspaper/magazine they put out on the weekends had an article that provided a few details on the $6 trillion scam.

Apparently it was a mickey-mouse scam to try and fool some Swiss banks (these clown gangsters think that Swiss are THAT stupid, geez...).

So, I wrote that up at my new blog article reviewing Barron's this weekend, included is my take on the TUNGSTEN piece, the Hugh Hendry interviews and how perma-bear Alan Abelson almost gave me a coronary...