ALERT: U.N./Italy defendants in lawsuit: Int'l Conspiracy theft of $1 TRILLION

[Sheepleprod]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98NSQJ00&show_article=1

ROME, June 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday.

The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities.

According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan.

The daily did not say on what charges they have been detained, but the two may have been detained on suspicion of attempting to take a large amount of securities out of Italy without declaring it because the paper said they had not declared the bonds.

It also said the Italian authorities were investigating whether the securities were genuine since their values are huge.

If the bonds are found to be genuine, the two could be fined around 40 percent of the total value of the bonds, it said.

[America2]

Wow - US security has gotten so bad, that we can't even guard our own MONEY.

[Sheepleprod]

 

I smell bond market manipulation or they are counterfeit.

[Mike Philbin]

traditionally, Japanese business men carry a lot of cash around with them - this is a special case, clearly.

[chris jones]

This is a hit. It appears they are attmpting to minimize this, but being realistic these two men most certainly have backup.

Who sent these courriers??  Where did this astronomical amount come from??

Time to get real about this, 134 Billion is not to be kept out of the frame.

[Sheepleprod]

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.

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.

[rawiron1]

So Italy gets to steal 40%?

Jason

[TahoeBlue]

http://cryptogon.com/?p=9095


U.S. Treasury documents confiscated by Italian authorities

Impounded at Chiasso [place] USA securities for 96 billion euros.

249 bonds of the Federal Reserve of the United States, each with nominal value of 500 million dollars, as well as 10 Kennedy bonds each of 1 billion dollars in value, hidden in the double bottom of a suit case, for a total of a good 134 billion dollars, equal to more than 96 billion euros.

This is how much was sequestered [don't know legal implication of this term] at the internation railway station in Chiasso, at the Swiss-Italian border, functionaries of the Territorial Operational Section of Chiasso, in collaboration with soldiers/members of the Financial Police [Guardia di Finanzia] of Ponte Chiasso, during the checking of bags aimed at stopping the illegal trafficing of capital.

The amount was in the possession of two fifty year old Japanese men who had arrived at the Chiasso railway station on a train coming from Italy and who, when checked by customs, had stated that they had nothing to declare.

Instead an accurate check of the bags facilitated the discovery of the American securities, hidden in the bottom of the suitcase, in a closed section separated from the part of the bag containing personal items.

Apart from the securities the Japanese men were carrying a considerable sum of original bank documents.

Investigations are underway to establish the identity and the origin of both the bonds and the bank documents that have also been impounded. If the securities are authentic, based on regulations in place, the penalty applicable to the possessors [of the bonds] could reach 38 billion euros, equivalent to 40% of the sum in excess of the acceptable baggage allowance of 10 thousand euro.

Here’s A’s translation:
...
249 Federal Reserve Bonds for 500 million dollars of nominal value each, plus 10 Kennedy bonds of 1 billion dollars each was found in the hidden bottom of a suitcase for a total of 134 billion dollars, or around 96 billion euro.

[Fuzzyone]

Hmmm...  American bonds.  Must have been planning to use them as toilet paper.

[PainInDaBrain]

2 japanese guys, in italy, with $134 bil...You got to be kidding me

[Aerioch]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98NSQJ00&show_article=1

It also said the Italian authorities were investigating whether the securities were genuine since their values are huge.

If the bonds are found to be genuine, the two could be fined around 40 percent of the total value of the bonds, it said.

If the Bonds turn out to be forged, then we are in for a shitstorm of Katrina's magnitude!! No Joke.

If the Bonds turn out to be genuine, then the purchase can be traced and the other party involved in the transaction can be fined/prosecuted as well.

[ren]

Saw this story this morning on Japan Today
http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/2-japanese-carrying-134-bil-worth-of-us-bonds-detained-in-italy
the comments section is interesting they raise some good points

[TahoeBlue]

What are the possible reasons for NOT declaring this sum of money?  Are  there taxes involved or did the owners not want a paper trail?  Why  Switzerland? Just curious I am totally ignorant of this kind of fund transfer  and the consequences of open declaration to authorities.

You're joking? Right? Money Laundering under Government Cover

[Aerioch]

What are the possible reasons for NOT declaring this sum of money?  Are
there taxes involved or did the owners not want a paper trail?  Why
Switzerland? Just curious I am totally ignorant of this kind of fund transfer
and the consequences of open declaration to authorities.

Uhmm didn't the United States Economy just mysteriously loose 5 trillion dollars over a period of 8 months?

Converting that amount of cash into bonds makes sense if you were to attempt to get it out of the country via false bottomed suitcases.

Lets say the scumbags that magically made money fall out of the bottom of the U.S. Economy on Sept. 11th 2008 had to divy up the cash, and then move it overseas off the grid (non-electronic transfer) to avoid leaving a paper trail.

The actual theft took place on September, 11th 2008. 

It took people 3 days to figure out what the f**k happened, and then 2 more days for the markets to realize the game was up.  September 15th, 2008 was the day Paulson/Bernake broke the news to the Bush Admin/Congress. This was the time the frantic call for unaccountable 700 Billion dollars was called for to "Purchase Trouble Assests" that were never actually purchased. 

Then the full blown crash began.

Stocks get pummeled
Wall Street sees worst day in 7 years, with Dow down 504 points, as financials implode.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks tanked Monday, amid the largest financial crisis in years after Lehman Brothers filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history, Bank of America said it would buy Merrill Lynch and AIG slumped on fears that it can't raise cash.

Treasury prices rallied as investors sought the comparative safety of government debt, sending the corresponding yields lower. Oil prices tumbled, falling well below $100 a barrel on slowing global economic growth. The dollar rallied versus the euro and gold prices spiked.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 504 points, or 4.4%. It was the biggest one-day decline for the Dow on a point basis since Sept. 17, 2001, when the market reopened for trading after having been closed in the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks. On a percentage basis, it was the biggest decline since July 19, 2002.

The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index lost 4.7%, its worst day since Sept. 17, 2001, when it plunged 4.9%. The S&P 500 also closed at its lowest point since Oct. 27, 2005.

The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 3.6%, its worst single-session percentage decline since March 24, 2003. It left the tech-fueled average at its lowest point since March 17 of this year.

"It was an ugly day," said James King, president and chief investment officer at National Penn Investors Trust Company. "Lehman's failure to find a suitor and Merrill deciding to cash in their chips before a similar fate could befall them really stoked the fears of the public."

AIG exacerbated those fears in the afternoon. And all the bad news isn't out there yet, King said. "Investor confidence is at the lowest point we've seen in a while."

He said that after the government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week and all the other financial market bad news, this was just too much for investors.

But it doesn't mean that the stock market is likely to see these kind of massive selloffs on a regular basis, King said. Nasdaq and S&P futures pointed to a higher open Tuesday, when fair value is taken into account.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/markets/markets_newyork2/index.htm

[Aerioch]

Why is our government issuing ONE BILLION DOLLAR bonds on paper?
Hell the bond should be specially engraved on gold plate which is verified
with an identical engraved plate kept at Fort Knox.  There should be a
top secret metal content "fingerprint" unique to the pair of plates.

I think you are forgetting the very important fact that our government doesn't really control our currency, or account for it.  The for-profit Corporation know as "The Federal Reserve" does that.

One other fact is that they keep their books away from the prying eyes of those who actually want an honest accounting record of their business.

If the for-profit Corporation known as "The Federal Reserve" wanted actual manipulate our dollar and steal from the United States, the verification system you described would be the last thing they would wish to implement.

[TahoeBlue]

I am watching this for a followup. I haven't seen any release of any names. This is big.
i.e. Whose bonds were they and into what account were they going to?

[Satyagraha]

Yes.. this is one mention - basically as you said, no news...
http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/06/11/2-japanese-carrying-134-billion-in-us-bonds-detained-in-italy/
June 11:
"Very little new information has been released since we first broke this story yesterday. We’ll continue to monitor it and bring you the latest updates. "

Dropped off the radar immediately!

[Sheepleprod]

Still nothing mainstream just feeder sites and blogs covering.  Something shady this way comes as always.

[TahoeBlue]

The story is getting buried in Italy. Maybe the PM owns most of the media in Italy?
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/worldviews/category?blogid=15archive&cat=535
http://forum.grasscity.com/politics/322781-silvio-berlusconi-italys-prime-minister.html



http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15505&size=A
06/12/2009 19:05
ASIA – ITALY
Seizure of US government bonds from two Japanese men in Italy raises questions

Seized US bonds are worth US$ 134.5 billion. The whole affair touches a number of economic and political issues. For some the resignation of Japan’s Interior minister might be related to it.

Milan (AsiaNews) – There have been new developments with regards to the story of US$ 134.5 billion in US government bonds seized by Italy’s financial police at Ponte Chiasso on the Italian-Swiss border, which AsiaNews reported four days ago. News about it initially made it to the front page of many Italian papers, but not of the international press. Since yesterday though, some reports have published by English-language news agencies. And some commentators are starting to link the story to reports in US press dating back to 30 March.

On that date the US Treasury Department announced that it had about US$ 134.5 billion left in its financial-rescue fund, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), whose purpose is to purchase assets and equity to buttress companies in trouble. The existence of such means that the Obama administration may not have to go to Congress for additional funds, something which is especially important since many lawmakers have vowed to oppose any requests for more money.

At the same time, Japan’s Kyodo news agency has reported that the resignation of Japan’s Interior Minister Kunio Hatoyama might also be related to the Ponte Chiasso affair. Officially the minister quit as a result of a row over who should head the state-owned Japan Post, but some sources have suggested that such a scenario is not very plausible since Mr Hatoyama was Prime Minister Taro Aso’s main ally in his rise to the prime minister’s office, and is especially unconvincing since the ruling coalition government has to face elections in just two weeks time. Indeed there are many reasons to connect the Ponte Chiasso incident to the minister’s resignation.

First of all, the men carrying the bonds had a Japanese passport. Secondly, they were not arrested. Under Italian law anyone in possession of counterfeit cash or bonds worth more than a few tens of thousands of euros must be arrested. By comparison the value of the seized counterfeit bonds is equal to 1 per cent of the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Thirdly, how the seizure took place is worthy of a Monty Python  movie—two well-dressed Japanese men carrying a briefcase travelling in a local train usually used by Italian manual labourers who commute to Switzerland for work had as much chance to go unobserved as two European businessmen travelling in the Congo.

For AsiaNews the incident raises several questions. For example, why did Italy’s press, of every stripe, first give the matter great visibility, only to drop it as quickly?   Also, if we are to assume that the bonds are real, why were they in Italy on their way to Switzerland? If these were the unused TARP funds why would they be in US Federal Reserve denomination? Would it not have been better to wait to see how they would be used before the bonds were issued? If they are authentic and owned by a foreign state, why were they not transported in a diplomatic bag, which cannot be inspected at customs? And what will the Italian government do insofar as the issue represents an offence under Italian law? Will it impose a fine of 38 billion euros, and run the risk of a row with an ally, or return the money without any penalty to the rightful owner and show the world that Italy is some kind of banana republic, a semi-colonial protectorate that violates its own laws and constitution?

Whatever the case may be, for Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi it is a heavy burden to bear, given the legal and criminal consequences he might face.

The only people who come out of it well are Italy’s tax cops, reason for them to show off their success on their website.

[Sheepleprod]

Getting Weirder by the day!  KArl Denninger has been doing some excellent analysis on this topic over at Market Ticker.  Read this!


http://market-ticker.org/archives/1119-The-Saga-Of-The-Bearer-Bonds.html

It just gets more and more odd after my original report, with the latest coming from a German newspaper (translation courtesy of Google):

    Hit for the Zöllner: The contraband securities valued at 134 billion U.S. dollars are apparently real. Die italienische Finanzpolizei hatte zwei Japaner ertappt, die im doppelten Boden eines Koffers milliardenschwere Anleihen in die Schweiz schaffen wollten. The Italian financial police had two Japanese caught in the false bottom suitcase billion-dollar bonds in Switzerland wanted to create. Von dem Fund profitiert das hochverschuldete Italien.

Note that this has received very little coverage in the so-called "mainstream US media" - but it is everywhere in Europe and Asia.

Japan, for its part, oddly said the following as soon as this story started to hit the press:

    “We have complete trust in the fact that the U.S. views its strong-dollar policy as fundamental,” Yosano, 70, said in an interview in Tokyo on June 10 before attending a Group of Eight meeting of finance ministers starting today in Italy. “So our trust in U.S. Treasuries is absolutely unshakable.”

Uh huh.  And the Japanese said in December of 1941 that all was well too.  Anyone remember what happened on the morning of the 7th?

Let's apply a little "Occam's Razor" to this entire story.

You're not going to walk into a bank with $130 billion in bearer bonds and cash them.  Nor are you going to sell a bond with a $500 million face value to someone without them authenticating it.  They will be authenticated before you get one dime out of them - no matter who you think you're going to "give" them to.

So if they're fakes and you're "just screwing around", there is no reason to hide them.  Nor is there any particular reason to have authentic and recent original bank documents in your luggage with them, as has been reported.

Next, unless someone knew you were smuggling them, why would you be subject to that sort of search?  What made the people involved "interesting" to the authorities?  This doesn't sound like a random stop to me; how many people are carrying $130 billion in bearer bonds at any given point in time?  No, someone was tipped off that this was happening.  Now why would you bother to stop them here, prior to their attempted delivery of such instruments, if they were fake?

Think about this: You know someone is smuggling a load of drugs.  You can either bust them immediately or you can tail them and bust them when they show up at the "meet" to exchange the dope for the money.  If you do the former the guys with the money get away, having committed no crime.  But if you do the latter, you get to bust both the courier and the purchaser - two times the effectiveness for the price of one, and double the seizure value, since you get to seize the cash too!

So let's assume that the certificates are real, as German media seems to believe and which, by the way, makes logical sense given what they were and the sheer impossibility of cashing a fake $500 million bond.

Ok, who has $130 billion in bearer bonds?  Remember, bearer instruments haven't been issued by the Treasury since 1982, when they became illegal to issue, at least to US institutions and residents (there was an exception carved out for Treasury instruments issued to non-US residents in 1985 - a time of high deficits)  The answer to that question: it is rather unlikely that there remains $130 billion of legitimate US Bearer issuance outstanding anywhere - to anyone.

Mr. Holmes would be initially puzzled by such a caper.  On the one hand we have the impossibility of the bonds being real, because there simply isn't $130 billion of issues remaining outstanding.  On the other hand we have the impossibility of negotiating a fake $500 million bearer instrument, making the exercise of counterfeiting one expensive and futile.

This leaves us with more questions than answers at this point. 

Or does it?

As Mr. Holmes is famously rumored to have said, "once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however implausible, must be the truth."

So what remains?  Let's run a theory here - one of the few possible remaining options, given the exclusion of what we know not to be true...

Are we willing to assume that all the "issue" of Treasury bonds has been done "above board" as required by law.  If Treasury has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say, Japan, as a means of financing deficits that someone didn't want reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years, then the following is about to occur:

Who could have possibly been complicit in such a scheme?  I can come up with only two nations (and only nations could be involved due to size): The Japanese and Chinese.  Since the two individuals who were arrested were reported to be Japanese nationals......

There are tremendous implications in an event like this, again, assuming the bonds are real.

The owner is going to want them back, of course.  But Italy is going to keep a third as their statutory penalty for non-declaration on the border.  Oops.  That's great for Italy, but it blows bananas for the actual owner.

Of course Italy (or the US!) could declare them "fake" and as a consequence simply burn them.  If they are in fact real, that's an even bigger problem.  See, Bearer Bonds are issued without registration - they are as anonymous as a $100 bill in terms of who owns them.  That's one of their "features", and why they were often used for various clandestine money operations.  So if they are real and are destroyed, the owner is out of luck - their money is gone just as it is if you burn a $100 bill in an ashtray.

How much is $130 billion in this context?  About 1/5th or so of what Japan legitimately owns of US Treasury debt.  How would you like to take an instantaneous (and permanent!) 20% haircut on your securities?  That's what I thought.

To add some balance here, there have been stories about fake bearer bonds coming out of North Korea and other places for years.  But the idiocy of attempting to pass a $500 million certificate belies this possibility - who in the name of God would take such a thing and give you anything for it without authenticating it first?  While bearer instrument are "anonymous" in terms of who owns them, their authenticity is easily verified as they ARE serialized instruments.

I remain puzzled, and am not advancing the above theory as fact.

It is, however, one of the few explanations that actually fits the facts, and for that reason, I think we need some answers.  If in fact previous administrations were issuing "off-book" Treasury debt in this fashion to sovereigns then implications are truly explosive as such issues are blatant and outrageous unlawful acts and would expose everyone involved to severe criminal penalties.

Let's hope we get those answers, and this isn't one of those "funny things" that just disappears into the night.

[Satyagraha]

Awesome Sheepleprod - this gets more interesting. Thanks for keeping us updated!

[chris jones]

The buck stops here!

Our dear ol' Federal Reserve.
 Bearing in mind they are hiding trillions, FK the people of this nation sidways and inside out, the focus of this reamins with us, or the FED. THE USA.

To whom were they issued and why?? We can rattle about the Japenese, the Italians,& moonmen, but the circle is not complete untill the FED is brought into the equation.

[TahoeBlue]

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/06/talys-financial-police-seize-us-1345-billion-us-bonds-on-the-border-between-italy-and-switzerland-sm.html
...
Notice, by the way, that the US Media has totally ignored this story - even though the securities in question are allegedly US instruments.

Gee, I wonder why?  Might the authorities know they're real and be just a wee bit nervous that disclosure of a sovereign attempting to covertly dump nearly $140 billion in debt could cause a wee bit of panic, given that we're running nearly $200 billion a month in deficits?
...
Comments
Posted by: pythagoras | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 12:03 AM

The number $134.5 Billion is such a nice number. According to a Wall Street Journal article on March 30, 2009, there was $134.5 Billion remaining of the TARP funds. What an odd coincidence! Why would anybody counterfeit a bond with a face value of $500 million? I would look for Mr. Geitner's fingerprints on the bonds. Neither of the "Japanese" men were arrested and the story is being killed by the press in Italy and the US.

[Aerioch]

Notice, by the way, that the US Media has totally ignored this story - even though the securities in question are allegedly US instruments.

Glenn "NWO SHILL" Beck finally did 15 minutes on this today. 

The clip should be up soon on fauxnews -or- or his other site. I will post it when it is available.

[Sheepleprod]

Just barely scraping the surface of Glenn Beck is not exactly the coverage it deserves but Im curious to here what the deceiver has to say about it.

[Aerioch]

Counterfeit Bonds?

Title: Counterfeit Bonds?
Published: Mon, 15 Jun 2009
Description: Italian police arrest Japanese men smuggling $134 billion in U.S. bonds


http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/22605119/counterfeit-bonds.htm#q=U.S.+Bonds+Japan++Italy

Faux doesn't know the facts yet but ... The very first graphic is "Economic Apocalypse"

[Hobbes]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/03/geithner-on-tar.html

very odd that there's $135 billion left in tarp ..............

[America2]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/03/geithner-on-tar.html

very odd that there's $135 billion left in tarp ..............

Bah - ABC is just a stooge of the NWO, and just merely takes orders from all their super elite superiors.

[ren]

ROME, June 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds

(Kyodo)—Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds

(Kyodo)—Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds

(Kyodo)—Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds

[TahoeBlue]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/03/geithner-on-tar.html
very odd that there's $135 billion left in tarp ..............

on March 29, 2009 8:56 AM

[America2]

on March 29, 2009 8:56 AM

However - the $700b was already LLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG gone once the bailout bill passed last Oct. As a matter of fact, the figure has reached some $11t.

[Sheepleprod]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a62_boqkurbI

Well Bloomberg finally picked it up!


June 17 (Bloomberg) -- It’s a plot better suited for a John Le Carre novel.

Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high gear.

Are these would-be smugglers agents of Kim Jong Il stashing North Korea’s cash in a Swiss vault? Bagmen for Nigerian Internet scammers? Was the money meant for terrorists looking to buy nuclear warheads? Is Japan dumping its dollars secretly? Are the bonds real or counterfeit?

The implications of the securities being legitimate would be bigger than investors may realize. At a minimum, it would suggest that the U.S. risks losing control over its monetary supply on a massive scale.

The trillions of dollars of debt the U.S. will issue in the next couple of years needs buyers. Attracting them will require making sure that existing ones aren’t losing faith in the U.S.’s ability to control the dollar.

The dollar is, for better or worse, the core of our world economy and it’s best to keep it stable. News that’s more fitting for international spy novels than the financial pages won’t help that effort. It is incumbent upon the U.S. Treasury to get to the bottom of this tale and keep markets informed.

GDP Carriers

Think about it: These two guys were carrying the gross domestic product of New Zealand or enough for three Beijing Olympics. If economies were for sale, the men could buy Slovakia and Croatia and have plenty left over for Mongolia or Cambodia. Yes, they could have built vacation homes amidst Genghis Khan’s Gobi Desert or the famed Temples of Angkor. Bernard Madoff who?

These men carrying bonds concealed in the bottom of their luggage also would be the fourth-largest U.S. creditors. It makes you wonder if some of the time Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner spends keeping the Chinese and Japanese invested in dollars should be devoted to well-financed men crossing the Italian-Swiss border.

This tale has gotten little attention in markets, perhaps because of the absurdity of our times. The last year has been a decidedly disorienting one for capitalists who once knew up from down, red from black and risk from reward. It almost fits with the surreal nature of today that a couple of travelers have more U.S. debt than Brazil in a suitcase and, well, that’s life.

Clancy Bestseller

You can almost picture Tom Clancy sitting in his study thinking: “Damn! Why didn’t I think of this yarn and novelize it years ago?” He could have sprinkled in a Chinese angle, a pinch of Russian intrigue, a dose of Pyongyang and a bit of Taiwan-Strait tension into the mix. Presto, a sure bestseller.

Daniel Craig may be thinking this is a great story on which to base the next James Bond flick. Perhaps Don Johnson could buy the rights to this tale. In 2002, the “Miami Vice” star was stopped by German customs officers as he was traveling in a car carrying credit notes and other securities worth as much as $8 billion. Now he could claim it was all, uh, research.

When I first heard of the $134 billion story, I was tempted to glance at my calendar to make sure it didn’t read April 1.

Let’s assume for a moment that these U.S. bonds are real. That would make a mockery of Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano’s “absolutely unshakable” confidence in the credibility of the U.S. dollar. Yosano would have some explaining to do about Japan’s $686 billion of U.S. debt if more of these suitcase capers come to light.

‘Kennedy Bonds’

Counterfeit $100 bills are one thing; two guys with undeclared bonds including 249 certificates worth $500 million and 10 “Kennedy bonds” of $1 billion each is quite another.

The bust could be a boon for Italy. If the securities are found to be genuine, the smugglers could be fined 40 percent of the total value for attempting to take them out of the country. Not a bad payday for a government grappling with a widening budget deficit and rebuilding the town of L’Aquila, which was destroyed by an earthquake in April.

It would be terrible news for the White House. Other than the U.S., China or Japan, no other nation could theoretically move those amounts. In the absence of clear explanations coming from the Treasury, conspiracy theories are filling the void.

On his blog, the Market Ticker, Karl Denninger wonders if the Treasury “has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say, Japan, as a means of financing deficits that someone didn’t want reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years.” Adds Denninger: “Let’s hope we get those answers, and this isn’t one of those ‘funny things’ that just disappears into the night.”

This is still a story with far more questions than answers. It’s odd, though, that it’s not garnering more media attention. Interest is likely to grow. The last thing Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke need right now is tens of billions more of U.S. bonds -- or even high-quality fake ones -- suddenly popping up around the globe.

(William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: William Pesek in Tokyo at wpesek@bloomberg.net

[barndoor77]

Now we know where $134 Billion of the $14 Trillion went....

[TahoeBlue]

-- or even high-quality fake ones --

They keep alluding that the bonds are fake. If were even possibly fakes, the 2 men would have been arrested on the spot (Counterfeiting is a crime - duh). The two men were not even detained, and not yet let alone arrested. If they had been arrested, then police reports would have their names and that would have been in the news articles. 

Yes everything in Italy is very conservative and above board, no signs of impropriety here.

Naked Pictures Of Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi Are Never Too Racy For Spanish Press

Click Below for Pictures of Berlusconi & His Guests at the Villa
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Berlusconi/califica/inocentes/fotos/fiestas/publicadas/PAIS/elpepuint/20090605elpepuint_14/Tes

[Sheepleprod]

Who buys a 1 billion dollar fake bond???

You don't get a cool bil by being a complete moron!

This story needs more attention.

[TahoeBlue]

It is interesting that the story was reported on June 10 (AP) .

On June 11th:

http://www.reuters.com/article/usDollarRpt/idUSN1151467420090611

UPDATE 1-Geithner to meet with Russia, Japan ministers at G8
Thu Jun 11, 2009

WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday will meet Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano and Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin in Italy, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

The bilateral meetings are part of the Group of Eight finance ministers meeting in Lecce, Italy. The G8 meetings are scheduled for June 12-13.

The finance ministers' session will aim to set an agenda for a July 8-10 gathering of political chiefs in Italy, where U.S. President Barack Obama will join other world leaders.

Russia said on Wednesday it would reduce the share of U.S. Treasuries in its reserves and buy bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund.

Russia holds about 30 percent of its reserves in U.S. Treasuries. The country had pledged to buy about $10 billion worth of bonds to be issued by the IMF as part of a fundraising effort to help countries hit by the crisis.

The G8 consists of the United States, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia. (Reporting by Nancy Waitz; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

[Sheepleprod]

Ok so no one except Glenn the Shill Beck touches this story in US press UNTIL.........See below 

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090618-707082.html


 WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A cache of what appeared to be around $135 billion of U.S. bonds seized at the Italian-Swiss border is, in fact, worthless, a Treasury Department spokesman said.

Two alleged Japanese citizens were stopped by Italian authorities June 4 trying to cross into Switzerland with the supposed bonds, hidden in the false bottom of a suitcase, the authorities said.

Authorities said they found 249 certificates worth $500 million each and 10 bonds worth more than $1 billion each, as well as other alleged original banking statements.

Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for Treasury's Bureau of Public Debt, said Thursday the paper is phony.

"Based on the photos we've seen on the Web, they're not even close to looking like a Treasury security," he said.

In the 1980s, the U.S. began converting its marketable debt from paper; these days, Treasury securities are issued electronically.

An official at Japan's Consulate General in Milan said Tuesday that Italy was still investigating the case, adding it wasn't confirmed the two men are Japanese.

"We sent a letter asking for further information to the Italian tax police as well as prosecutors," the Japanese official said.

[TahoeBlue]

They are doing everything they can to kill this story.

"Based on the photos we've seen on the Web"
"it wasn't confirmed the two men are Japanese."
"worthless, a Treasury Department spokesman said."

BS The italians have they're passports. They have been detained and must know they're names.
This is either the most elaborate con-job of this century or the bonds are real and the governments involved are very embarassed and hope it all goes away very soon.

[Sheepleprod]

YES through pictures on the television we have decided that these bonds are fakes!

Go back to sleep sheeple nothing to see here!

[Satyagraha]

Ok so no one except Glenn the Shill Beck touches this story in US press UNTIL.........See below 

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090618-707082.html

"Based on the photos we've seen on the Web, they're not even close to looking like a Treasury security," he said.

An official at Japan's Consulate General in Milan said Tuesday that Italy was still investigating the case, adding it wasn't confirmed the two men are Japanese.

Sheepleprod - I think they're almost 'mission accomplished' at this point - they've even tried to deny the guys are Japanese! And you're right, clearly they've brought in the senior forensic document analysts to have a look a the WEB pictures!!!  I hope we'll learn more, but not too optimistic.