Two Japanese Nationals Caught Smuggling $134 BILLION in Bonds into Switzerland

[FlyingTiger]

Holy shit. Only ten countries in the world hold that much. And if you wanted to discreetly get out of the dollar, this would be the way to do it.

If these bonds are real (and no one in history has counterfeited that much), this is bad, BAD news:

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.

http://www.meltingpotproject.com/mpp/2009/06/have-you-ever-smuggled-134-billion-across-the-border.html">Full Article

[secondwind]

1. find this very difficult to believe.

[FlyingTiger]

2. Well, do you believe The Business Insider?

http://www.businessinsider.com/italy-seizes-a-ridiculous-135-billion-worth-of-smuggled-us-bonds-2009-6

[Poll_Blind]

3. This is very strange. Funny part is, if they're fake it's only mildly strange. If real? Heh.

The fact that among them were the afore-mentioned 249 "bonds" worth 500-million dollars each makes it...well, stranger-yet. I wonder if there wasn't some mistranslation in the 500-million...as in not dollars but something else.

You don't counterfeit million-dollar bills. And you don't counterfeit hundreds or fifties. Hell, if you're smart, you don't even counterfeit twenties or tens. You counterfeit 5 dollar bills, cause no one is going to look twice at it.

So either all of these are real or they're not. No in-between.

And no matter what you counterfeit, you don't pass them off to institutions which are experts in these sorts of financial instruments.

Very, very strange. Why not send a diplomatic pouch if you've got something as bizarre as that to move? I'm sure many are familiar with how the Hope Diamond was moved from Africa to the UK but those days, one would imagine, are over.

PB

[FlyingTiger]

6. It's not strange at all if they're real.

It means that Japan is secretly dumping its dollars, as many have speculated.

As for why they wouldn't just fly it in and enjoy diplomatic immunity, the chance of somebody noticing a couple dudes leaving the Japanese embassy, going to a Swiss bank, and carrying in a couple big-ass duffel bags at a time when Japan's commitment to Treasuries is being questioned... well, it would raise some eyebrows.

[Poll_Blind]

9. Yeah, if they're for real your answer would make sense. I'm sure everybody...

...keeps tabs on everyone else, nation-wise, so it would be pretty difficult to make a move like that, even with diplomats, without being noticed.

PB

[Poll_Blind]

4. Picture of the (presumably bunk) booty HERE:

PB

[Posteritatis]

5. Grand, grand, *grand* theft! (nt)

[druidity33]

7. somewhat unbelievable... K&R. nt

[madrchsod]

8. from a post 4 years ago--"3 trillion......"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1412609

that was linked to in the comments section in this site by jessica6-->

http://www.businessinsider.com/italy-seizes-a-ridiculous-135-billion-worth-of-smuggled-us-bonds-2009-6

ok, who is jessica6?

[Poll_Blind]

11. I wish it was me. Jessica 6 kinda sounds like "Jessica Sex" Just sayin'

I have no idea what it sounds like in Italian. Probably something lame-sounding and ending in a vowel.

And they call it a romance language- BAH!!!

PB

[roamer65]

10. The Federal Reserve does not issue bonds.

All US gov't bonds are issued by the US Treasury and vast majority are now electronic issuance. I doubt the bonds mentioned in this story are real.

Most institutions and people now buy US gov't "paper" through treasurydirect.gov

[msongs]

12. small change compared to the billions we are wasting bailing out corrupt banks in the USA nt

[HamdenRice]

13. It was reported a few months ago that China was trying secretly to dump treasuries ...

while publicly expressing confidence in the dollar. The institution that would do this is the State Administration for Foreign Exchange. It was already muddying up its structure and accounting in order to hide any attempts at diversification of holdings.

If this is them, it would not be a good thing.

[wroberts189]

14. 134 billion is ALOT OF !@#$ MONEY !

Very interesting post...

The bonds should be presumed legit ..something is going on here.

This is clearly something that needs some serious investigating.

Thank you Italy.

[marketcrazy1]

15. this would make

these two guys something like the fourth or fifth largest holders of U.S. debt IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!! ( if they are real )

[PeacePal]

16. Dumping? Geithner and the Japanese FinMin propped up the value this week...

US Treasurys(sic) rise after after Japan signals trust

LONDON (MarketWatch)-- U.S. Treasurys extended gains Friday, after Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano indicated the second-largest foreign holder of the securities will continue to buy them. "We have complete trust in the fact that the U.S. views its strong-dollar policy as fundamental," Yosano told Bloomberg in an interview in Tokyo on June 10 before attending a meeting of G8 finance ministers in Italy. "So our trust in U.S. Treasurys is absolutely unshakable." The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 3.80% in recent action, a decline of around 6 basis points. Yields move inversely to price. The 10-year yield hit 4% Thursday, its highest level since October, but then retreated.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-treasurys-rise-afte...


G8:Japan MOF: Fin Min, Geithner Agree Econ Better Than Before

LECCE, Italy (Dow Jones)--Japan's Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano and his U.S. counterpart agreed that their broad economic circumstances have improved, a ministry official said Friday, indicating the world's two largest economies share the view that the worst of the downturn is behind them.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "said that U.S. economic conditions have become more stable than before ... and that deflationary risks appear to be receding," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

"Yosano also said both (Japan and U.S.) economies are improving," although they remain on a downward trend, he added.
!
The Japanese finance chief met Geithner earlier in the day and discussed economic issues before attending the meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations.

The official added that they didn't talk about recent climbs in long-term interest rates and crude oil prices, which are now considered destabilizing factors for the hoped for economic recovery. Discussions about U.S. Treasuries and the dollar-yen exchange rate didn't arise, he said.

-By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6895-7556; [e-mail]
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090612-711887.htm...



If I hadn't already lost my 401K, I'd consider dumping any Treasuries

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. 1.34 billion.Didn't Geithner say that was the amount left of TARP money, at one point?

edit for page fit.

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. The contraband securities valued at 134 billion U.S. dollars are apparently real.

reports Denninger @
http://market-ticker.org/

[marketcrazy1]

19. reports i see

indicate the date of issuance on these notes is 1934. if that is correct then the notes are fakes as the treasury did not issue notes in such high denominations until the early fifties? and stopped issuing these note altogether in the early eighties. since then most of the outstanding notes have been redeemed. it seems highly unlikely to me that these notes are real. I would not be surprised to learn the entire story was a hoax.........