• 18 Jun 2009 at 5:15 PM

So, You Know Those (Probably) Fake Bonds?

By Bess Levin

Italian and US secret services are now claiming the mob is behind the whole thing, which we like a whole lot. Stand by for comment from by you know who shortly. The FT reports:

Whether the men are really Japanese, as their passports declare, is unclear but Italian and US secret services working together soon concluded that the bills and accompanying bank documents were most probably counterfeit, the latest handiwork of the Italian Mafia.
Few details have been revealed beyond a June 4 statement by the Italian finance police announcing the seizure of 249 US Treasury bills, each of $500m, and 10 “Kennedy” bonds, used as inter-government payments, of $1bn each. The men were apparently tailed by the Italian authorities.

The mystery deepened on Thursday as an Italian blog quoted Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Como provincial finance police as saying the two men had been released. The colonel and police headquarters in Rome both declined to respond to questions from the Financial Times.
“They are all fraudulent, it’s obvious. We don’t even have paper securities outstanding for that value,” said Mckayla Braden, senior adviser for public affairs at the Bureau of Public Debt at the US Treasury department. “This type of scam has been going on for years.”

Comments (19)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 5:20 PM

    leave the gun, take the canoli…and the fake bonds.

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 5:24 PM

    Did they get the bonds from a Mexican that looked supiciously like a coked up Shark?
    Just Sayin’

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 5:25 PM

    Charlie, we need to know what you think of this NOW!!!

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 5:36 PM

    @2 right they thought it was vic pan though. seemed plausible cap raise/tarp payback.

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 5:38 PM

    I am not an ANIMAL!

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 5:49 PM

    I don’t do favors. I accumulate debts.

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 6:14 PM

    Crossing the border between Italy and Switzerland is a lot like taking the Lincoln from Manhattan to NJ.
    There is no way Italian border guards and the “Como provincial finance police” stopped these guys at random and found bonds in a hidden compartment.
    Some important details are missing from this story…

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 6:54 PM

    Happens that the fake bonds seized in Italy have been the handiwork of Philippine gangsters. Are they transferring the technology to Palermo, or did they just find some new clients?
    Do you know the Sicilian mafia tried to rip off Lehman Bros. with fake bonds? The guy who is leading those kind of scams has been sitting in jail in Brazil for almost 4 weeks. But a Palermo judge will not have him arrested if he shows up in Italy by some “miracle.”

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 7:12 PM

    Barry Bonds is not fake.

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 8:20 PM

    Why would you expect to be able to exchange a bond of that magnitude without anyone verifying if it’s fake?

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | June 18, 2009 at 9:21 PM

    Should have written “Mortgage Backed Security” on it instead of US Treasury. No one would have given that a 2nd look.

  12. 12
    Posted by guest | June 19, 2009 at 3:39 AM

    yeah, this story doesn’t stink to high heaven at all…

  13. 13
    Posted by guest | June 19, 2009 at 6:03 AM

    @7:
    Absolutely untrue. That piece of border is actually one of the most closely guarded in Europe. Remember that Italian gov take a 40% cut on all seizures. People who to import dodgy stuff or currency into Switzerland used to prefer going through Germany/France and then get in from that side.
    In alternative there are local “entrepreneurs” who will smuggle your stuff over the border no question asked. It looks like the Japs didn’t want to rely on these kinda services.

  14. 14
    Posted by guest | June 19, 2009 at 7:38 AM

    @13 don’t forget the Maginot Line.

  15. 15
    Posted by guest | June 19, 2009 at 8:29 AM

    @7
    They were “tailed by authorities” according to FT

  16. 16
    Posted by guest | June 19, 2009 at 9:51 AM

    Another Wall St guy sent me the original story last week, indicating that Obama was to blame. He just couldn’t see the wingnuttishness of it.

  17. 17
    Posted by guest | June 19, 2009 at 12:38 PM

    Damned if you do….
    Damned if you don’t!
    Fake=JAIL,
    Real=$38 BILLION FINE (40%) for not declaring while crossing the boarder

  18. 18
    Posted by guest | June 19, 2009 at 7:41 PM

    I’ve read two different sources that are now reporting that Italian authorities are about to announce that the $134.5 billion in US bonds that they seized on June 3 are “REAL” and the bonds are owned by the government of Japan.
    According to SlyRyder.com, “one of the smugglers is very likely to be identified as Tuneo Yamauchi, brother-in-law of Mr. Toshirou Mutoo, former deputy Governor of Bank of Japan. ” http://slyryder.com/bondgate.html
    The Turner Radio Network is reporting that the smugglers are employees of the Finance Ministry of Japan. http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/
    frpm grav@live.com

  19. 19
    Posted by guest | June 19, 2009 at 8:11 PM

    @18
    Are you a regular here? Because if you are, that explains a lot of the garbage that has been floating in the comments lately.

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