"Those" fake bonds again at the Italian border

[Shakespear]

ROME (AP) -- Italian authorities have confiscated $20 billion in counterfeit U.S. government bonds.
Authorities say the bonds were of a quality that theoretically could have defrauded financial institutions.
But a stop at a highway rest area where a group of Carabinieri military police were taking a break proved to be the undoing of the group.
A Carabinieri statement said officers did a routine search of the vehicles after the "suspicious" behaviour of the men and found "to their surprise" a briefcase with 40 bonds 0each valued at $500 million.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Italy-...43563.html?x=0

[shiny!]

Re: "Those" fake bonds again at the Italian border

OK, what is happening here and why does it keep happening on Italian borders? Is the Mafia involved? These arrests seem staged in how happenstance the circumstances are*. Or are people smuggling bonds all over the world but the Italian police are the only ones good enough to catch it?

It was highly suspicious the first time this happened in 2009, but all we got was, "There's nothing to see here. Move along." I'm genuinely confused. What is really going on?

*Please pardon the syntax. I am grammatically challenged.

[FrankL]

Re: "Those" fake bonds again at the Italian border

fake collateral for a loan?

[Shakespear]

Re: "Those" fake bonds again at the Italian border

but the Italian police are the only ones good enough to catch it?

Game me a good laugh there Buddy. Yes, Italians can smell "Those" bonds a mile away, especially on their lunch time. Maybe it is the Italian cuisine that gives them these abilities ?

I think they got lost in the mountains from the last expedition that got caught, and this time were trying to take a short cut to Davos. That paper would be of use there.

[Adeptus]

Re: "Those" fake bonds again at the Italian border

OK, what is happening here and why does it keep happening on Italian borders?

Good question. Here's a few other recent ones...
Dec 31 2010 - $147 Million: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/...7-m-bonds.html
June 2009 - $134 BILLION: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a62_boqkurbI
May 2008 - $900 BILLION: http://news.smh.com.au/national/man-...0519-2fv0.html

The link below also contains an interesting summary/review of some previous cases and how most of them involved not forgeries of the real thing, but made up bonds that never existed (aka. monopoly-like bond money). It's an interesting concept actually. If you aren't counterfiting the real thing, you can't really get arrested for carrying around monopoly-equivalent papers, even less so when they contain spelling mistakes. Still, if you manage to fool some government/rich guys to buy them, you are an instant millionaire.
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2009/...y-yet-you.html (ignore the title about UFOs, the article is decent).

Adeptus