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Follow Up - Two Japanese Nationals Caught with $134.5 Billion in US Bonds at Border Between Italy and Switzerland
Some of you may remember this story from 2009. There was an original iTulip thread where many theories were discussed (I searched but could not find it).
For those of you new to the story, here is the background.
There are also news stories that discuss the incident.
Here is the original Bloomberg article on the scandal:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ayy1QKcwcGN0
Here is a Daily Kos summary of links describing what may have happened:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/06/13/742096/-Japan,Italy,and-US,-134-Billion-in-US-Bonds-Smuggling-Case
In these two articles, “The Underground Investor” analyzed the evidence and clearly established how strange this whole story really was:
http://www.theundergroundinvestor.com/2009/06/the-strange-inconsistencies-behind-the-134-5-billion-bearer-bond-mystery/
http://www.theundergroundinvestor.com/2009/07/possible-links-to-a-coming-bank-holiday-in-the-ongoing-134-5-billion-bearer-bond-mystery/
There is even a discussion on Fox News with the video captured on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=ttSmZknU9mI
We discussed the story on iTulip for a few days, but the story went silent and was never brought up again in our forums or in the the media.
But now the story gets really strange.
On November 23, 2011, a 111-page legal complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Here is a summary of the news story by couthouse news:
Supposedly if you have access to pacer.gov and will pay 8 cents a page, you can find the lawsuit filed within the system.
If you don't want to pay, or have access, here is a pdf of the actual lawsuit:
Page 33 discusses the following incident:
This is just bizarre!
There seems to be some relationship between the Dragon Family loaning the Federal Reserve gold in exchange for bonds and the two individuals caught on the boarder were trying to move the bonds for some reason (cash them in, etc).
Any thoughts iTulip-ers?
For those of you new to the story, here is the background.
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.
..... http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15456&size=A
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.
..... http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15456&size=A
Here is the original Bloomberg article on the scandal:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ayy1QKcwcGN0
Here is a Daily Kos summary of links describing what may have happened:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/06/13/742096/-Japan,Italy,and-US,-134-Billion-in-US-Bonds-Smuggling-Case
In these two articles, “The Underground Investor” analyzed the evidence and clearly established how strange this whole story really was:
http://www.theundergroundinvestor.com/2009/06/the-strange-inconsistencies-behind-the-134-5-billion-bearer-bond-mystery/
http://www.theundergroundinvestor.com/2009/07/possible-links-to-a-coming-bank-holiday-in-the-ongoing-134-5-billion-bearer-bond-mystery/
There is even a discussion on Fox News with the video captured on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=ttSmZknU9mI
We discussed the story on iTulip for a few days, but the story went silent and was never brought up again in our forums or in the the media.
But now the story gets really strange.
On November 23, 2011, a 111-page legal complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Here is a summary of the news story by couthouse news:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/12/05/41930.htm
MANHATTAN (CN) - An American expatriate in Bulgaria claims the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Office of International Treasury Control and the Italian government conspired with a host of others to steal more than $1.1 trillion in financial instruments intended to support humanitarian purposes.
The 111-page federal complaint involves a range of entities common to conspiracy theorists, including the Vatican Illuminati, the Masons, the "Trilateral Trillenium Tripartite Gold Commission," and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Plaintiff Neil Keenan claims he was entrusted in 2009 with the financial instruments -- which included U.S. Federal Reserve notes worth $124.5 billion, two Japanese government bonds with a combined face value of $19 billion, and one U.S. "Kennedy" bond with a face value of $1 billion -- by an entity called the Dragon Family, which is a group of several wealthy and secretive Asian families.
"The Dragon family abstains from public view and knowledge, but, upon information and belief, acts for the good and better benefit of the world in constant coordination with higher levels of global financial organizations, in particular, the Federal Reserve System," Keenan claims.
"During the course of its existence over the last century, the Dragon family has accumulated great wealth by having provided the Federal Reserve Bank and the United States Government with asset assignments of gold and silver via certain accounts held in Switzerland, for which it has received consideration in the form of a variety of Notes, Bonds and Certificates such as those described ... that are an obligation of the Federal Reserve System."
Keenan says that with accrued interest the instruments are now worth more than $1 trillion. He says the family designated him as its principal in an effort to select certain registered and authorized Private Placement Investment Programs (PPPs) for the benefit of unspecified global humanitarian efforts.
In his remarkable complaint, Keenan claims that the U.S. government [received] enormous amounts of money -- delivered in gold and other precious metals -- from the Dragon Family many years ago, and that the money was placed into the Federal Reserve System for the benefit and underwriting support of the dollar, "which was to become and currently remains the global reserve currency"....
The complaint alleges a complicated history with many moving parts and scores of internationally known and unknown characters, the sum of which is that Keenan claims he was entrusted with billions of dollars in bonds by the Dragon Family....
[These instruments were then stolen as two Japanese agents attempted to cross the border from Italy into Switzerland with them, contained in the suitcase you see in the image at the top of this article.]
[Keenan] claims that as the conspiracy continued to unfold, various high level officials repeatedly offered him a bribe of $100 million to "release" the instruments without disclosing their theft to the Dragon family, and to allow the instruments to be converted to a so-called UN "Sovereign Program" wholly under the auspices, protection and umbrella of the sovereign immunity enjoyed by the defendants.
Other defendants include UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Giancarlo Bruno, who is identified as head of the banking industry for the World Economic Forum, Italy's ambassador to the UN Cesare Maria Ragaflini, Ray C. Dam, president of the Office of International Treasury Control, and David A. Sale, the deputy chief of the council for the cabinet of the OITC.
Keenan seeks the return of the stolen instruments, punitive damages and court costs on multiple claims of fraud, breach of contract and violation of international law.
He is represented by William H. Mulligan Jr., with Bleakley, Platt & Schmidt of White Plains, N.Y
MANHATTAN (CN) - An American expatriate in Bulgaria claims the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Office of International Treasury Control and the Italian government conspired with a host of others to steal more than $1.1 trillion in financial instruments intended to support humanitarian purposes.
The 111-page federal complaint involves a range of entities common to conspiracy theorists, including the Vatican Illuminati, the Masons, the "Trilateral Trillenium Tripartite Gold Commission," and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Plaintiff Neil Keenan claims he was entrusted in 2009 with the financial instruments -- which included U.S. Federal Reserve notes worth $124.5 billion, two Japanese government bonds with a combined face value of $19 billion, and one U.S. "Kennedy" bond with a face value of $1 billion -- by an entity called the Dragon Family, which is a group of several wealthy and secretive Asian families.
"The Dragon family abstains from public view and knowledge, but, upon information and belief, acts for the good and better benefit of the world in constant coordination with higher levels of global financial organizations, in particular, the Federal Reserve System," Keenan claims.
"During the course of its existence over the last century, the Dragon family has accumulated great wealth by having provided the Federal Reserve Bank and the United States Government with asset assignments of gold and silver via certain accounts held in Switzerland, for which it has received consideration in the form of a variety of Notes, Bonds and Certificates such as those described ... that are an obligation of the Federal Reserve System."
Keenan says that with accrued interest the instruments are now worth more than $1 trillion. He says the family designated him as its principal in an effort to select certain registered and authorized Private Placement Investment Programs (PPPs) for the benefit of unspecified global humanitarian efforts.
In his remarkable complaint, Keenan claims that the U.S. government [received] enormous amounts of money -- delivered in gold and other precious metals -- from the Dragon Family many years ago, and that the money was placed into the Federal Reserve System for the benefit and underwriting support of the dollar, "which was to become and currently remains the global reserve currency"....
The complaint alleges a complicated history with many moving parts and scores of internationally known and unknown characters, the sum of which is that Keenan claims he was entrusted with billions of dollars in bonds by the Dragon Family....
[These instruments were then stolen as two Japanese agents attempted to cross the border from Italy into Switzerland with them, contained in the suitcase you see in the image at the top of this article.]
[Keenan] claims that as the conspiracy continued to unfold, various high level officials repeatedly offered him a bribe of $100 million to "release" the instruments without disclosing their theft to the Dragon family, and to allow the instruments to be converted to a so-called UN "Sovereign Program" wholly under the auspices, protection and umbrella of the sovereign immunity enjoyed by the defendants.
Other defendants include UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Giancarlo Bruno, who is identified as head of the banking industry for the World Economic Forum, Italy's ambassador to the UN Cesare Maria Ragaflini, Ray C. Dam, president of the Office of International Treasury Control, and David A. Sale, the deputy chief of the council for the cabinet of the OITC.
Keenan seeks the return of the stolen instruments, punitive damages and court costs on multiple claims of fraud, breach of contract and violation of international law.
He is represented by William H. Mulligan Jr., with Bleakley, Platt & Schmidt of White Plains, N.Y
If you don't want to pay, or have access, here is a pdf of the actual lawsuit:
Page 33 discusses the following incident:
D. The Chiasso Incident
63. In fact, unbeknownst to KEENAN until days later, upon their arrival at Chiasso
on this particular trip, both Yamaguchi and Watanabe were approached directly by the ITALIAN FINANCIAL POLICE and their bags were searched. The pair was found to be carrying Dragon Family Instruments (hereinafter, the "DF Chiasso Instruments") virtually identical in content to a portion of the DFFI, which are the focus of this litigation-in an amount approximating $134.5 Billion U. S. Dollars. Ironically, this was the exact amount that the United States Treasury Department had announced on or about March 30,2009 remained in its Troubled Asset Relief Program ("TARP"). These instruments included 249 1934 Series Federal Reserve Notes. (similar to the 249 FRNs entrusted to KEENAN by the Dragon Family, except that they bore
serial nos. D 45183602A to D 45183850A), and 10 Kennedy Bonds issued in 1998 (Nos. API! 025691 A to No. APll 025700 A), each with a face value of One Billion U.S Dollars (as compared to the 1 Kennedy Bond entrusted to KEENAN).
64. As reported by the Japanese and Italian press at the time, upon arriving at
Chiasso, Yamaguchi and Watanabe were detained by the ITALIAN FINANCIAL POLICE after attempting to enter Switzerland with "undeclared United States Treasury Bonds concealed in a suitcase with a false bottom." The Japanese Consulate General in Milan confirmed that the "detention" had taken place while trying to confirm the men's identities. Eventually, neither Yamaguchi nor Watanabe were arrested, although their computer and eight telephones were also confiscated. Reportedly, Yamaguchi advised the authorities that the pair was in possession of valid historic bonds and that a mistake was being made. According to Japanese press reports,
Yamaguchi and Watanabe were released as they "broke no laws." Upon information and belief, it was Yamaguchi' s position that since there had been no verification in accordance with the protocol required by the Federal Reserve system, and no negotiation with the Federal Reserve concerning the actual value of the financial instruments he was carrying, no laws had been broken. Charges against the two were expected to be heard before the Procura Della Republica in Como, Italy in May 2011. According to at least one Italian newspaper, "La Provincia," on or about June 30, 2011, Yamaguchi and Watanabe were sentenced to three and a half years in
prison for trying to "smuggle" debt securities deemed to be false. The story also reported that Mr. Santi had bargained in a preliminary hearing for a year and four-month probation on related charges. The Japanese were reportedly provided with an attorney named Campisani in Como. In March 2010, both Keenan and his attorney offered to assist Attorney Campisani but their offers to help went unheeded. Upon information and belief, Campisani withdrew from the case without ever responding to Keenan or his· attorney.
65. Upon information and belief, approximately three years prior to this incident, the
investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs in the United States had formally authenticated the FRNs entrusted to KEENAN and owned by the Dragon Family, virtually identical to and sharing the identical history of the FRNs seized at Chiasso. KEENAN believes that all of the 1934 FRNs, including those seized by the Italian authorities at Chiasso, as well as the DFFI entrusted to KEENAN, were fully backed by United States gold bullion, authentic, and subject to verification by the Federal Reserve when properly presented by the legitimate holder or their representative, i.e., plaintiff herein, KEENAN.
63. In fact, unbeknownst to KEENAN until days later, upon their arrival at Chiasso
on this particular trip, both Yamaguchi and Watanabe were approached directly by the ITALIAN FINANCIAL POLICE and their bags were searched. The pair was found to be carrying Dragon Family Instruments (hereinafter, the "DF Chiasso Instruments") virtually identical in content to a portion of the DFFI, which are the focus of this litigation-in an amount approximating $134.5 Billion U. S. Dollars. Ironically, this was the exact amount that the United States Treasury Department had announced on or about March 30,2009 remained in its Troubled Asset Relief Program ("TARP"). These instruments included 249 1934 Series Federal Reserve Notes. (similar to the 249 FRNs entrusted to KEENAN by the Dragon Family, except that they bore
serial nos. D 45183602A to D 45183850A), and 10 Kennedy Bonds issued in 1998 (Nos. API! 025691 A to No. APll 025700 A), each with a face value of One Billion U.S Dollars (as compared to the 1 Kennedy Bond entrusted to KEENAN).
64. As reported by the Japanese and Italian press at the time, upon arriving at
Chiasso, Yamaguchi and Watanabe were detained by the ITALIAN FINANCIAL POLICE after attempting to enter Switzerland with "undeclared United States Treasury Bonds concealed in a suitcase with a false bottom." The Japanese Consulate General in Milan confirmed that the "detention" had taken place while trying to confirm the men's identities. Eventually, neither Yamaguchi nor Watanabe were arrested, although their computer and eight telephones were also confiscated. Reportedly, Yamaguchi advised the authorities that the pair was in possession of valid historic bonds and that a mistake was being made. According to Japanese press reports,
Yamaguchi and Watanabe were released as they "broke no laws." Upon information and belief, it was Yamaguchi' s position that since there had been no verification in accordance with the protocol required by the Federal Reserve system, and no negotiation with the Federal Reserve concerning the actual value of the financial instruments he was carrying, no laws had been broken. Charges against the two were expected to be heard before the Procura Della Republica in Como, Italy in May 2011. According to at least one Italian newspaper, "La Provincia," on or about June 30, 2011, Yamaguchi and Watanabe were sentenced to three and a half years in
prison for trying to "smuggle" debt securities deemed to be false. The story also reported that Mr. Santi had bargained in a preliminary hearing for a year and four-month probation on related charges. The Japanese were reportedly provided with an attorney named Campisani in Como. In March 2010, both Keenan and his attorney offered to assist Attorney Campisani but their offers to help went unheeded. Upon information and belief, Campisani withdrew from the case without ever responding to Keenan or his· attorney.
65. Upon information and belief, approximately three years prior to this incident, the
investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs in the United States had formally authenticated the FRNs entrusted to KEENAN and owned by the Dragon Family, virtually identical to and sharing the identical history of the FRNs seized at Chiasso. KEENAN believes that all of the 1934 FRNs, including those seized by the Italian authorities at Chiasso, as well as the DFFI entrusted to KEENAN, were fully backed by United States gold bullion, authentic, and subject to verification by the Federal Reserve when properly presented by the legitimate holder or their representative, i.e., plaintiff herein, KEENAN.
There seems to be some relationship between the Dragon Family loaning the Federal Reserve gold in exchange for bonds and the two individuals caught on the boarder were trying to move the bonds for some reason (cash them in, etc).
Any thoughts iTulip-ers?
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