The Strange Inconsistencies Behind the $134.5 Billion Bearer Bond Mystery
Here’s yet another huge financial story that has been virtually blacked out by the US financial media. Although on the surface, this story appears to be a non-event, if we consider some of the released facts about this case, you will understand why I consider it to be a huge story. On June 8th, the Asia News reported the following story:
“Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US government securities worth a billion dollars 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.”
Here are just a few fascinating facts about this case (at least they are being reported as “facts” at this current time):
(1) Though the smugglers have been identified in the press as “Japanese nationals” there has yet to be any confirmation if the smugglers were indeed Japanese or of some other ethnicity. How difficult is it to confirm the ethnicity of the smugglers and why is this information being kept secret?
(2) According to a brief Bloomberg article regarding this story, the seized bearer bonds allegedly were dated as of 1934. Since bearer bonds in denominations of $500 million did not exist in 1934, the bonds were deduced as fake, though the Italian police are still waiting for a declaration regarding the bonds’ authenticity from the SEC. There is something truly “off” about this declaration. How can the quality of the forged bearer bonds be so meticulous that they “are undistinguishable from the real ones”, yet the people involved in the alleged forgery so ill-informed as to not date the bearer bonds with a more recent year that would not immediately identify them as fraudulent? How hard would it have been to date the bearer bonds with a more recent year? An equivalent analogy would be if an expert art forger meticulously re-created a Picasso oil canvass and then erroneously signed the work with the wrong artist’s name. This story just does not add up.
(3) The Bloomberg story also reported that there is no known existence of the alleged 10 Kennedy bonds that were discovered in the smuggler’s suitcases, each with a denomination of $1 billion. Again, this discovery defies any logical explanation. Why would expert counterfeiters make 249 bearer bonds with denominations of $500 million apiece, each undistinguishable from the real thing, and then instead of just making 20 more such bonds, decide to make 10 bonds in denominations of $1 billion a piece in a bearer bond design that has never existed? Were the alleged counterfeiters just too lazy to confirm if Kennedy bearer bonds were ever a legitimately issued security? Again, this story makes no sense.
(4) On March 30, 2009, the US Treasury Department announced that USD $134.5 billion remained in its Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The stated amount of seized bearer bonds was $134.5 billion. Coincidence?
(5) The two well-dressed Japanese men opted to travel to Chiasso on a local train normally full of Italian manual laborers commuting to Switzerland. If they were really intent on successfully smuggling these bonds, counterfeit or real, why would they not take more care to select a travel route in which it was literally impossible for them not to stick out like two sore thumbs? Again, this part of the story defies all logic.
(6) The bearer bonds were discovered in a hidden briefcase compartment after a customs inspection. Again, if the bonds were indeed authentic and owned by a nation state, they could have been transported in a diplomatic pouch exempt from customs searches that would have guaranteed transport without detection.
Thus, all of the above irreconcilable and illogical points, other than the coincidence of the amount of the bearer bonds exactly matching the remaining TARP fund amount declared on March 30th, seem to indicate that not only were the seized bearer bonds counterfeit, but also that the smugglers were intent on being caught.
Before I continue, let’s review the purpose of bearer bonds.
Here is the Wikipedia definition of bearer bonds: “A bearer bond is a debt security issued by a business entity, such as a corporation, or by a government. It differs from the more common types of investment securities in that it is unregistered – no records are kept of the owner, or the transactions involving ownership. Whoever physically holds the paper on which the bond is issued owns the instrument. This is useful for investors who wish to retain anonymity. The downside is that in the event of loss or theft, bearer bonds are extremely difficult to recover.”
If you recall the Michael Mann movie “Heat”, starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, during a daring daytime armored car robbery, the criminals specifically targeted millions of dollars of bearer bonds for theft precisely because of the above qualities of bearer bonds that make them very difficult to trace. Again, due to the properties of bearer bonds, it seems highly unlikely that $134.5 billion of bearer bonds would be transported, if they were real, by two men with no security, since theft almost guarantees that they would be lost forever.
Thus far, about the only piece of information that appears to be reliable as reported by various news sources regarding this huge mystery is the remarkable authenticity of the 249 seized bearer bonds in denominations of USD $500 million. If any of the other facts, as they are being reported, are remotely accurate, then the bearer bonds were likely counterfeit. Still, the interesting part of this story, at least to me, is that the smugglers seemed intent on being caught with the counterfeit bonds. This leads me back to my previous question. What possible reason would the smugglers have for wanting to be caught? One of the quickest ways to sabotage and usher in the death of a currency is to raise legitimate questions about its ability to withstand counterfeiting efforts. Prove that counterfeiting is not only possible but highly likely, and the world’s confidence in the sabotaged currency will undoubtedly plummet.
In fact, this very tactic was applied during World War II when the Nazis launched Operation Bernhard in an attempt to crash the British economy by producing, by 1945, 132 million expertly counterfeited British pounds, a figure that represented roughly 15% of all real British pounds in circulation at the time. The counterfeit pounds were produced by expert printers and engravers supervised by an SS officer named Bernhard Krueger. As well, historical evidence exists that the Allies considered launching a counter-counterfeit plan against the Nazis as well. During this time, it was also alleged that the Bank of Italy counterfeited their own money by issuing the same securities twice with identical registered numbers and codes in order. The purpose of this counterfeiting was to secretly expand monetary supply without public transparency or accountability. Perhaps then, this $134.5.billion bearer bond mystery was an attempt of a nation state to shake the world’s confidence in the position of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
There should be little debate that the world’s emerging economies in Russia, Brazil, China and certain Gulf Nations are at economic war today with the world’s Western nations and their economic allies. The currency war being fought today is sure to get much uglier in the foreseeable future, in both open tactics as well as secretly executed tactics. Currently, if the currency war were the world series of poker, the US and the UK would be holding a pair of 2s and relying on nothing but bluffs to keep the rest of the world at bay. Conversely, the Chinese and other emerging nations with large surpluses would be holding straight or royal flushes, and likely quietly maneuvering to go “all in” at some point.
Given that the discovery of $134.5 billion of bearer bonds in the suitcases of two Japanese nationals in Chiasso, Italy on the border of Switzerland qualifies as one of the largest smuggling operations in history, and given the various implications of such an act and the possible players involved, the silence regarding this huge story is simply stunning. It is not a huge story, per se, because of the counterfeiting operation, because accusations and revelations of massive money counterfeiting operations have occured in the past. It is a huge story, rather, due to all the inconsistencies of the story and the potential explanations that could explain these inconsistencies. The larger story at hand is, who are the players (nations) involved, and what was the intention of this likely counterfeiting operation? Maybe the future will reveal the answers to these questions. But maybe not.
Posted: Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 @ 9:09 am
Categories: Financial Crisis, Dollar Crisis, & Recession Proof.
Tags: $134.5 billion bearer bond, Chiasso, counterfeiting operations.
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June 17th, 2009 at 7:43 am
video about the smugglers from japanese TV
http://room809.blogspot.com/2009/06/smugglare-greps-med-134-miljarder.html
June 17th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
There really is no controversy. In 2002, 4 men in Denver were arrested for trying to sell $250 billion in fake Federal Reserve bearer bonds. You are making assumptions as to the quality of the forgery. But the key fact is that there were no Kennedy bonds in 1934. These forgers sell their wares to STUPID people, not to smart people. It’s exactly like the Nigerian scam. There really is no mystery here.
June 18th, 2009 at 2:58 am
have u heard of Queen Salvacion A. Legaspi Filipino fraudster may be involved, along with a wacky Phillippines-based religious cult
This may be the real story
June 18th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
So far uncommented on is a simple number fact: Why “249″? One would expect, say, “250″. “246…247…248…249…250…There! Now, don’t get caught.”
There must a new rich policeman walking around Rome these days.
CW
June 19th, 2009 at 4:26 am
The story here is that the financiers who represent at Bilderberg, and within the IMF, World Bank, and CFR, are helping thier plan to destroy the US dollar. They want their regional/world govt and they need to destroy the last outposts of power before they reconstruct. They need to get rid of the middle class by destroying thier wealth, as well.
June 20th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
it seems FRAT BOYS comprise a large portion of the ruling elite financiers …. can we expect NOW, a dead fish wrapped in dollar bills?????????
STRANGE DAYS INDEED….
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:16 pm
If you have 134 billion dollars I’m guessing your pretty good with money.Duh! You should be able to google Kennedy bonds to find out if they actusally exsist. The only other explanation for this is the FED dealing in off the books shadow debt. Also if your trying to sell fake bonds why not do it in the millions you might actually sell one to a million sucker instead of a billionaire. This hole story about the fakes does not hold water. Where are these Japanese guys now? In jail? Where did the story go? The could be a cover up IMO.
June 24th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I agree with no 7 darwin’s theory.
Counterfeit is out of the question. If you’re intelligent enough of being capable of producing these papers (and know exactly what they look like) you’re intelligent enough to realize that the market for these, and the available establishments that could/would “cash” them in, -accept them as a deposit is extremely limited ?
These kinds of denominations are so large, that only governments trade with them.
Everybody keeps asking “what country would do this to us?”
Wake up – take a peek at your own government…
my 2c
June 24th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Whether these bonds are fake or real, the fact remains: guys carrying them got caught. But: they could have easily crossed from Italy to Switzerland by car (no inspection there), or – if there is a government involved – send the bonds via diplomatic mail; and avoid capture.
Ergo: guys wanted to get caught. The question then is: Who profits from this discovery? (Just bear in mind – this is about $134 Billion dollars. Enough money to buy a couple of countries whole)
In my opinion: the operation was orchestrated by either 1) hostile government (eg North Korea) or hostile group (eg Al Qaeda) in order to undermine the US Dollar or 2) by the US government in order to prepare the background for the impending collapse of the Dollar and blame that collapse on the hostile government or group
June 26th, 2009 at 6:59 am
First you say they could be fake or real – either way.
Then you say they wanted to get caught..
Wouldn’t that be incredibly stupid unless your no 2 alternative is the one.
And furthermore – ALL Paper issued by the FED is fake, because the fractional reserve banking system allows them to print any amount of paper with denominations with any amount of zeroes – without backing! No supervision. No audit. No legal tender as gold or silver, as the Constitution requires.
The FED has been gambling with the US credibility abroad.
And the American people and congress has let it happen.
Here we go again.
Americans never look in their own back yard.
There’s always some conspiracy against the US – perpetuated by some hostile barbarians in some midieval retarded country on the other side of the globe.
Look at your own FED. No one has done greater damage to the Dollar than the US FED itself. Printing (paper) money to be able to borrow abroad to buy foreign products on credit and living in a bubble is the American lifestyle that is “non negotiable” as someone said..
Wakey wakey
June 26th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Whether bonds fake or real the Italian police have still not officialy said. Still Too many conflicting reports in media about the identity of smugglers, when detained, how long, when released, did detainees request attorney and does attorney have a name??? This site http://slyryder.com/bondgate.html seems to be focusing on the timeline surrounding the detainees and what the Italian police knew about the passports and when they knew. Good site, good resources with good photo and videos and commentary on the police investigations thus far. The Italian police not very cooperative. Maybe they bungled everything! Really, for all we know, the Italian police might have actually released the detainees to someone pretending to be an attorney.
July 16th, 2009 at 9:34 am
[...] the time I wrote the first article about this event, “The Strange Inconsistencies of the $134.5 Billion Bearer Bond Mystery”, there has been virtual silence in the media regarding any follow-up to this story. However, a [...]
December 13th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
http://www.divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/995-lawsuit-end-tyranny
December 18th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Here is an another angle. They are fake and the people involved intended to be caught. The reason is that it’s a bigger part of an elaborate hoax to create buzz and “potential authenticity” to their ongoing scam. According to the above link (Divine Cosmos) you can see now they recently filed a court case citing all sorts of claims. However, just do a wiki search for Keith Scott and the Office of International Treasury Control (OITC) and we can start to see a scam involved, preying on small countries like Fiji. They try to sell these bonds as collateral for real money making projects or investments yielding a return. Most likely those 2 Japanese caught, planned to get caught so this could hit the news wire and build the ongoing “illusion”. Amazing that everyone has incredible ideas justifying their beliefs of conspiracy but it is nothing more than an elaborate “Nigerian Scam”. Also, back in the 90s their were money scams of “Bank Debenture” investments yielding high returns and the government would never reveal the truth, so don’t tell them your involved blah blah….through secrecy and greed they hook you in.
December 20th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Perhaps there were several agendas at play in this situation, as if some “Committee Of On-Highs” decided a strategy, as with a team of expert planners running a team on an Op.
Non-existent, or out of date Bearer Bonds COULD be found to be ART, in a heavily “Honored” Italian court room, instead of a forgery of a real bond.
Or, conversely, two Oriental(?) men, acting alone for their own reasons, were deliberately found in possession of perfectly rendered, but fake, never-existing US Bonds, and arrested, (and heavily protected immediately?).
There could be much to learn from just the identities of these two “Japanese Nationals”.
With respect to the logical deductions and questions raised by the author of this blog, my Investigator Nose tells me these two men, and the most unusual “Art” they were carrying was some kind of runaway scenario, where two men seeking protection from others took a big gamble and had their Business Card with them at the ready to convince a possible sanctuary country they were the ones who contacted the government on their way to the border.
December 25th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
[...] que venían de Suiza (no quiere decir que con esa pinta no pudieran ser ladrones, obviamente). Ved lo que dice esta página de inversores sobre el asunto, que está todavía en los Tribunales y que ataca, directamente, al ex presidente italiano, Silvio [...]
December 29th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
People claiming there is no controversy are either dis-informants or extremely ignorant dumb shits!
There is no shortage of either one.
The significance of this case is huge. The bonds were not fake.
Yes kennedy bonds. do exist. Yes there are facts that will come to light. Yes there are many things people have no idea about regardless of what knowledge they think they possess.
How many conspiracy theories turned out to be true? How much crap fed to the people turns out to be just that? Crap!
How many people still believe Iraq has WMD’s?
Plenty! Why?
Because there’s no shortage!
December 29th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Perfect example are the posts from 2009. Before the truth was revealed there was no shortage of speculation.
Plenty of opinions but nothing more. But now we know facts lets look at them.
Yes they wanted to get caught. Why? It was a sting operation to see who would do what when and how! Not by hostile groups or governments but by international law agencies.
Yes the bonds were in fact real! It would have been a pointless operation if they were not. It was announced they were fake by people who knew they were not. Thus the attempt to cash them.
Do kennedy bonds exist? Yes!
Have we been told they don’t. Yes! Why? To cheat, lie, steal, and convey.
Are the law firms and lawyers involved real? Yes! Very!
These are not some 2nd rate slackers. They are very prestigious and extremely respected firms. Far from frivolous case filers.
Of course no matter what evidence there’s always some OJ didn’t do it-ers.