Holly Cow. Did not know there were bonds that large.

Hidden in a Suitcase: $134 Billion

Monday, June 15, 2009 10:58 AM

Italian financial police said Friday they were holding two Japanese men stopped on the Swiss border with U.S. bonds allegedly worth $134 billion, or nearly EUR100 billion.

The two middle-aged men were trying to enter Switzerland from Italy by train when they were checked by customs at Chiasso after saying they had nothing to declare.

The financial police at Como said 249 U.S. Federal Reserve bonds with a face value of $500 million each were found in a false-bottomed suitcase along with 10 so-called Kennedy bonds worth $1 billion apiece.

"We are trying to verify if these bonds are genuine," a police spokesman said.

If they are authentic, the Japanese face a fine of up to EUR38 billion for smuggling, the police said.


Copyright AFP

Japanese pair arrested in Italy with US bonds worth $134 billion

Richard Owen in Rome

Italian prosecutors were trying to establish yesterday whether US bonds with a face value of $134 billion seized from two alleged smugglers were real or counterfeit.

The bonds were found when the two men — said to be Japanese but as yet not identified — were arrested while attempting to cross into Switzerland from Italy by train at the frontier town of Chiasso this month. Prosecutors in Como said that the two men had hidden the bonds in the false bottom of a suitcase.

Police said that Chiasso was a notorious crossing point for currency and bond smugglers but the sums involved this time were “colossal”. The amount of $134 billion would place the two travellers as the fourth most important investors in US debt, well ahead of Britain ($128.2 billion) and just behind Russia ($138.4 billion).

The bonds were described as being 249 US Federal Reserve bonds each worth $500 million, plus ten Kennedy bonds with face values of $1 billion, in addition to various other types. Police said that the two men had stayed at a hotel in Milan last Tuesday. Instead of taking the express train to Lugano, they had boarded a slow commuter train from a suburban station to attract less attention.

Although Switzerland and Italy adhere to the Schengen accords on frontier-free travel, customs officers from both sides who still watch travellers became suspicious, Italian reports said.

Police said that there was cause for concern even if the bonds turned out to be forgeries, since it would amount to a counterfeiting scam “on an unprecedented scale”.

I heard that if the bonds were real Italian law allows them to keep about 40% of it. Not bad for a days work.