2 Japanese men detained after attempting to enter Switzerland with $134 bil in T-bills.

[Dinner]

You just know this is organized crime either that or these are just two clowns who who had the heist of a life time.

2 Japanese carrying $134 bil worth of U.S. bonds detained in Italy

Thursday 11th June, 06:18 AM JST

ROME —

Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities.

According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan. The daily did not say on what charges they have been detained, but the two may have been detained on suspicion of attempting to take a large amount of securities out of Italy without declaring it because the paper said they had not declared the bonds.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/2-japanese-carrying-134-bil-worth-of-us-bonds-detained-in-italy

[Dinner]

Honestly I bet the border in rural areas isn't all that closely guarded so all they had to do was spend a week or two trekking in the Alps while then snuck across the border. I'm not sure even a Swiss bank would be allowed to open an account for $134 billion without some sort of government check though.

[SlowwHand]

We may never know. Judging by this report, it's a little more difficult than one might think.

[Zkribbler]

Hey! Those are my T-Bills! Give 'em back!!

[DanS]

Weird story. Didn't know that they still printed bonds of those denominations.

[Kuciwalker]

OK, who'd they steal the money from?

[KrazyHorse]

I've been through the Geneva airport. Why didn't they just fly in? Nobody is searched, and there's no paperwork.

[Kontiki]

Dunno about the Italian border, but I've crossed at land borders between Switzerland and France a few times. No different than an intra-EU crossing, meaning no border stop whatsoever.

[KrazyHorse]

Yeah, the Swiss-France border is completely unguarded. I crossed it several times on foot at border crossings and there was never anybody on duty.

[DanS]

I guess somebody must have tipped off the Italians.

[Kitschum]

Switzerland is in Schengen, so there is no border control with other Schengen countries. Presumably they may still do random checks and obviously if they were tipped off.

[KrazyHorse]

When I was in Switzerland it was not part of the Schengen area. In fact, there was a fairly active debate as to whether or not it should join.

[Blaupanzer]

The bonds could be counterfeit. Like Dan S, I was of the impression that such printed certificates were not being put into circulation anymore. Bearer bonds of that size are a victim of the drug war. The Government has no real way to know what kind of cash/payment transfers are behind these behemoths.

[DanS]

June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Italy’s financial police said they asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to authenticate U.S. government bonds found in the false bottom of a suitcase carried by two Japanese travelers attempting to cross into Switzerland.

The bonds, with a face value of more than $134 billion, are probably forgeries, Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Guardia di Finanza in Como, Italy, said today. If the notes are genuine, the pair would be the U.S. government’s fourth-biggest creditor, ahead of the U.K. with $128 billion of U.S. debt and just behind Russia, which is owed $138 billion.

The seized notes include 249 securities with a face value of $500 million each and 10 additional bonds with a value of more than $1 billion, the police force said on its Web site. Such high denominations would not have existed in 1934, the purported issue date of the notes, Mecarelli said. Moreover, the “Kennedy” classification of the bonds doesn’t appear to exist, he said.

The bonds were seized in Chiasso, Italy. Mecarelli said he expects a determination from the SEC “within a few days.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601092&sid=afJXAA1ahZyo

[Thue]

$500 million was a lot of money in 1934. Equivalent to $8 billion today.