Very puzzling alright. Even if, as seems most likely, these Federal Reserve and Kennedy Bonds althoughb fakes aren't forgeries because there ARE no real Treasury and Kennedy bonds, it would seem there should be ample national if not international statutes against intent to commit economic defraud, and illicit transport for the intent of fraud, as evident in the concealment and non-declaration of these apparently bogus instruments.
So what's the scoop?
MAYBE these couriers were part of a protected state-sponsored covert intel sting or entrapment ops, by a major G7 nation? Or even a private intel op with plenty of grease & influence? Or the Italian state was bribed, blackmailed or strong-armed to 'let' this incident fade-away?
The following LA Times article, for its seeming attempt to shed light, leaves more questions than answers. All it really does is report that officials could quickly see the instruments are fake, but provides absoultely NO discussion of the legal issues involved, what the disposition of the smugglers are, speculation over what they had intended, or ANYTHING, really -- which added to the bizarre lack of mainstream reporting on this story, leaves a huge mystery that smells kinda 'spooky'.
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-quote--
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_c ... while.html
Smuggled $134 billion in T-bonds are fakes, U.S. says
1:20 PM, June 18, 2009
Speculation about the Italian smuggling case involving $134 billion in purported U.S. Treasury bonds may have been fun while it lasted, but the Treasury Department says today the bonds are bogus.
"They’re obvious fakes," said Steve Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the Treasury's Bureau of Public Debt in Washington.
Two Japanese men were detained by Italian authorities last week after they were caught trying to enter Switzerland with what appeared to be $134 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds in a suitcase.
As I noted in this post on Wednesday, conspiracy theories have run wild in the blogosphere based on the few details that had emerged about the case -- and because mainstream media had largely ignored the story.
Meyerhardt said Treasury authorities could see immediately from photos of the bonds that they were doctored.
What’s more, the package of bonds was said to include "Kennedy" bonds worth $1 billion each. "There is no such thing as a Kennedy bond," Meyerhardt said.
Most important, the total of Treasury paper "bearer" bonds outstanding is a mere $105 million, he said. The Treasury has been issuing bonds solely in electronic form since 1986, although a relative handful of investors never bothered to convert their bearer bonds to electronic form.
And yes, I realize that there’s probably nothing Treasury can say to satisfy people who believe that there’s something more sinister going on here.
The big question, still, is what the apparent forgerers hoped to do with the paper.
-- Tom Petruno
--end--
*****
A couple of the comments to this 'story' are quite intriguing. I read the following just AFTER I began thinking WHY this story has recieved such little MSM reporting -- What IF there are quite a few of these bonds floating around, being 'sold' by apparently legit brokers on behalf of the FED or other major banks, and being held by nations, governments and other big players who 'think' they are real securities. The guys peddling this crap sure don't want any suspicious questions being raised or unwelcome attention suggesting there may be trillions $ of this junk floating around -- could start a run, and get VERY messy.
OR: What if one sneaky plan for 'resolving' the huge foreign debt, is for the FED to claim many instruments are counterfeit, thus non-negotiable.
Could have the same effect if word got out.
Aaron posted, in comments to the LA Times story:
--quote--
I'm betting these bonds are fake. Further, this is a meme-planting operation. Think about it. If these bonds exist out there, off the books, the US does not want to have anybody calling them in right now (since they might be bearer bonds). Better plant a few stories of fakes, in case anyone tries to cash in before the dollar tanks. That's an easy way to default on your debt - state that a large tranche of debt is "forged". I have read reports (Weisenthal) that the two people involved were released, which makes me think they had some serious connections.
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Pietro Cambi from Crisis posted:
--quote--
Hello.
Well, I have the dubious luck to have been the first to propagate this strange news to the web via my well known blog (at least here in Italy), Crisis what Crisis.
From the other Italian bloggers the news arrived in the international mainstram and from there to asia knews etc etc.
First of all: it is NOT an hoax or, as we italians say a "bufala".
It is plain truth and a HUGE plot, for a LE-Carre' Style spy story, for sure.
You could find tne news on the site of the guardia di finanza in italy.
But we, of Crisis have done more. We first checked it.
My co-blogger the italian journalist Debora Billi had a short interview with the frontier-police Chief who caught the two people.
He confirmed ALL the story, said that the 10 "kennedy bonds", issued in 1934, where probably false but he was not shure about the other 249 500 millions bonds. The teo japanese weere realised because he was NOT convinced that the titles were false and in italy you are only fined for illegally exporting valuable goods. the jail is only if you have FALSE titles.
Now as now in Italy there is a COMPLETE cover-up of this piece of news.
Main Media had a short notice about that the day it happened and then...silence.
This only being..Quite strange, given the peculiar status of media in Italy...you know what i mean.
It would be nice, by the way, to know if President Obama and President Berlusconi have talken about the issue or not...
*****
Andre posted:
--quote--
have been following this story since it broke and it have bene very frustrated by the lack of coverage in the press.
Whether the bonds are real or fake it is a huge story.With all the pressure the dollar is currently under this kind of thing has very big implications.
Why has it not been covered by a US news organizations?This very brief LA Times blog is the only thing I have seen in the US media. After all these are US bonds!
If the story itself is not a hoax, this is a huge lapse on the part of tour press. I guess they are too busy covering Susan Boyle.
*****
And tantalyzing speculation from Market Oracle by Global Research, in much the same vein, ie., managing dollar fears, thrown in with a lotta off-the-wall Wuzzup?:
http://marketoracle.co.uk/Article11403.html
June 18
--snip quote--
Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high.
Are these would-be smugglers agents of Kim Jong Il stashing North Korea’s cash in a Swiss vault? Bagmen for Nigerian Internet scammers? Was the money meant for terrorists looking to buy nuclear warheads? Is Japan dumping its dollars secretly? Are the bonds real or counterfeit?
The implications of the securities being legitimate would be bigger than investors may realize. At a minimum, it would suggest that the U.S. risks losing control over its monetary supply on a massive scale.
The trillions of dollars of debt the U.S. will issue in the next couple of years needs buyers. Attracting them will require making sure that existing ones aren’t losing faith in the U.S.’s ability to control the dollar.
The dollar is, for better or worse, the core of our world economy and it’s best to keep it stable. News that’s more fitting for international spy novels than the financial pages won’t help that effort. It is incumbent upon the U.S. Treasury to get to the bottom of this tale and keep markets informed.
On his blog, the Market Ticker, Karl Denninger wonders if the Treasury “has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say, Japan, as a means of financing deficits that someone didn’t want reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years.”
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-S
