tabbs Posted November 11, 2007 Report Share Posted November 11, 2007 Two men who had counterfeited US dollar notes worth about 16.5 million were sentenced in Cologne, NW last week. This is the highest amount of fake dollar notes ever found in Europe, and the second highest worldwide. Last year a worker at a garbage dump found lots of shredded dollar notes in plastic bags - and in one of the bags there was also an envelope with the address of a graphic artist and fashion designer in Pulheim near Cologne. The police investigated and finally found, six months ago, the counterfeited notes, mostly $100 bills. Turned out that the shredded ones had been produced at an earlier stage and were not that good. The newer ones, however, apparently were pretty high quality counterfeits - not sold yet but still in a garage and a storage room. On Thursday the court in Cologne sentenced the artist to six years, his accomplice got three years. On one hand there was the quality and quantity of the "notes", on the other hand the artist had made a comprehensive confession. And the reason? The man made part of his money by selling pop art prints (Warhol style) and his printing machines had been so darn expensive that he thought he could use for something else too ... Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted November 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2007 Some articles about the case: (German) http://www.welt.de/welt_print/article13457...Jahre_Haft.html (German) http://www.handelsblatt.com/News/Recht-Ste...falschgeld.html (English) http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/138877.html Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted November 12, 2007 Report Share Posted November 12, 2007 Seems like pretty light sentences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted November 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2007 Seems like pretty light sentences. Don't think so; the DA had proposed 6 1/2 years for the artist, and the court just went a little below that. Well, in the US the sentences may have been harsher, don't know. The fact that this was not an organized crime network but basically one guy could have influenced the outcome too ... Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted November 12, 2007 Report Share Posted November 12, 2007 They were handed light sentences because they were faking monopoly money, whoops, I mean US dollars. Well not a lot of difference these days. Now if they had been faking €uros, or Canadian $, then it might have been a different scenario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted July 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 They had tried postal stamps first, and also €50 notes. Both turned out to be too difficult, so they decided to make US dollars, primarily $50 notes. Now why do I post this reply now? A few days ago "Der Spiegel" had a long background article (in German) http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,564068,00.html about the whole story ... Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtryka Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 If only we could get the German Authorities to investigate those counterfeiters at the Fed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted June 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Hmm, if we can have "bad banks", is there an option to create a Bad Government? Oh, and talking about enormous amounts - this has been in the news here lately. No idea about the background yet, but it sure makes a good story ... It is either the biggest smuggling operation in history -- or a fraud of equally impressive proportions. (...) Two Japanese citizens have been detained by Italian police in Chiasso on the Swiss-Italian border after being found with $134 billion of US bonds hidden in the base of their suitcase (...) http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitge...,630158,00.html Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boydle Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Wow thats a lot of money. It begs a lot of questions if they are real, how did they get them without the whole world knowing? If they are fake how did they expect to be able to part with them? its not like you can take on in to a shop or even a bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted June 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 It begs a lot of questions if they are real, how did they get them without the whole world knowing? If they are fake how did they expect to be able to part with them? its not like you can take on in to a shop or even a bank. According to the Guardia di Finanza, some of the bonds/notes are likely to be counterfeits; others might be genuine. Guess that we will know more in a couple of days. This would not be the first case of counterfeited bonds being offered as "securities" to possible business partners. But the total amount this time is pretty darn high ... Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted June 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 The not exactly surprising end of the story: All were fake, it seems. http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,631505,00.html (article in German) Well, the day before this find the Guardia di Finanza had confiscated supposedly Luxembourg bonds, worth 2.2 million euro. And those turned out to be authentic. So maybe that is why the Italian authorities were optimistic in this second, much bigger, case. Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 Well, when you have a 72 year old president with "fake" 18 year old lovers, what can be expected of your southern European neighbours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted June 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2009 Well, when you have a 72 year old president with "fake" 18 year old lovers, what can be expected of your southern European neighbours? Don't think that "Silvio" (he is not the president by the way) has anything to do with it. Kind of interesting though that it is not the way he influences and "bends" Italian media, judges, etc. until the system suits his personal needs, but that girl and some pool parties which make the headlines. Oh well, the Italians seems to admire him. But in this particular case ... nah, I don't think these counterfeited bonds and notes were smuggled by him or his buddies. Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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