Here is a Bloomberg article from Friday on it
By Sonia Sirletti and John Glover
June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Italyâs 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. governmentâs 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 âKennedyâ classification of the bonds doesnât appear to exist, he said.
The bonds were seized in Chiasso, Italy. Mecarelli said he expects a determination from the SEC âwithin a few days.â
To contact the reporters on this story: Sonia Sirletti in Milan at
ssirletti@bloomberg.netJohn Glover in London at
johnglover@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=afJXAA1ahZyo
