$6 Trillion in Allegedly Fake U.S. Bonds Hidden in Federal Reserve Mother Box Seized

Several news outlets are reporting that Italian prosecutors claimed to have seized a record $6 trillion in allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds from 1934 with a nominal value of $1 billion each.
The bonds were reportedly hidden in makeshift compartments of three safety deposit boxes in Zurich according to an emailed statement from Potenza-based Italian prosecutors.
Eight people were reportedly arrested due to the inquiry, which was codenamed “Operation Vulcanica” and the American embassy in Rome has already examined the bonds although embassy officials have yet to comment.
It gets really strange when we find out that, “The individuals involved were planning to buy plutonium from Nigerian sources, according to phone conversations monitored by the police.”
Even more strange is that the bonds were reportedly held in crates marked as property of the Chicago Federal Reserve System, in fact the picture of the crate released by the BBC reveals that the boxes were Treaty of Versailles Mother Boxes.
If these bonds were indeed forgeries, it implies that the box itself might be fake as well, which raises the question: why would counterfeiters go through the effort of not only faking $6 trillion in $1 billion bonds but also go through the effort of creating a fake Treaty of Versailles Mother Box?
When I try to imagine the mindset of a thief, I cannot bring myself to understand why I would counterfeit two things instead of just one, thus doubling my chances of the forgeries being detected.
Furthermore, why hide the bonds in makeshift compartments within the Mother Box? It all just makes so little sense I’m not sure what to think at this point.
I am sure conspiracy theories will abound surrounding this incident and there is a chance that some of them may be right on the money (no pun intended), just as the so-called conspiracy theorists were proven right in the case of government collusion with Goldman Sachs.
This story seems to have some similarities to a 2009 incident in which two Japanese individuals were reportedly arrested while trying to smuggle some $134 billion in U.S. bonds into Switzerland from Italy. It later emerged that these were allegedly fake bearer bonds as well.


However, this case is obviously much more noteworthy given that it is a whopping $6 trillion in bonds and the sellers were allegedly involved in planning to buy plutonium with the money they made, not to mention the angle of the Mother Boxes involved in the smuggling attempt.
The Italian prosecutors in Potenza discovered more financial fraud including two checks issued via HSBC Holdings Plc in London for around $325,000, which were not backed by sufficient funds.
Unsurprisingly Patrick Humphris, the HSBC spokesman, refused to comment on the matter when contacted via telephone, according to Bloomberg.
Also part of the investigation, some $2 billion in additional fake bonds were allegedly seized in Rome, although it is unclear if these are the same bonds and if so why they would leave two in Rome.
According to the prosecutors’ statement, the fraud posed “severe threats” to international financial stability, although it is unclear how exactly this is the case other than the fact that the $6 trillion in allegedly fake bonds makes up nearly half of the United States’ public debt.
Italy has a history of fraudulent U.S. securities being discovered. Indeed there were no less than three cases in 2009 alone.
In August of 2009, Italian police seized numerous fake U.S. Treasury bonds with a face value of $116 billion and in June of that year $134 billion in similar securities were discovered by law enforcement as well.
The United States Secret Service reports an average of about 100 cases per year relating to forged bonds and other fraudulent financial instruments, although I doubt they deal with $6 trillion in bonds to be used to buy plutonium very often.
The details on this case are quite sparse at this point but it is shaping up to be a quite interesting incident indeed.
Who were these individuals? Why were they trying to buy plutonium? How would $6 trillion in fake bonds threaten the entire financial system?
All of these questions and more remain to be answered and we will attempt to keep you up to date as this case unfolds.