Billions

This is a story that I saw off German news back in 2009, and it got mentioned for about 48 hours....then dropped (around June 2009).  

So, two Japanese guys...or at least they said they were Japanese...were traveling via train in Europe, were stopped by Italian cops on the Swiss border. 

The cops found a secret compartment in their suitcases....and there sat $134 billion...in bonds. Ten Kennedy bonds were in the cases....worth $1 billion each. Then there were 249 bonds worth $500 million each. 

There are several problems here. 

First, it's illegal in Europe to travel with money like this. The Italians have a simple rule...once caught...you forfeit 40 percent of the money. So we could be talking about $60 billion coming into Italian possession. 

The Japanese government....they've been very quiet. 

The financial guys are puzzled. There are only three governments who hold this amount of bonds...Japan, China and Russia. An attempt by North Korea to create fake bonds? That was discussed as well. 

No mention in major US news media markets? That's another curious thing. 

An Italian paper has carried the story....and several financial news markets have mentioned the story. New York Times? No mention.

So here's my take and assessment. I think the two guys were not Japanese citizens in the end (fake passports). 

I think the bonds were real.  While the bonds might have originally been from the three (Russia, China and Japan)...I think  an outsider group bought/traded them,  and they were being taken to some bank for safe-keeping.

Why did the two Japanese guys land in Italy? Unknown.

After June, this topic never came up again.