Seeking Alpha

Donald Ingram's  Instablog

Donald Ingram is a luckily retired 'first wave' Baby Boomer. For how much longer? Who knows! He is a dedicated self-described gold bug. He follows the Austrian School of Economics and is a member of the Mises Institute. He is a golfer, historian, gardener of horticulture and ex military man.
  • The Great Bond Affair. 4 comments
    Jun 17, 2009 04:29 PM

    Two weeks ago on June 3 Italian authorities at Chiasso train station, arrested two Japanese men who tried to smuggle $134 billion of undeclared U.S. bearer bonds into Switzerland. The contraband was hidden in the false bottom of a suit case. Police said the two suspects were carrying a total of 259 bonds, including 10 with a value of $1 billion each and 249 with a value of $500 million each. What is also interesting about this event (besides the amount involved) is that just across the border in Switzerland is one the Swiss 'free ports'. These areas are not subject to normal Swiss trade or financial regulations, and are notorious throughout the world as clearing and storage houses of nefarious goods of all sorts.

    The big question which is on everyone's lips is, "Who owns these bonds"? Followed hard by, "Are they real"? And if they are forgeries, "Then why"? Some possible answers;

    Scenario#1 The bonds are real.

    1.Is the Japanese government serapticiously dumping bonds?

    2. The Bank for International Settlements, which is headquartered in Switzerland and is the central banks banker, is engaged in some creative accounting as in - now you see them, now you don't!

    3. Could this be a 'cloak and dagger' intelligence operation gone wrong?

    4.Is this some of the TARP money meant to 'feather' a few nests? 

    Scenario#2 The bonds are fake.

    1. Who did it and why?

    2. Which governments are involved? Since the amounts indicated could only be  afforded by governments. 

    3. Could this be a 'false flag' affair?

    4. Are they real but being branded fake so as to conceal their origin?

    The questions can be endless, limited only by ones depth of imagination. These questions require answers. Why is it that the main stream media gave this important story only cursory coverage, with no follow up considering the state of the globes economies? What is needed is some good old fashioned "deep throat" type of investigative journalism.

    The story behind this occurrence is important to not only the financial world, but to the governments involved - the U.S., Japan, Switzerland and Italy. This amount of money, if real, could wreak havoc on a global scale if it were to fall into the wrong hands. Can you imagine what could be the consequences if someone like Osama Bin Laddin got his hands on this amount of money? I shudder to contemplate!  The public deserves to know the answers. After all, these bonds (if real) most likely stem from the tax payers pocket books.

    Disclosure: No position.

    Themes: bonds, bearer bonds, smuggle, police, Italian, free port, TARP, government, Switzerland
Back To Donald Ingram's Instablog HomePage »

Instablogs are blogs which are instantly set up and networked within the Seeking Alpha community. Instablog posts are not selected, edited or screened by Seeking Alpha editors, in contrast to contributors' articles.

This post has 4 comments:

  •  
    Two weeks and still can't determine if fake or real?
    2009 Jun 17 04:58 PM Reply
  •  
    134 billion is too large for any individual or even company I think. If it's true, the Japanese gov't had to be behind it.
    2009 Jun 17 09:58 PM Reply
  •  
    japan dumping US debt, no one could fake that much, but it will be deemed fake, and we will hear nothing more...buy gold, commodities...
    2009 Jun 18 01:02 AM Reply
  •  
    One would imagine that a piece of paper representing either US$500M or US$1B would be impossible to fake. Those who trade , international banks or national treasuries must do extraordinary due diligence before "cashing them".
    Most interesting to me is that the incident happened days before it was reported and that the following day the Japanese Finance Minister announced his "complete confidence in the value of the US dollar." Then 1/10th of Japan's entire dollar hoard is discovered "tunneling" into Switzerland.
    Can anybody say "dollar devaluation"??
    2009 Jun 18 01:25 AM Reply
Full index of posts »
Latest Followers
Posts by Ticker
ABNJ, AXP, BWX, COF, DFS, DOW, GMGMQ.PK, HRL, JPM, QQQQ, RBS, VLO

Latest Comments


Most Commented
  1. The Great Bond Affair. (4 Comments)
  2. American Trade Protectionism Rising. (3 Comments)
  3. Survey Says "Recession Over." (2 Comments)
  4. Existing Home Sales Numbers - Fact or Spin? (2 Comments)
  5. Another One Bites the Dust. (2 Comments)
Posts by Themes
12th District, accounting, agriculture, America, ARRA, asset, asset bubble, auction, Audit the Fed, auto sales, automobile, balance of payments, Baltic States, bank, bank failure, Bank of America, banking, bankrupt, bankruptcies, banks, bear, bearer bonds, benefit exhaustion, benefits, Bernanke, bills, BLS, bond, bonds, borrow, borrowing, bottom, Brazil, BRIC, bubble, bullion, Bureau of Labour, business, business inventory, bust, California, Canada, car, cash for clunkers, Cash for Clunkers, charge off, Charlotte, Charts, China, Chrysler,
Instablogs are Seeking Alpha's free blogging platform customized for finance, with instant set up and exposure to millions of readers interested in the financial markets. Publish your own instablog in minutes.