$16 Billion fake US Securities Scam Busted in Spain

[MrRene]

A forged U.S. securities scam was busted in Catalonia and Marbella, Spain.
$16 billion worth of supposed 1934 U.S. Treasury bonds or notes and cash in suitcases were found with business people who, according to the article, were acting on behalf of an English resident of Ibiza who in turn purchased the suitcases from intermediaries in Manila.
The scam ultimately used another story about money being lost during the final days of the WWII in the Pacific theatre.

Right now I only have an article in Spanish:

http://www.diariosur.es/20090602/socied ... 21334.html

[Pottapaug1938]

This scam has been around for years. Mostly, these phony "bonds" seem to come from Asian sources; and the quality of them is so bad that anyone who sees the bonds and still buys them almost deserves to be scammed. If I remember correctly, the makers of this junk seem to have scanned and photoshopped some U.S. silver certificates from the 1934 series.

[Pottapaug1938]

From the Quatloos archives comes this excellent article:

http://www.treasuryscams.gov/cc/ccphony2.htm

[MrRene]

Also in Marbella today: 40 persons were detained for product piracy, one of the 10 most wanted men in Britain, who is sought for attempted murder, was arrested, and a fifteen-year-old girl sues ex-mayoress of Marbella Marisol Yagüe for slapping her after she called Yagüe a "thief". Yagüe is free on €60,000 bail after being indicted for malversation, bribery, fraud and violation of zoning laws.
Not all of that is financial fraud. It's just to give an idea of some the things that are going on here right now. However, the new city government is making an honest effort to improve things from all I can tell.

The 1934 securities fraud is indeed nothing new, I remember reading about this on Quatloos and Diligizer in 2004. It seems like more efficient cross-border information dissemination is still needed.

[Demosthenes]

That's an early Quatloos registration date you got there, MrRene. Welcome back.

[Demosthenes]

I looked it up. Neat word!

Main Entry: mal·ver·sa·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌmal-vər-ˈsā-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, from malverser to be corrupt, from mal + verser to turn, handle, from Latin versare, frequentative of vertere to turn — more at worth
Date: 1549
1 : misbehavior and especially corruption in an office, trust, or commission
2 : corrupt administration