yellowwing
03-14-06, 07:03 PM
US authorities net 250 fake billion-dollar notes
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - US authorities have seized 250 bogus Federal Reserve notes each bearing a one-billion-dollar face value in a Los Angeles area apartment, the Homeland Security Department said.
The notes, dated 1934 and bearing the portrait of late 19th century president Grover Cleveland, were treated to look old, investigators said, but authorities noted the highest note ever issued by the Fed had a denomination of 100,000 dollars.
"We receive calls on a regular basis from people who have acquired what turn out to be bogus Federal Reserve notes and are upset because the United States government refuses to redeem them," said James Todak, deputy special agent in charge for the Secret Service in Los Angeles.
"You would think the one-billion-dollar denomination would be a giveaway that these notes are fakes, but some people are still taken in," he said.
The discovery of the billion-dollar notes stems from an investigation into a man who has pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 37,000 dollars in currency into the United States following a trip to South Korea in 2002.
Two things, who would accept a billion dollar bill, and when did Homeland Security get involved with counterfeiting enforcement? :confused:
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - US authorities have seized 250 bogus Federal Reserve notes each bearing a one-billion-dollar face value in a Los Angeles area apartment, the Homeland Security Department said.
The notes, dated 1934 and bearing the portrait of late 19th century president Grover Cleveland, were treated to look old, investigators said, but authorities noted the highest note ever issued by the Fed had a denomination of 100,000 dollars.
"We receive calls on a regular basis from people who have acquired what turn out to be bogus Federal Reserve notes and are upset because the United States government refuses to redeem them," said James Todak, deputy special agent in charge for the Secret Service in Los Angeles.
"You would think the one-billion-dollar denomination would be a giveaway that these notes are fakes, but some people are still taken in," he said.
The discovery of the billion-dollar notes stems from an investigation into a man who has pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 37,000 dollars in currency into the United States following a trip to South Korea in 2002.
Two things, who would accept a billion dollar bill, and when did Homeland Security get involved with counterfeiting enforcement? :confused: