Italy seizes $135B of US bonds from two Japanese nationals

Italy seizes $135B of US bonds from two Japanese nationals

From International Business Times:

Two Japanese citizens carrying $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds were detained last week by Italy’s financial police at Chiasso (40km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland, an Italian daily said Wednesday. According to the report, they include 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, plus 10 Kennedy bonds and other U.S. government securities worth a billion dollar each.

In order to stop money laundering Italian law sets a ceiling of €10,000 per person for importing or exporting money without declaring it. The penalty for violating the law is 40 per cent of the money seized. If the certificates were real, the fine alone would amount to US$ 38 billion, five times the estimated cost of rebuilding quake-devastated Abruzzi region. It would help Italy’s eliminate its public deficit.