U.S. bonds worth $134.5B found in Japanese travellers' suitcase

On June 3, two Japanese citizens were arrested in Chiasso by "La Guardia Di Finanza" Italian finance police, while attempting to cross into Switzerland with $134.5 billion worth of U.S. bonds.

Authorities discovered the bonds in the false bottom of a suitcase, after searching the men at a train stop near the Swiss border in Chiasso.

The Times of London quotes officials as saying that the massive sum was divided into "249 U.S. Federal Reserve bonds each worth $500 million, plus ten Kennedy bonds with face values of $1 billion, in addition to various other types."

Conspiracy theories flooded the internet soon after the story hit newswires. Many thought that someone was trying to quietly dump U.S. treasury bonds without disrupting the bonds market. Others suggested the possibility of a foreign government attempting to flood the market with counterfeit U.S. bonds.

However, last week American officials confirmed that the notes were forgeries. Despite this confirmation, many still remain skeptical.

The Times says that "[t]he amount of $134 billion would place the two travellers as the fourth most important investors in U.S. debt, well ahead of Britain ($128.2 billion) and just behind Russia ($138.4 billion)."

According to the British broadsheet The Independent, the bonds are "equivalent to the entire GDP of Kazakhstan."

The massive sum also equates to 1% of the U.S. GDP, which is enough to destabilize markets worldwide.

The events in Iran have pushed the incident out of the headlines, but the fallout from this discovery could have dramatic implications for the U.S. and its already shaky position as the world's economic superpower.

Adam Abrams is a British-American blogger, currently working as an intern at Haaretz.com

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