Well, just when you thought that the Bearer Bond story was finished, it gets twisted yet again.
Remember, this was the claim:
“They’re clearly fakes,” said Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt in Washington.
Uh, Bloomberg..... how about an accurate quote?
"Based on the photograph we've seen online, they are clearly fake. And not even good fakes," said Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the Treasury's Bureau of the Public Debt.
Online? You mean that the Treasury Department hasn't been sent a high-resolution digital photo of what was seized? A week after the fact?
I don't believe you Stephen.
In the last two years, Italian authorities have seized some $800 million of U.S. bonds in the Como area in northern Italy.
Those would be real bonds, I assume? But I thought Stephen said....
He added that there is only $105 million in Treasury bearer bond securities outstanding, so the $134 billion amount seized far exceeds the universe of outstanding securites.
Wait a second...... $800 million in real bonds have been seized, but there are only $105 million outstanding? There may be some confusion here as to whether all these bonds are "bearer" instruments or not, but even if not, a registered paper bond is worthless if stolen, as its purchaser is known and before anyone is going to redeem it for you they're going to verify not only its authenticity but that you're the rightful owner.
Another U.S. official said the seized bonds were purported to be issued during the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s, but the certificates showed a picture of a space shuttle on it -- a spacecraft that first flew in 1981. Some of the bonds were purportedly issued in a $500 billion denomination that never existed.
If there's a picture of a shuttle on the bond with an issue during the Kennedy Administration, its definitely fake of course. But... where are the actual pictures of these seized bonds?
And are they still seized? That's an even better question; there appear to be (at least) two different stories there too:
Under Italian law when law enforcement agencies seize fake bonds or counterfeit money they are under the obligation to arrest the bearers.
