2 Japanese carrying $134 bil worth of U.S. bonds detained in Italy

[Peter Lemkin]

Peter, it is true. Read this bit of history about the BIS:

Sovereignty and Secrecy

It is not surprising that the BIS, its offices, employees, directors and members share an incredible immunity from virtually all regulation, scrutiny and accountability.

In 1931, central bankers and their constituents were fed up with government meddling in world financial affairs. Politicians were viewed mostly with contempt, unless it was one of their own who was the politician. Thus, the BIS offered them a once-and-for-all opportunity to set up the "apex" the way they really wanted it -- private. They demanded these conditions and got what they demanded.

A quick summary of their immunity, explained further below, includes

• diplomatic immunity for persons and what they carry with them (i.e., diplomatic pouches)
• no taxation on any transactions, including salaries paid to employees
• embassy-type immunity for all buildings and/or offices operated by the BIS
• no oversight or knowledge of operations by any government authority
• freedom from immigration restrictions
• freedom to encrypt any and all communications of any sort
• m from any legal jurisdiction 9

Further, members of the BIS board of directors (for instance, Alan Greenspan) are individually granted special benefits:

• “immunity from arrest or imprisonment and immunity from seizure of their personal baggage, save in flagrant cases of criminal offence”
• “inviolability of all papers and documents”
• “immunity from jurisdiction, even after their mission has been accomplished, for acts carried out in the discharge of their duties, including words spoken and writings”
• “exemption for themselves, their spouses and children from any immigration restrictions, from any formalities concerning the registration of aliens and from any obligations relating to national service in Switzerland ”
• “the right to use codes in official communications or to receive or send documents or correspondence by means of couriers or diplomatic bags” 10

Lastly, all remaining officials and employees of the BIS have the following immunities:

• “immunity from jurisdiction for acts accomplished in the discharge of their duties, including words spoken and writings, even after such persons have ceased to be Officials of the Bank”
• “exemption from all Federal, cantonal and communal taxes on salaries, fees and allowances paid to them by the Bank…”
• exempt from Swiss national obligations, freedom for spouses and family members from immigration restrictions, transfer assets and properties – including internationally – with the same degree of benefit as Officials of other international organizations.11

Of course, a corporate charter can say anything it wants to say and still be subject to outside authorities. Nevertheless, these were the immunities practiced and enjoyed from 1930 onward.

On February 10, 1987, a more formal acknowledgement called the "Headquarters Agreement" was executed between the BIS and the Swiss Federal Council and basically clarified and reiterated what we already knew:

Article 2
Inviolability
The buildings or parts of buildings and surrounding land which, whoever may be the owner thereof, are used for the purposes of the Bank shall be inviolable. No agent of the Swiss public authorities may enter therein without the express consent of the Bank. Only the President, the General Manager of the Bank, or their duly authorized representative shall be competent to waive such inviolability.

The archives of the Bank and, in general, all documents and any data media belonging to the Bank or in its possession, shall be inviolable at all times and in all places.

The Bank shall exercise supervision of and police power over its premises.

Article 4

Immunity from jurisdiction and execution
The Bank shall enjoy immunity from criminal and administrative jurisdiction, save to the extent that such immunity is formally waived in individual cases by the President, the General Manager of the Bank, or their duly authorized representative.

The assets of the Bank may be subject to measures of compulsory execution for enforcing monetary claims. On the other hand, all deposits entrusted to the Bank, all claims against the Bank and the shares issued by the Bank shall, without the prior agreement of the Bank, be immune from seizure or other measures of compulsory execution and sequestration, particularly of attachment within the meaning of Swiss law. 12

As you can see, the BIS, its directors and employees (past and present) can do virtually anything and everything they want, with complete secrecy, immunity and with no one looking over their shoulders.

It was truly a banker’s dream come true, and it paved the international freeway for the rampant financial globalism that we see manifest today.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociop...king04.htm

D-I-S-G-U-S-T-I-N-G! [and DANGEROUS!!!!] Really incredible! Put BIS on the suspect list for this caper - and many others. The 'trickle-down' Reagan and his followers have since talked about it seems only to be the elites peeing upon us.

[David Guyatt]

Has this multiply-updated series been factored in?
http://cryptogon.com/?p=9095

Is the info valid?

Is the source legit?

As noted elsewhere, it's an ex-pat American in NZ with some expertise in IT, fiscal matters (in the interests of full disclosure, I still can't balance my checkbook), sustainable living, etc. who has multiple sources, 'many visitors', and always interesting stuff to read....

It's certainly interesting ED. It may be that the securities are fake. A lot of them are. But then again claiming securities to be fake saves a lot of debt obligations being redeemed. Not all is as it should be.

A case in point is the arrest of three men in Texas a few years ago in July 1991 who were in possession of a whopping large gold certificate ($5 billion) in the name of Saddam Hussein, plus dozens of Series 57 notes of redemption worth trillions of dollars US. The three men had visited the Federal Reserve Bank in Houston to discuss redeeming the certificate. The Fed after discussions wacthed them leave and then called the Secret Service who arrested them for possession of fraudulent securities.

I have papers from the subsequent court proceedings. The principal person arrested was Edison Damanik (who I have written about elsewhere). The witness from the SS was not an old-timer but had been in the service a total of 18 mos and had no experience of tis type of (alleged) fraud. But there were lots of to-ing and fro-ing and political contacts. Ultimately, the US Attorney dropped all charges and the defendant was allowed to leave the country -- with all the Series 57 notes intact, in exchange for signing over the gold certificate to the US government. If you asked the SS/Treasury today they would still maintain the certificate was fraudulent -- but the clincher to the whole story is that clearly the certificate was not exchanged for destruction because in reality it had tremendous financial value. In another case involving the same gentleman (Damanik) in Australia some years later, the Judge ruled that the certificate (a different one but part of the same series) was genuine and released the defendant accordingly.

These sorts of stories don't ever hit the MSM. Damanik btw, was deeply involved with Suharnoe and WWII gold (and other treasure) plundered by the Japanese throughout 12 nations in the far east during WWII. That is the origin of these bullion certificates and the Series 57 notes of redemption.

The sums involved are staggering - even by today's standards.

One of the biggest players in this whole ongoing black metal affair (across the decades) was the Union Bank of Switzerland. Others were Citibank, HSBC and others. But UBS stands out as the guiding hand or, perhaps, "syndicate manager".

I hope this throws some additional light on this curious subject.

edit = spelling error corrected

[Peter Lemkin]

Has this multiply-updated series been factored in?
http://cryptogon.com/?p=9095

Is the info valid?

Is the source legit?

As noted elsewhere, it's an ex-pat American in NZ with some expertise in IT, fiscal matters (in the interests of full disclosure, I still can't balance my checkbook), sustainable living, etc. who has multiple sources, 'many visitors', and always interesting stuff to read....

It's certainly interesting ED. It may be that the securities are fake. A lot of them are. But then again claiming securities to be fake saves a lot of debt obligations being redeemed. Not all is as it should be.

A case in point is the arrest of three men in Texas a few years ago in July 1991 who were in possession of a whopping large gold certificate ($5 billion) in the name of Saddam Hussein, plus dozens of Series 57 notes of redemption worth trillions of dollars US. The three men had visited the Federal Reserve Bank in Houston to discuss redeeming the certificate. The Fed after discussions wacthed them leave and then called the Secret Service who arrested them for possession of fraudulent securities.

I have papers from the subsequent court proceedings. The principal person arrested was Edison Daminik (who I have written about elsewhere). The witness from the SS was not an old-timer but had been in the service a total of 18 mos and had no experience of tis type of (alleged) fraud. But there were lots of to-ing and fro-ing and political contacts. Ultimately, the US Attorney dropped all charges and the defendant was allowed to leave the country -- with all the Series 57 notes intact, in exchange for signing over the gold certificate to the US government. If you asked the SS/Treasury today they would still maintain the certificate was fraudulent -- but the clincher to the whole story is that clearly the certificate was not exchanged for destruction because in reality it had tremendous financial value. In another case involving the same gentleman (Damanik) in Australia some years later, the Judge ruled that the certificate (a different one but part of the same series) was genuine and released the defendant accordingly.

These sorts of stories don't ever hit the MSM. Damanik btw, was deeply involved with Suharnoe and WWII gold (and other treasure) plundered by the Japanese throughout 12 nations in the far east during WWII. That is the origin of these bullion certificates and the Series 57 notes of redemption.

The sums involved are staggering - even by today's standards.

One of the biggest players in this whole ongoing black metal affair (across the decades) was the Union Bank of Switzerland. Others were Citibank, HSBC and others. But UBS stands out as the guiding hand or, perhaps, "syndicate manager".

I hope this throws some additional light on this curious subject.

Amazing David! As you say, the MSM doesn' touch it...how is it possible we've all not heard of that 5B + Trillions in 57s caper? I know of someone who went to jail for more than a few years for writing allegedly bad checks that totaled no more than $100. In fact they were set-up for the 'fall' and they didn't even write the bad checks at all. At the time they were 'written' and passed in person, he was several thousand miles away doing black ops...but that is another story....but just goes to show....THEY decide what is real and what is not - whether it really is real has no bearing on our 'reality' and our 'history'. Sadly.

[Peter Lemkin]

The latest turn [or black lie] is that the two men are Phillippine and are still detained. I saw two names listed, but the names didn't look Phillippine to me.
-Yohannes Riyadi alias Wilfredo Saurin and -Joseph Daraman....am checking this out!?...but so long into the day [one month] anything said now would have to be part of a cover-up and not an investigation...... :nurse: If true, it leaves 2 men from Phillippines travelling on [Japanese] passports (maybe diplomatic) - released and not released [both official] and in one story still in jail...but the bonds....gone and both real and fake [both official]. I start to feel sorry for the two men.....Lee Harvey Oswalds, both. hot:

[Jan Klimkowski]

Heheheheh..

Confidential sources, whose reliability AsiaNews could not confirm, claim that one of the two Japanese stopped and then released in Ponte Chiasso was Tuneo Yamauchi, brother-in-la of Toshiro Muto, who was until recently Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan, which of course does not automatically mean that the securities are real.

Full article here:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15588&size=A

ASIA – ITALY
Securities seized in Chiasso still between a wall of silence and a flow of disinformation
Neither Italian nor US authorities have officially said whether the seized US Treasury bills worth US$ 134.5 billion are real or fake. A US Treasury spokesperson said they were fakes, but acknowledged that he only saw them in a photo on the internet. For Italy’s financial police, if they are forgeries, they are practically indistinguishable from the real stuff. Both the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan have an interest in denying their authenticity

Milan (AsiaNews) – Italy’s financial police (Guardia di Finanza) seized US$ 134.5 billion last 3 June. In the following days the news hit the front pages of Italian newspapers and became a major story in the country’s news broadcasts.

AsiaNews is a missionary news agency, not an economic agency and began reporting the story a few days later (8 June) noting how foreign media were ignoring news of such importance which could have major social and economic implications for Asia (and the rest of the world) and this irrespective of whether the bills were real or not.

Despite the many uncertain explanations, one thing is certain, namely that the major print and electronic media and the authorities have said almost nothing about it.

So far the only official statement made by any government authority is that by the Italian financial police, on 4 June, right after the money was seized. The only new piece to this big puzzle is information from Japanese agencies which cite Japanese consular sources.

According to them, the two Asian men stopped at Ponte Chiasso (Italy) on their way to Chiasso (Switzerland) were indeed Japanese nationals, one from Kanagawa Prefecture (central Japan) and the other from Fukuoka Prefecture (western Japan).

The only other certainty is that both men were released after their identity was established.

If police had enough elements to conclude that the securities were fakes (and this is true even for lower denominations or net worth), it had to arrest the two men. Failure to do so would have meant charges for the police officers involved.

If this was not the case, then the two men were released because police authorities were convinced that the securities were real. In fact under Italian law, the authorities could not arrest the two Japanese nationals but could only impose a fine worth 40 per cent of the value of anything above 10,000 €.

If this did not happen, there is only one other possible explanation, namely that an order from higher up the chain of command in the government came on national interest grounds.

Neither the Guardia di Finanze nor any other Italian government agency has released an official comment or statement on the matter one way or the other. It is not even known if a written fine was issued (had it been it would indicate that the securities were real for the police).

All that AsiaNews can conclude is as follow:

The first report by an international news agency is dated 12 June and is by Bloomberg. It includes something odd. Some of the seized securities were issued in 1934; a detail not found in the statement issued by Italy’s financial police.

One can argue from the facts that this detail could have indicated in which direction someone was trying to move the affair, i.e. towards the idea that the bills were fakes.

Conversely, we do know that the US treasury did issue one billion dollar Kennedy Bonds less than ten years ago, like those mentioned in the police’s official statement of 4 June, but whether the latter are real or not is something that has not yet been officially determined.

So far little has been said about who the two Japanese men really are. Given what the securities are worth this is understandable, albeit unusual.

Two weeks after the story initially broke Bloomberg quoted a US Treasury official, Stephen Meyerhardt, who could claimed that the securities were “clearly fakes”. Yet in another interview Meyerhardt said that he had not seen the securities in person but had relied on a photo on the internet to reach his opinion.

Also, two weeks into the affair, after Italian and US authorities were informed about the seizure, no one from the US Treasury has yet to come to Italy to check out their authenticity; indeed such a simple operation if we are to believe Mr Meyerhardt since he could reach that conclusion just by looking at an internet photo and this against the backdrop of the Italian financial police which claims that if the securities were indeed counterfeit they were so well done that they were indistinguishable from real ones.

What this means is that either the Italian policemen are totally incompetent (which is not very likely) or that Meyerhardt’s statement should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Since no official statement has been forthcoming from the authorities, all we have to rely on is an interview by the commander of the Guardia di Finanza detachment in Como to a news agency in which he expressed his own opinion, not that of his force, which is thus not formally bound by what he said. Even then, as far as the authenticity of the securities is concerned all Colonel Mecarelli would say is that Italy’s financial police “is waiting for our US colleagues to determine whether the bonds are real or forgeries.”

Whatever the case may be, the fact that two weeks into the affair US experts in counterfeit securities have not yet arrived in Italy raises more than one question; after all we are talking about US$ 135.4 billion.

Often considered a good authority in journalism, London’s Financial Times seems to have jumped to the wrong conclusion when in a recent article it claimed that the seized faked securities were the “the latest handiwork of the Italian Mafia”, thus accepting uncritically that the US Treasury bills were fakes. In fact it did not show how they were linked to the mafia.

Confidential sources, whose reliability AsiaNews could not confirm, claim that one of the two Japanese stopped and then released in Ponte Chiasso was Tuneo Yamauchi, brother-in-la of Toshiro Muto, who was until recently Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan, which of course does not automatically mean that the securities are real.

However, other sources are saying that for Italian authorities they are real and that Rome is unwilling to play along with the US Federal Reserve, which described them as fakes without taking a peak at them, except via the internet.

What seems clear is that the Federal Reserve has a vested interest in helping the Bank of Japan get the Securities back to avoid paying the Italian fine. The Fed in fact is having a hard time trying to sell its bills on various markets and the Japanese are its main buyers.

At the same time the Berlusconi administration in Italy, despite its popularity and electoral successes, could come under pressure at home if the securities are actually real and it came out that it was unwilling to enforce its own laws on Italian territory.

[Peter Lemkin]

Brother in law of Recent Former Bank Of Japan Deputy Director!....if true, say no more, say no more.....real and quite a deal! Yes, Everyone has it in their interests to SAY they are fakes...and to TREAT them as they are real. :aetsch: Where the hell did the other names come from and even in the story above, what happened to both of the men and who is the second? The story still makes NO sense....but fear not and you can call it case closed, the NYT has finally done a piece on it http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/busine...f=business
Move along, move along....no need to think about it further. The SS seems to be sticking to their having proved them fakes BASED ON HAVING SEEN PHOTOS OF THEM ON THE INTERNET. Monty Python again! :thefinger:

[David Guyatt]

I think the story is beginning to make perfect sense Peter. The securities are genuine but secret (which explains all the smoke and confusion) and are only issued by the US to other governments around the world for specific economic reasons -- like expanding economies, because to the extent that the world economy expands (using dollar denominated collateral to achieve this), then dollar power and hegemony expands likewise.

But whether this is the real explanation or not, I think we can now begin to conclude that the securities are genuine.

For me the question now is what were the two Japanese intending to do with these assets? Obviously they couldn't sell them outright because (I presume) ownership would be clear and not transferable under the terms of whatever agreement covers them. But perhaps they could be "loaned" to another nation, for a fee, in a sovereign "bond lending" arrangement?

[Peter Lemkin]

I think the story is beginning to make perfect sense Peter. The securities are genuine but secret (which explains all the smoke and confusion) and are only issued by the US to other governments around the world for specific economic reasons -- like expanding economies, because to the extent that the world economy expands (using dollar denominated collateral to achieve this), then dollar power and hegemony expands likewise.

But whether this is the real explanation or not, I think we can now begin to conclude that the securities are genuine.

For me the question now is what were the two Japanese intending to do with these assets? Obviously they couldn't sell them outright because (I presume) ownership would be clear and not transferable under the terms of whatever agreement covers them. But perhaps they could be "loaned" to another nation, for a fee, in a sovereign "bond lending" arrangement?

Speak to me David on 'bond lending' - is this like my mention of trying to show more assets on the books during an audit, etc?! Is 'bond lending' like money loans? I know we don't know, but have a guess as to whether this was a deal approved by all, or a sneaky move by one or some over the US? I'll bet there are bodies or 'bodies' behind this, now gone...but we'll never know. Remember the Japanese PM stepped down when this happened. Who is the other man and where are they? As I alsways thought the bonds are real...but that is REALLY crazy to bring real bonds of that value in by train.....might as well by bicycle or carrier pigeon - no class and no sense of security!!!!! Monty Python Op.

[David Guyatt]

Pete, bond lending is a well established method whereby the owner of securities can "rent" same to another party. An example in the bond market is where an entity sells short bonds they don't own as a speculative transaction. Effectively they are betting that the price of the bonds will sharply fall. They therefore rent bonds from an owner, deliver them against cash in settlement of their sale transaction, pocket the money -- and pay the rent. The bond price crashes, they buy back (go long) the bonds, take delivery of them, pay over the cash, return said bonds to the lender and pocket the profit. The variations on this "plain vanilla" transaction are marked and varied.

It could be a case of taking in assets for an audit, although in my experience it's more likely to be "window dressing" by reducing assets for an annual audit, by engaging in a "bed and breakfast" transaction --- a twin transaction where you sell and asset today with an agreement to buy it back tomorrow (or at some future date) at a set price, thus reducing your profit-asset ratios.

My take on moving the assets by train is that secrecy was the key, but so was moving them at arms length (not using a diplomatic pouch or other above board means). I don't imagine the risk is really that great as these types of collateral assets cannot be cashed or transacted by mere individuals - or mafia - or even unauthorized banking groups (whereas sovereign treasury to sovereign treasury is more likely I think - although doing so may be breaking the terms of the hypothetical underlying collateral agreement), so stealing them is not really a factor.

The only risk is being found out and where that might lead to we just don't know.

[Peter Lemkin]

Pete, bond lending is a well established method whereby the owner of securities can "rent" same to another party. An example in the bond market is where an entity sells short bonds they don't own as a speculative transaction. Effectively they are betting that the price of the bonds will sharply fall. They therefore rent bonds from an owner, deliver them against cash in settlement of their sale transaction, pocket the money -- and pay the rent. The bond price crashes, they buy back (go long) the bonds, take delivery of them, pay over the cash, return said bonds to the lender and pocket the profit. The variations on this "plain vanilla" transaction are marked and varied.

It could be a case of taking in assets for an audit, although in my experience it's more likely to be "window dressing" by reducing assets for an annual audit, by engaging in a "bed and breakfast" transaction --- a twin transaction where you sell and asset today with an agreement to buy it back tomorrow (or at some future date) at a set price, thus reducing your profit-asset ratios.

My take on moving the assets by train is that secrecy was the key, but so was moving them at arms length (not using a diplomatic pouch or other above board means). I don't imagine the risk is really that great as these types of collateral assets cannot be cashed or transacted by mere individuals - or mafia - or even unauthorized banking groups (whereas sovereign treasury to sovereign treasury is more likely I think - although doing so may be breaking the terms of the hypothetical underlying collateral agreement), so stealing them is not really a factor.

The only risk is being found out and where that might lead to we just don't know.

****ing bankers with their crazy instruments! Thanks for the explanation on bond transfers. Don't you agree that two Japanese or Japanese-looking men in suits would look LESS like sore-thumbs on a first class flight than a local worker's train. Also, someone seems to have tipped-off the Italian Border Police [spoil the 'deal']? I agree they are real and secret and we'll likely never know for sure...but will get bits and pieces and can speculate. My question: for each of these that surface, how many stay sub rosa and secret? WE little people haven't a clue as to what is what in moneyland!...or what our $, Euro, Yen, Pengo, Gold - whatever - is really worth!