Two Japanese tourists arrested for smuggling billions of dollars in U.S. bonds

The US Bloomberg News agency reported 16th that two Japanese tourists were arrested by Italian police on June 3 after being found to carry an unspecified 134 billion U.S. dollar bond. Two more than 50-year-old Japanese tourists were caught trying to smuggle the bonds into Switzerland, according to Bloomberg, the Italian border city of Ziaso (Chiasso), located 50 kilometres north of Milan.　　The two men hid $134 billion worth of U.S. debt in the bottom of their suitcase and did not make any form of the bond before leaving, Bloomberg quoted the Italian police as saying. Suspected that the bonds were false, the police asked the SEC to identify the authenticity. Before the results were announced, the US Treasury Department stated that the detected U.S. bonds were "clearly counterfeit and grossly excessive".　　According to reports, of the 134 billion dollars seized, 294 are printed with the word "fed" the words of 500 million dollar denominated bonds, 10 1 billion dollar "Kennedy government bonds" and some other older U.S. bonds. Melhart, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, said that some 105.4 billion dollars of bearer bonds (bearer bond) were still not redeemed, most of which had expired 5 years ago. The Ministry of Finance has ceased issuing bearer bonds since 1982. (GAO)