More On The Mysterious $134 billion in Treasury Securities in Italy

It is amazing that the mainstream media has reported so little on what may be a huge story. I brought to your attention last week the story of two Japanese men who were caught in Italy with $134 billion in US Treasury Securities (yes that's billion with a B) stashed in the bottom of a suitcase. What are these guys up to? This article has a source that claims 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. Very mysterious, there is something big going on here, I just don't know what. I'll do my best to keep you informed on this Clancy type mystery, stay tuned.-Lou

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).

MORE