Funny US money seized in Germany

Police in Germany announced on April 5 that they had seized counterfeit US bank notes with a face value of $103 million (€112.2 million).

The banknotes probably originated in Turkey, revealed Schleswig-Holstein investigators who said that officers had discovered the dollar bills during a swoop on an apartment and two business premises.  These were located in Jubek near the Danish border as well as neighouring Hamburg.

The were packed in 75 cardboard cartons loaded onto four pallets, ready for transporting to the US.

Police were following a tipoff from the US authorities which led them to export firms belonging to a 42-year-old Turkish national whom they believe had sent on counterfeit banknotes to America in the past.

Despite police suspicions he had evaded arrest until now, owing to lack of evidence.

The dollar bills were low-quality fakes, known as “prop copies” or “movie money” investigators said, and close inspection would have soon have recognised them as counterfeit.

Nevertheless, both the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, and the US authorities said that they could easily have escaped detection in everyday transactions.