Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 09-18-2003, 01:35 PM   #1 (permalink)
Addict
 
Arc101's Avatar
 
Location: Nottingham, England
Two guilty of $2.5 trillion swindle

If you are going to commit fraud you might as well really go for it. 10 out of 10 for ambition.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3116188.stm
Arc101 is offline  
Old 09-18-2003, 01:40 PM   #2 (permalink)
Ssssssssss
 
Kaos's Avatar
 
Location: Ontario
Yup, if you are goign to jail, might as well be for a few trillion than for a few thousand, lol
Kaos is offline  
Old 09-18-2003, 01:49 PM   #3 (permalink)
Junkie
 
10 out of 10 for ambition but 0 of 10 for intelligence. Putting ZIP codes on bonds allegedly issued in 1934 and spelling mistakes? If you're going to do it, at least do a good job of it.
laconic1 is offline  
Old 09-18-2003, 01:56 PM   #4 (permalink)
Insane
 
Location: Silicon Valley, Utah
wow, it really shows you that you definitely can't trust the elderly.
__________________
Political arguments do not exist, after all, for people to believe in them, rather they serve as a common, agreed-upon excuse. Foolish people who take them in earnest sooner or later discover inconsistencies in them, begin to protest and finish finally and infamously as heretics.
floonine is offline  
Old 09-18-2003, 01:58 PM   #5 (permalink)
Tilted Cat Head
 
Cynthetiq's Avatar
 
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
for the click link challenged:

Two guilty of $2.5 trillion swindle


By Chris Summers
BBC News Online


Two men have been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud in a case related to fake US government bonds worth $2.5 trillion.
Graham Halksworth, from Mossley, Greater Manchester, and Michael Slamaj, from Vancouver, Canada, were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Thursday.

Slamaj was also convicted of possessing fake bonds.


Graham Halksworth "succumbed to greed"

Sentencing was adjourned to 31 October but the pair were warned by Judge William Birtles that they faced lengthy custodial sentences.

Halksworth, 69, was cleared of another charge of conspiracy to defraud and bailed while Slamaj was remanded in custody.

Former Yugoslav spy Slamaj, 56, said the bonds were issued by the US in exchange for gold given by Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalist government in the 1940s.

A plane carrying them supposedly crashed on the Filipino island of Mindanao in 1948.

But Detective Inspector Roger Cook said the bonds were fake, produced on an inkjet printer with spelling mistakes and included zip codes - not introduced in the US until 1963.

He said the defendants had been "corrupted by greed" and had taken advantage of people's gullibility.

The timetable
25 April 2001: Fake bonds found at Graham Halksworth's vault in a HSBC's safety depository in Holborn, London
3 May 2001: Halksworth is arrested
25 May 2001: Michael Slamaj and another man take bonds in to a US Treasury facility in West Virginia
15 Mar 2002: Slamaj arrested at London's Heathrow Airport
16 Mar 2002: Slamaj arrested as he tries to access safety deposit box. More bonds found


Trial exposed urban myth
Slamaj, who claimed he had been given the bonds by Filipino tribesmen, brought them to London three years ago.

Forensic document examiner Halksworth, who had previously helped pioneer fingerprint evidence, was paid £63,000 to authenticate Slamaj's bonds and others.

The bonds were to be used as collatoral for loans.

But in May 2001 City of London Police were tipped off by the Hong Kong authorities after two Australians were arrested with bonds and a certificate signed by Halksworth.

He was arrested and a vault at the HSBC Safety Deposit Centre in London raided along with his home and office.

Hundreds of the bonds were recovered along with several authentication certificates.

Halksworth carried out more authentications before his trial.

Revolutionary technology

In March 2002 a London solicitor tipped off police about Slamaj after he became suspicious about a transaction he had been asked to broker.

Slamaj was arrested at Heathrow Airport but released on bail.

He was re-arrested the following day when he went to recover the bonds from a safety deposit box.

Slamaj said he wanted the bonds to raise money for a factory using ethanol technology.


Fake US bonds are quite common in the Philippines
Dr Lazlo Paszner, an innocent party, told the trial ethanol could be manufactured using biomass from sugar cane plantations to provide clean and renewable energy to replace fossil fuels.

Slamaj said he was contacted by people wanting to redeem the bonds including a Russian prince and that he met US middle men claiming to have links with the CIA or Treasury.

Disabled daughter

Mr Cook said of Halksworth: "He has a severely disabled daughter (Jane, who suffers from muscular dystrophy) which has clearly taken its toll both financially and emotionally.

"This was easy money with low risk and he succumbed to greed."

Mr Cook warned many of the bonds were still in circulation.

"There are no genuine Federal Reserve notes from 1934.

"Anyone who is offered them should contact the police or report it to their bank and withdraw from any transaction straight away."

He said this was a common fraud.

"Sometimes it's Gold Dore bonds, or German Third Reich bonds, but 1934 FRNs seem to be the current ones."
__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
Cynthetiq is offline  
Old 09-18-2003, 02:10 PM   #6 (permalink)
a2k
Crazy
 
Location: Seattle
I'm sure a few missing trillions have slid by without anybody noticing all of these years...
a2k is offline  
Old 09-18-2003, 09:31 PM   #7 (permalink)
Crazy
 
Damn, that is a LOT of money!
Splice is offline  
Old 09-19-2003, 02:48 AM   #8 (permalink)
.
 
bundy's Avatar
 
Location: Tokyo
wow.
these guys really went for it.

i“ve always thought that stealing a million just wouldn“t be enough... but 2.5 trillion... now thats worth the risk.
__________________
Ohayo!!!
bundy is offline  
 

Tags
$25, guilty, swindle, trillion


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:58 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360