Vindication

My articles on the mystery bonds (scroll down) have been vindicated. See the sixth update to this Cryptogon article on the mystery bonds. The main Cryptogon article was written before my work but the update -- which gloms onto the Filipino connection -- was written afterward, independently.

The giveaway was the "1934" date on the bonds. Apparently, when someone tried to pull this trick back in 2005, the bonds amounted to $3 trillion. Those guys who were caught on the Italian-Swiss border were pikers.

The photo to your left is from 2004, yet it shows the same fake bonds found in Italy. This San Diego Union Tribune story should explain all.

Oh, the story.

That's the key to understanding how crooks use these documents.

In both of these cases, they told potential victims that the bonds recently were recovered by Filipino tribes from a 1930s-era, CIA-owned DC-10 airplane that crashed, killing all aboard, Burke said.

The U.S. government was sending the bonds in a secret effort to help the Chinese government, the story goes. Only people with connections can cash the bonds, and investors can buy in for a few thousand dollars, getting three to five times their money back.

And, because of the secrecy, the government will deny their authenticity.

A little common sense reveals the lie behind the story. DC-10 jets didn't exist in the 1930s. Or the CIA. And the U.S. government never printed bonds or money in such amounts.

"People don't use their common sense," Burke said.