The Numismatic Bibliomania Society

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V11 2008 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 11, Number 29, July 20, 2008, Article 28

COUNTERFEIT CASH SMUGGLED FROM TAIWAN IN FISH TINS

How does the counterfeit U.S. currency find its way to the U.S.? According to a San Francisco Chronicle article, at least one smuggler camouflaged the cash in tins of dried fish. -Editor
A Taiwanese woman has been charged in federal court with smuggling $380,000 in counterfeit $100 bills in a package of dried seafood, court records show.

Mei Ling Chen, 46, was charged with bringing counterfeit currency into the United States.

Chen was arrested Tuesday at her former husband's home in Sunnyvale, four days after customs agents intercepted a package at San Francisco International Airport that had been shipped from Taiwan, authorities said in documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

The customs declaration described the package as a gift containing candy and books, Secret Service senior special agent William Bishop wrote in an affidavit. But when a customs agent opened the parcel to make sure it didn't contain prohibited food items, he found four pouches containing fake $100 bills wrapped in newspaper, Bishop wrote.

The pouches, holding $380,000 in fake bills in all, were hidden among 20 bags of dried seafood, authorities said.

The currency appeared to be "supernotes," fake money that is of such high quality that the fraud goes undetected until the cash reaches the Federal Reserve Bank, authorities said.

To read the complete article, see: Woman charged with smuggling counterfeit cash (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/17/BA5211QTEC.DTL)



Wayne Homren, Editor

Google
 
NBS (coinbooks.org) Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V11 2008 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

Copyright © 1998 - 2008 The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS)
All Rights Reserved.

NBS Home Page
Contact the NBS webmaster
coin