Free Republic

Let's not mince words here: The entire finance and real-estate "industry" is filled with massive, pernicious fraud, and we now have only one question remaining - will The Government do its lawful and mandated job, that of prosecuting the bad actors, or has it joined with the fraudsters, become one with them, and thus, declare itself as a gang of mobsters rather than a legitimate government? The latter, of course will beg only the question of what should be an ordinary American's response. Let's start with what may be one of the most outrageous yet least-actionable examples: Alan Greenspan. Alan...

Market Street Saloon scammed out of $510 in latest, boldest counterfeit case It was dark, the alcohol was flowing and dozens of Alexander Hamiltons and Andrew Jacksons were making their way into a downtown bar's cash register Friday night. It wasn't until the next day that a manager at the Market Street Saloon realized that someone scammed the business out of $510 by passing bogus $10 and $20 bills. Charleston police said the incident is the most brazen of several counterfeit cases to hit the city recently. In the last two weeks, eight businesses from West Ashley, James Island and...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Ecuador Conterfeiting Problems CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Ecuador 30 Jul 2009 U.S. Embassy Quito issued the following Warden Message on July 30, 2009: The U.S. Embassy and Consulate General in Ecuador wish to inform American citizens visiting or resident in Ecuador of the continuing problem of counterfeit U.S. dollars circulating within Ecuador. We remind American citizens to check your currency carefully when leaving any banking institution or private business within Ecuador. Recently, we’ve received reports of counterfeit bills...

This divorce decree shows Barry's parents divorcing with two children one a minor child and one and adult still dependant on education. So at age 19 his parents were still Soetoro.. he was still Soetoro. Then when he goes to law school in IL he signs a document that declares he never had any other name than Barack Obama. That is a sworn lying statement and a felony and you could be disbarred for false information. If y This was posted on Orly’s facebook

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1946360420090619 Fri Jun 19, 2009 By David Lawder WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - A purported $134 billion in U.S. government bearer bond certificates seized by police near the Italian-Swiss border are fake, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday. "Based on the photograph we've seen online, they are clearly fake. And not even good fakes," said Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the Treasury's Bureau of the Public Debt. He added that there is only $105 million in Treasury bearer bond securities outstanding, so the $134 billion amount seized far exceeds the universe of outstanding securites. The Treasury's determination confirmed the suspicions...

ROME — Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities. According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that...

Check out the article on Drudge. There's a bloomberg story (can't post it due to rules) saying two men had a suitcase filled with 134 billion in US government bonds they were taking out of Italy. That would make them the fourth largest creditors of the US govt, and it's a big problem if they are real . . . or if they are fake.

Watch this unbelievable video!!! Put it in a separate window, and make it a small window so you can read the transcript below in my comment.

Note: Photos included. On June 6, the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into counterfeit goods being sold at the Flea Market at 2710 Whitehorse Road. During the investigation, operations conducted lead them to believe that Wayne Boyd and Kip Shamiker were operating booths at the Flea Market with counterfeit merchandise. Investigators say the items included DVDs, CDs, and name brand apparel including Coogi, Polo, Nike, NFL, NBA, Coach, Gucci, and Dooney and Burke. Investigators say they knew the items were fake, through security features on merchandise tags and labels.

ASHEVILLE, NC—Bernard von NotHaus, 65, formerly of Evansville, Indiana, and two additional defendants from Evansville, along with William Kevin Innes, 53, of Asheville, North Carolina, have been indicted in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on conspiracy and other charges in connection with an alleged unlawful operation to publish, possess and sell for profit, coins in resemblance and similitude to U.S. coins. All four defendants are also charged in the alleged conspiracy with uttering and passing, and attempting to utter and pass, a coin of silver in resemblance of genuine coins of the United States in...

A North Korean general who is a confidant of the country's leader, Kim Jong-il, has been identified by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies as a key figure in the covert production and distribution of high-quality counterfeit $100 bills called supernotes, according to documents and interviews with intelligence officials.

Many Americans today believe certain illegal vices in our society should be decriminalized, taxed, and regulated. The most popular of these vices include marijuana smoking, prostitution, and all forms of gambling. The proponents for decriminalization believe that the new tax revenues produced would help support schools, healthcare, and the impoverished, ease the pain of taxpayers, and reduce the deficit. They also believe that transgressions such as these will take place no matter, but, if properly regulated, would be safer for society in general. It would be a win, win situation. Unfortunately, when it comes to lowering taxes and helping the...

RTNews (RussiaToday News) reported March 26 that the Obama Administration is seeking the power through legal channels to have the right to see just what is on your computer hard drive. Funny how the mainstream media has not given this story any coverage. The way in which the Obama Administration intends to carry out this flagrant violation of privacy will be under the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Below is a definition of the ACTA courtesy of Wikipedia. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a proposed plurilateral trade agreement which is alleged by its proponents to be in response "to the...

A congressional investigation has exposed gaping holes in security eight years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a government report says. An investigator used a false identification to obtain a U.S. passport and then used the passport to get an airline boarding pass and go through an airport security checkpoint, according to the Government Accountability Office. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said its undercover investigator conducted four tests of the passport issuance system and "easily" obtained passports every time. Individuals with "even minimal counterfeiting capabilities" can obtain genuine U.S. passports, which can be used to travel overseas, open...

Last September, the Bush administration defended the unusual secrecy over an anti-counterfeiting treaty being negotiated by the U.S. government, which some liberal groups worry could criminalize some peer-to-peer file sharing that infringes copyrights. Now President Obama's White House has tightened the cloak of government secrecy still further, saying in a letter this week that a discussion draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and related materials are "classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958." The 1995 Executive Order 12958 allows material to be classified only if disclosure would do "damage to the national security and the...

OTTAWA -- Consumers and retailers should be cautious when buying toothbrushes after counterfeit products bearing brand names were found on the Canadian market, Health Canada warned Monday. The toothbrushes are falsely labelled as Colgate Massager, Colgate Navigator, Oral B Classic 40, Oral B Contura and Colgate 360. "If an imitation is suspected, consumers should stop using them immediately, as the quality, safety and effectiveness of counterfeit products cannot be assured," Health Canada said in an advisory. Retailers with stock from Canadian importer AG Liquidation should check their products for authenticity and remove any they suspect to be bogus, the agency...

The number of fake £1 coins in circulation now stands at more than 30 million, according to the Royal Mint. How do you know if you've been given one? That £1 coin in your pocket could be worthless. The number of fake pound coins in circulation has doubled in the past five years and one in every 50 is now counterfeit.

With the economy riding a downward-arrow, and bailout talk getting more airplay then the Beatles did when they invaded in 1964, it may be time to trek to your friendly neighborhood office supply chain and stock up on ink jet cartridges and follow the lead of two Milwaukee, Wisconsin neighborhoods – that is, if the people there decide to follow through on a plan that will have eyebrows flexing John Belushi-style.The plan?To take matters into their own hands.As they see it … When the going gets tough, the tough print their own money.Really.Funny money discussions are set to take place...

They may be talking funny money, but it's not funny business. Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession. "You have all these people who have local currency, and they're going to spend it at local stores," said Sura Faraj, a community organizer who is helping spearhead...

The chasm between those who want President-elect Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate to verify his eligibility to hold the nation's highest office and those who simply support the Democrat is widening. "The Constitution means what we today decide it means," opined one participant on a new WND forum that offers readers an opportunity to express their opinion on the birth certificate dispute.

John McCain suggested Sunday that Barack Obama’s record-breaking fund raising was a gateway to corruption. During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” the Republican nominee expressed concern over the amount of money his Democratic opponent was raising — and spending. Obama brought in a jaw-dropping $150 million in September, eclipsing his past record of $66 million. In talking about the news, McCain repeatedly referred to the Watergate scandal that resulted in the impeachment of former President Richard Nixon. McCain pointed to that incident, which included Republicans breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices, as an example of the kind of...

Over the past year, US citizens have become increasingly aware of the substandard consumer-level goods flowing out of China, but new reports indicate that the counterfeit products and dubious quality controls are not confined to the consumer sector. An increasingly large number of supposedly military-grade electronic components are turning out to be counterfeit commercial-grade hardware that, in some cases, is decades older than the manufacturing label indicates. The problem, to be sure, is not entirely China's fault. Back in 1994 and 1996, the Clinton Administration passed two bills, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (1994), and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

The FBI announced Friday that an investigation into counterfeit network components made in China and sold to the U.S. government has recovered about 3,500 fake devices with a value of $3.5 million. The criminal probe, code-named Operation Cisco Raider, was prompted by concerns that counterfeit network components could give hackers access to government databases. But one U.S. official told Reuters that the components discovered by the FBI are not believed to have made government computer systems more vulnerable. The existence of the probe came to light after an unclassified FBI PowerPoint presentation in January on the agency's efforts to counter...

Some months ago, my contacts in the defense industry had alerted me to a startling development that has escalated to the point of near-panick in nearly all corners of Government security and IT infrastructure. The very-real concern, being investigated by the FBI, is that either the Chinese government or Chinese hackers (or both) have had the benefit of undetectable back-doors into highly secure government and military computer networks for months, perhaps years. The cause: a high-number of counterfeit Cisco routers and switches installed in nearly all government networks that experienced upgrades and/or new units within the past 18 months.

When cold medicine containing a poison made in China killed nearly 120 Panamanians in 2006 and early 2007, Americans could take some comfort in the belief that a similar epidemic could never happen here, not with one of the best drug regulatory systems in the world. Then last spring, hundreds if not thousands of pets died or were sickened in the United States by a Chinese pet food ingredient that contained lethal levels of melamine, an industrial product used to artificially boost protein levels. That was followed quickly by the discovery that Americans were brushing their teeth with Chinese toothpaste...

(HONG KONG) - Italian confectioner Ferrero has won a five-year battle against a Chinese firm producing fakes of its famous gold-wrapped Ferrero Rocher chocolates in a ruling hailed by upmarket brands, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. China's Supreme People's Court ordered mainland company Montresor to stop making the nutty chocolates and pay "symbolic" damages of 500,000 yuan (US$71,430), the South China Morning Post reported. "It is already hard for Italian companies, and foreign ones in general, to get into China, overcome resistance put up against foreign products, build up a commercial network and invest in the country, only to be...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a notice Monday reminding reactor license applicants and nuclear power plant operators to prevent counterfeit parts from posing a safety concern. The notice cites two counterfeit valves at the Hatch facility near Baxley, Ga., of which NRC learned in November 2007, and one of these was installed as a cooling water pump discharge stop check valve on Hatch Unit 2. Catawba, a facility in Rock Hill, S.C., removed four circuit breakers from its stock after checking and being unable to confirm their authenticity, according to the notice, which stresses that none of these items was...

March 6, 2008 Drug Tied to China Had Contaminant, F.D.A. Says By GARDINER HARRIS and WALT BOGDANICH WASHINGTON — Federal drug regulators said Wednesday that a critical blood thinner that had been linked to at least 19 deaths and whose raw components were produced in China contained a possibly counterfeit ingredient that mimicked the real drug. Routine tests failed to distinguish the contaminant from the drug, heparin. Only sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging tests uncovered that as much as 20 percent of the product’s active ingredient was a heparin mimic blended in with the real thing. Federal officials said they did...

(WASHINGTON) — US authorities announced Thursday they had seized more than 76 million dollars' worth of counterfeit Cisco Systems computer equipment manufactured in China over the past three years. Officials said the probe by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police aimed at halting counterfeit network routers, switches, network cards and modules -- some of which help protect computer networks important to national security. Chinese authorities also have cooperated in the Operation Cisco Raider probe, according to US officials. "By intercepting the counterfeit hardware at ports of entry and dismantling illegal supply chains in...

A 78-year-old Los Angeles attorney and two other people were charged with trying to sell counterfeit Federal Reserve notes, many with a purported face value of $500 million, federal officials announced today. Defense lawyer Darrell Lee Johnson -- arrested Friday afternoon at his San Marino home by federal agents -- faces charges of possessing and trying to sell fictitious financial obligations, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A federal magistrate judge set Johnson's bond at $100,000, ICE reported. ICE agents executed search warrants at Johnson's Koreatown office and his home, where they allegedly seized nearly 500 phony Federal Reserve...

(SHANGHAI) — Factories here churn out iPhones that are exported to the United States and Europe. Then thousands of them are smuggled right back into China. The strange journey of Apple’s popular iPhone, to nearly every corner of the world, shows what happens when the world’s hottest consumer product defies a company’s attempt to slowly introduce it in new markets. The iPhone has been swept up in a frenzy of global smuggling and word-of-mouth marketing that leads friends to ask friends, “While you’re in the U.S., would you mind picking up an iPhone for me?” These unofficial distribution networks help...

After the Chinese company Guilin Pharmaceutical began getting complaints about its antimalarial medicine, artesunate, the company decided in 2006 to test some field samples. They turned out to be fake. “They contained starch,” Ni Shizheng, vice president of Guilin Pharmaceutical, said in a recent interview. “Our company didn’t have the means to deal with the problem.” But help was on the way. An unusual coalition of scientists, public health workers and police investigators used an innovative form of pollen analysis to help track down the source of those counterfeits, leading to the arrest of an organized crime ring that funneled...

Last year, a German tourist traveling through China spotted a set of nested salt and pepper shakers: The slender cylinder of pepper rested perfectly in the center of the doughnut-shaped salt holder. It was a sleek design. It was also, he recognized, an almost exact copy of the successful Two-in-One salt-and-pepper set made by Geislingen (Germany)-based WMF, and he sent it to the company. As a result, the maker of the imitation—Shantou Lian Plastic Products of Guangdong, China—is one of 13 winners of the Plagiarius Award, a dubious honor bestowed on makers and distributors of the "best" (which is to...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Scottsdale police have arrested nine people suspected of selling forged Super Bowl tickets for thousands of dollars.Sgt. Mark Clark said Sunday that a Massachusetts couple reporting unwittingly buying forged tickets for $2,500 from a man on the street Saturday. Plain-clothed detectives spotted a man matching a description given by the couple, and the victims then positively identified him.

A Bear Paw man was arrested on Jan. 25 and $275,000 worth of counterfeit items were seized in an investigation connected to Chinese nationals bringing in goods from China, Cherokee County Sheriff's Office Investigator Roger Williams said. Robert Barry Franks, 60, was arrested on indictments issued by the January Cherokee County Grand Jury. Investigators became aware of Franks in May 2006 while investigating a complaint made concerning an individual selling counterfeit items such as sunglasses, purses and hats with counterfeit brand names at a flea market in Ranger, Williams said. Following up on this information, more than $225,000 in counterfeit...

China taking 'right steps' to protect IPR (China Daily/Agencies) Updated: 2008-01-29 07:31 China is taking the right steps to prevent intellectual property rights (IPR) violations, though it needs more time to achieve progress. This is what European Union (EU) Tax and Customs Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said in Beijing yesterday. It's true that 80 percent of the counterfeit goods seized on EU borders in 2006 came from China. And it's true too that IPR protection is a major issue for EU businesses. But Kovacs said the Chinese government is taking proper legislative steps to stem the flow of counterfeits both at...

(BEIJING) - Beijing's Silk Street Market, famous for knock-off designer gear from North Face jackets to Louis Vuitton bags, has unveiled its own brand and, apparently with a straight face, warned counterfeiters not to copy it. The first items to bear the SILKSTREET name include "apparel such as neckties, shirts and scarves, as well as a few household items such as tablecloths", Xinhua news agency said on Thursday. They are marked "quality guaranteed" with a label that tells buyers that "the goods are certified by the Silk Street Market. "SILKSTREET products are sold exclusively in the market. Anyone using the...

DANDONG, China — In a Bank of China branch in this river city that borders North Korea, a currency changer stinking of alcohol pulled out a thick wad of cash from around the world and carefully removed a counterfeit 2003 series U.S. $100 bill. The fake came from a North Korean businessman, he said, adding that, "The ones from Europe are much better." Were these fakes, so close to perfect that they're called "supernotes," made in the isolated communist country? The man, who refused to give his name for fear of arrest, shrugged and said he doubted that the North...

DANDONG, China | The currency changer, brazenly plying his illegal trade in the Bank of China lobby, pulled out a thick wad of cash from around the world and carefully removed a bill. The 2003 series U.S. $100 bill was a fake, but not just any fake. It was a “supernote,” a counterfeit so perfect it’s an international whodunit.

(WENGANG, China) -- The first time the pair of Shanghai private detectives came to this remote village known as China's pen capital, they ran into big trouble. They were on a mission, along with provincial police, to raid a factory and seize thousands of counterfeit Parker writing pens. They made it inside the building and found the bogus goods. But a mob arrived, hemming them inside and barricading the only street leading out of town. The detectives escaped with just a few boxes of evidence -- and only after local police intervened. That was four years ago. Since then, China...

To track the global surge in fake goods, The Dispatch sent a reporter and photographer to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand this summer for a rare look inside the counterfeit trade. Knockoff goods made in Asia easily find their way to central Ohio shops as well as purse parties and Internet auctions.(BEIJING) -- For tens of thousands of Western visitors annually, no trip to China is complete without a fantasy shopping spree. "I'm loading up with a bunch of booty and heading back to the States," said Jim Stabile, snaking his way through a maze of shops in the...

The ardent supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, the iconoclastic Texas libertarian whose campaign for the presidency is threatening to upend the battle for the Republican nomination, got word yesterday of a new source of outrage and motivation: reports of a federal raid on a company that was selling thousands of coins marked with the craggy visage of their hero. Federal agents on Thursday raided the Evansville, Ind., headquarters of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and Internal Revenue Code (Norfed), an organization of "sound money" advocates that for the past decade has been selling a...

A seemingly small-time drug ring busted this week in Los Angeles was actually targeted for funding the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, the Daily News has learned. Prosecutors left out the terror tie when they announced Tuesday that federal agents and local cops had arrested a dozen people for allegedly peddling cocaine and counterfeit clothing in Bell, Calif. But several sources familiar with the investigation said the predominantly Arab-American gang was believed to have smuggled its crime cash to the Iranian-backed terror group. "This was a classic case of terrorism financing, and it was pretty sophisticated how they did it," a...

More indictments are expected in the probe, which has centered on L.A.'s garment district. A dozen people were arrested Tuesday on charges of narcotics trafficking, money laundering and selling counterfeit goods after a two-year counter-terrorism and drug investigation centered in Los Angeles' downtown garment district. The focus of the federal investigation was Ali Khalil Elreda, 32, who was detained at Los Angeles International Airport last year, accused of trying to smuggle $120,000 in money orders and cashier's checks, hidden in a child's toy, to Lebanon, according to an indictment and an affidavit filed in the case. In 2005, a Los...

The first part we expected to receive was the Toshiba 56-nm 16-Gbit multilevel-cell NAND flash...To our dismay, the die markings were not Toshiba's, but Samsung's. After comparing the die markings (K9G4G08U0A) in our database, we were able to match the markings to the Samsung 4-Gbit 65-nm MLC NAND flash... If we had ordered the part in question for system design purposes, our system would have failed, since the device was only a 4-Gbit model and not the 16-Gbit version we had ordered and expected.

Change for a million? That's what a man was seeking Saturday when he handed a $1 million bill to a cashier at a Pittsburgh supermarket. But when the Giant Eagle employee refused and a manager confiscated the bogus bill, the man flew into a rage, police said. The man slammed an electronic funds-transfer machine into the counter and reached for a scanner gun, police said. Police arrested the man, who was not carrying identification and has refused to give his name to authorities. He is being held in the Allegheny County Jail. Since 1969, the $100 bill is the largest...

(NEW YORK) — Even as China is still counting the costs resulting from Mattel's recall of China-made toys, yet another consumer scandal has come to light. This time, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has tracked to China counterfeit versions of an at-home diabetes test widely used in many countries to take sensitive measurements of blood-sugar levels. According to court documents in New York, some one million fake OneTouch Test Strips, originating from China, have turned up in at least 35 American states and in Canada, Greece, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, reported Bloomberg. In Singapore, the Health Sciences...

(SHANGHAI)--China could not wait for the official release date of the seventh book in the worldwide Harry Potter publishing franchise, a little more than a week ago. It came out here with an identical title a full 10 days before the official worldwide English language release - in a wholly unauthorized version. Chinese writers and their fans are not having it with the idea that the seventh installment is the last word in the best-selling series, either. No one can say with any certainty what the full tally is, but there are easily a dozen fake Harry Potters on the...

Source: Temple University Date: July 17, 2007 Combating Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals From China Science Daily — Agencies worldwide are cracking down on counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and much of the focus has been on China, where an official was recently executed for approving fake medicines. While most of these drugs reach consumers through online or illegal suppliers, there's a growing threat to outlets considered more safe, like the neighborhood pharmacy, said Temple University pharmacoeconomist, Albert Wertheimer, Ph.D., who will talk about combating counterfeit pharmaceuticals coming out of China at a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seminar on July 23 and 24 in...