From Bob Hamer over at Big Hollywood
……Chen Chiang Liu (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nv/press/september2008/liu09172008.htm) of San Marino, California learned the hard way from U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan you don’t tug on Superman’s cape and you don’t pass counterfeit currency in Las Vegas.
Liu was initially snared in the Los Angeles FBI undercover investigation code-named OPERATION SMOKING DRAGON. While out on bail, he was caught passing counterfeit bills in Las Vegas casinos and arrested by the Secret Service. On March 5th, Liu was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison. But this case was much more than merely another federal conviction. Liu was passing the Supernote, a counterfeit $100 bill manufactured by the North Koreans. What made this case even more interesting was the lack of news coverage the trial received. I know because I was the undercover agent.
……During my three years undercover targeting members of an Asian criminal syndicate consisting of various loosely connected criminal conspiracies, I was tasked by FBI headquarters to obtain the Supernote. Our subjects brought me various versions of the counterfeit $100 bill, but members of two separate conspiracies brought me the Supernote. How good were these bills? Almost perfect. The bills were printed with the same color-shifting ink as in our genuine bills and printed on cotton-fiber paper using the intaglio printing process. The bills contained the security fibers as well as the watermarks. They were so good that a top analyst at Secret Service initially opined the bills were real. It wasn’t until the bills were examined under a microscope the flaws were detected. In fact, when I saw enlarged photo comparisons of the bills, the imposter looked better than the real thing.
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bhamer/2009/03/18/counterfeit-and-few-seemed-to-care/
The article mentions that the North Koreans produce at least $250 million of the Supernotes per year.
Not good, when you consider that the reproductions are of such high quality, can fool even some experts, and the possibility of the fake currency being used to flood our system.
Hamer doesn’t say, but I’m willing to bet the North Koreans had a little inside help at one of our mints.
This is an act of aggression you can add to the list of growing threats against America. But, as Hamer pointed out, no one is paying attention.