German investigators have seized counterfeit dollar bills with a face value of $103 million in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. A 42-year-old businessman is suspected of previously exporting ‘flowers’ to the US.
As the State Criminal Investigation Department in Kiel announced on Friday, the forgeries were discovered in Jübeck in the Schleswig-Holstein district and in Hamburg during raids on three residential and business addresses.
Four pallets of counterfeit money
According to investigators, during the searches, emergency services found four pallets containing 75 boxes of counterfeit dollar bills, believed to have come from a “wholesaler from Turkey.” He is said to have used one of the suspect’s companies in Jübek as an “intermediate storage facility for further transport to the US”. Corresponding information came from American security authorities.
So-called movie money
The counterfeit money was so-called movie money or prop copies, i.e. imitations that could be recognized as counterfeit on closer inspection. However, the Bundesbank and US authorities classify them as likely to be confused with real money. The production and distribution therefore constituted a criminal offense, it was said.
According to the Criminal Investigation Department, the suspect is, among other things, the director of two export companies. According to a spokeswoman, he was not in custody due to the lack of grounds for arrest. The Flensburg Public Prosecution Service is investigating the man on suspicion of counterfeit money; the searches took place at his house last week.
Source: Krone
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