$900K worth of counterfeit U.S. currency seized

[Hydrogen]

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. ― U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the International Falls Port of Entry seized $900,000 in counterfeit United States currency Friday that was discovered in a commercial rail shipment originating from China.

“CBP officers strive every day to protect the United States from a variety of threats,” said Jason Schmelz, Pembina Area Port Director. “Those threats don’t always come in the form of terrorists or narcotics, but also in the form of counterfeit currency and other goods that have the potential to harm the economy of the United States. Thanks to the dedication of our officers and our partnership with the Secret Service, we were able to keep this currency from entering into circulation.”

Due to the vigilance of CBP officers, a rail container was referred for a Customs Exam Station inspection on Dec. 14, 2019.

During the examination, CBP discovered 45 cartons of possible counterfeit currency in the form of $1 bills with a total face value of $900,000. The United States Secret Service was contacted determined the currency is counterfeit.

The counterfeit currency was seized and will be turned over to the Secret Service.

Stopping the flow of illicit goods is a priority trade issue for CBP. The importation of counterfeit merchandise ― including counterfeit currency ―  can damage the U.S. economy.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/cbp-officers-seize-900k-worth-counterfeit-us-currency

....


$900,000 in counterfeit US dollars seized on a rail container with its place of origin being china.

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.

Could this represent an example of china waging trade war on the united states. Or perhaps it is completely coincidental a standard practice which had been ongoing for years until it was randomly exposed this week.

[1715249021]

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[1715249021]

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[NeuroticFish]

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.

Some will always see conspiracies everywhere they look.

The logic is simple though. There are always some who try to sell/use counterfeit money. And where's the cheapest to print such things? Yep, China.
There may be not even illegal there to print foreign currency - I mean it's another country, another legislation and so on. Of course it's illegal to get them into US. And that's what customs are for, after all...
All in all, no biggie.

[magneto]

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.

Some will always see conspiracies everywhere they look.

^^

Although, it could be what he said. There are a lot of people in China that are in the business of printing fake money or selling fake clothes/technology. Basically, anyone would have seen fake shoes/clothes that are being sold for huge amounts of profit. The chances that the counterfeit money is actually from China, is not low in the slightest.

Although I might be a skeptical person, it does seem weird that the US secret service was just able to track the money from China. If there was more information explaining the process, maybe it would seem more believable, but now it just seems like a case of he said that, and I don't have the highest amount of trust in the US government with some of the things they've been involved in.

Customs in the US is actually quite bad from the glimpses I've seen. It's not as in-depth as other countries and a lot of it relies on technology that can be cheated easily, and random strokes of luck.

[davis196]

Counterfeit currency in the form of $1 bills?That's weird.
Usually the criminals print fake paper money with a way bigger value.
I expect that the Chinese secret services or the Hong Kong Mafia have something to do with this.
Hiding such big amount of paper in a rail container that's about to be inspected by the US customs,seems very amateurish move from a spy or a gangster.

[Coyster]

Even the US government I'm very sure would be investigating this issue to find out if there's any conspiracy in this, there may not be, but for a country like the United States of America that relies and values their Economy, they wouldn't be taken this likely or for granted. China as a country may just be popular for producing fake products just like this one, maybe it's nothing serious.

 I do not think the Chinese government has anything to gain "waging a trade war" against the US, except they release a statement claiming otherwise, or that will unravel it all.

[Twentyonepaylots]

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. ― U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the International Falls Port of Entry seized $900,000 in counterfeit United States currency Friday that was discovered in a commercial rail shipment originating from China.

“CBP officers strive every day to protect the United States from a variety of threats,” said Jason Schmelz, Pembina Area Port Director. “Those threats don’t always come in the form of terrorists or narcotics, but also in the form of counterfeit currency and other goods that have the potential to harm the economy of the United States. Thanks to the dedication of our officers and our partnership with the Secret Service, we were able to keep this currency from entering into circulation.”

Due to the vigilance of CBP officers, a rail container was referred for a Customs Exam Station inspection on Dec. 14, 2019.

During the examination, CBP discovered 45 cartons of possible counterfeit currency in the form of $1 bills with a total face value of $900,000. The United States Secret Service was contacted determined the currency is counterfeit.

The counterfeit currency was seized and will be turned over to the Secret Service.

Stopping the flow of illicit goods is a priority trade issue for CBP. The importation of counterfeit merchandise ― including counterfeit currency ―  can damage the U.S. economy.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/cbp-officers-seize-900k-worth-counterfeit-us-currency

....


$900,000 in counterfeit US dollars seized on a rail container with its place of origin being china.

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.

Could this represent an example of china waging trade war on the united states. Or perhaps it is completely coincidental a standard practice which had been ongoing for years until it was randomly exposed this week.

It could purely just be coincidence. As we all know China is the main guy for making counterfeit, bootlegged.m, and fake goods. Heck, allegedly they even made fake rice out of plastic. So it's not really that surpirising. What's baffling is how silent their government is about these issues. Kind of skepticsl whether they are letting them do this because they gave up stopping people or they are supporting this cause. Either way it's good that these are intercepted.

[amishmanish]

Producing counterfeit currency is almost always state sponsored financial terrorism. The theories to explain this are far from conspiracy theories. This 900K is probably just a drop compared to the whole operation. India has been at the receiving end of Fake currency published in Pakistan for several years now. There are regular seizures and this was one of the reason that a large tranche of high value notes were removed from circulation in India.

While most people consider that exercise a failure, Govt has maintained that it lead to a drop in the Kashmir unrest because the financing got stopped as the old currency notes were left invalid. Then there is the long term effect of causing inflation but that would mean significant larger amounts.

These smaller amounts are generally meant to finance the small operations in terror related activities. It is understandable between India and Pakistan but why would China do something like that to the USA is a little difficult to understand. Undermining US position as the superpower by financing covert operations?

[Ryker1]

Well, when we talking about "partnership with the Secret Service" it made me shocked. Seems like Kingsman alike organizations are real. I wonder how to get in touch with them and join them. Going back, --I am not surprised where this counterfeited money came from. China can fake anything. Perhaps the Bureau of Customs should focus on this if they really care about the US economy. Counterfeit currencies are like bullets. It is used as the equipment in the financial war. This is really alarming and I would need to check what would happen in the next decade. Indeed, war is really getting started. I wonder who would win this time.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.

Why?  China has been counterfeiting everything the US produces for years, so why should its cash be any different?  

And the US has done very little to stop the other counterfeiting China does, which is of Nike shoes, Apple products, American silver eagles, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  Funny how when it's money that's getting faked the government issues a press release--and that's because when China does that it's a direct hit on the government itself.  If money is getting diluted, they'll eventually feel it.

Anyway, there's probably a lot more of this going on than the one bust but $900k isn't a big sum in the grand scheme of things, not when there are hundreds of billions of US dollars in circulation.  This might be more of a hit piece against China than anything else, but that's not to say this isn't a real problem because it is.

Counterfeit currency in the form of $1 bills?That's weird.
Usually the criminals print fake paper money with a way bigger value.

That is indeed weird, but whatever.  Who knows what they're thinking?

[FanEagle]

I guess it is counterfeit, and it is manufacturing, I don't really see any conspiracy other than some dude wanted to get richer. $900k is literally nothing in the scheme of things, if China ever wanted to do something bad they wouldn't do it with just $900k, they have chances to do billions of dollars anyway, plus they are holding TRILLIONS of dollars in treasury of USA as well so I doubt it was anything more than just a guy wanting to get rich quick.

Considering china is perfect for manufacturing something like this, that person probably agree with a place there, got it done, shipped it but someone tipped the authorities so he couldn't get what he wanted done. At least, it sounds as simple as that, I wouldn't look beyond that if it was me but I can't really say about all the tin foil hat people.

[LeGaulois]

You can collapse a country's economy with this. It's considered as a major crime in my country, you can be jailed for up to 30 years, much more than if you had killed a child. And the motivation is a lot different than your counterfeit nike, it's not for the sake to make money.

People lose confidence in the currency and no longer accept it, companies can't trade anymore because their partners don't want to deal with them, banks refuse to lend money to countries and so on, it's a snowball effect. And I remember to read that just 1% is enough

Hitler used this method during world war 2 as a politico-military weapon (Operation Bernhard). He wanted to see the British economy collapsing so he created fake GBP notes in order to lower the value of its currency...
The UK did it too during the American Revolutionary War. Hungary, Germany, and Austria participated in a similar operation against France.

It could be the same case regarding China if 900k US banknotes have been found, who knows what haven't been?

[renuabened]

I think that almost everything that is told on the news is just a performance for people to distract us from really important things. Or sometimes there are hidden messages that we don’t notice, but which heat the atmosphere or with the help of which interested people can cause us some kind of emotions (indignation, fear, etc.). Therefore, I think that you shouldn't watch the news and even more take them seriously. We will not get any benefit from this.

[wheelz1200]

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. ― U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the International Falls Port of Entry seized $900,000 in counterfeit United States currency Friday that was discovered in a commercial rail shipment originating from China.

“CBP officers strive every day to protect the United States from a variety of threats,” said Jason Schmelz, Pembina Area Port Director. “Those threats don’t always come in the form of terrorists or narcotics, but also in the form of counterfeit currency and other goods that have the potential to harm the economy of the United States. Thanks to the dedication of our officers and our partnership with the Secret Service, we were able to keep this currency from entering into circulation.”

Due to the vigilance of CBP officers, a rail container was referred for a Customs Exam Station inspection on Dec. 14, 2019.

During the examination, CBP discovered 45 cartons of possible counterfeit currency in the form of $1 bills with a total face value of $900,000. The United States Secret Service was contacted determined the currency is counterfeit.

The counterfeit currency was seized and will be turned over to the Secret Service.

Stopping the flow of illicit goods is a priority trade issue for CBP. The importation of counterfeit merchandise ― including counterfeit currency ―  can damage the U.S. economy.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/cbp-officers-seize-900k-worth-counterfeit-us-currency

....


$900,000 in counterfeit US dollars seized on a rail container with its place of origin being china.

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.

Could this represent an example of china waging trade war on the united states. Or perhaps it is completely coincidental a standard practice which had been ongoing for years until it was randomly exposed this week.

I think this is happening all the time.  The part that was interesting is that they were all $1 Bill's.  Most of the time it is $20s and or higher denominated Bills.  One dollar Bill's almost never get checked for legitimacy so that would be a real issue for store owners as they wouldn't suspect these hitting their stores.  Scary really.

[pugman]

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.

Some will always see conspiracies everywhere they look.

The logic is simple though. There are always some who try to sell/use counterfeit money. And where's the cheapest to print such things? Yep, China.
There may be not even illegal there to print foreign currency - I mean it's another country, another legislation and so on. Of course it's illegal to get them into US. And that's what customs are for, after all...
All in all, no biggie.

Commendable logic, and a very plausible one, might I say.

Let's just "conspiracise" the whole thing for a second, I mean, even if those 900,000$ got into the US, it won't change shit. There's so much of legit and counterfeit money  mixed up in the US, it'll take ages to get those counterfeit notes dealt with. And the person who probably tried to get counterfeit from China, it would probably be some mid-tier drug dealer who just wants more money to make and sell drugs. ¯\_( ツ )_/¯ 

[Hydrogen]

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.

Why?  China has been counterfeiting everything the US produces for years, so why should its cash be any different?  

LeGaulois answered one of the main reasons why there could be conspiracy theories surrounding this. Flooding a nation with counterfeit bills in an attempt to collapse its economy has been attempted in the past as a form of warfare.

You can collapse a country's economy with this. It's considered as a major crime in my country, you can be jailed for up to 30 years, much more than if you had killed a child. And the motivation is a lot different than your counterfeit nike, it's not for the sake to make money.

People lose confidence in the currency and no longer accept it, companies can't trade anymore because their partners don't want to deal with them, banks refuse to lend money to countries and so on, it's a snowball effect. And I remember to read that just 1% is enough

Hitler used this method during world war 2 as a politico-military weapon (Operation Bernhard). He wanted to see the British economy collapsing so he created fake GBP notes in order to lower the value of its currency...
The UK did it too during the American Revolutionary War. Hungary, Germany, and Austria participated in a similar operation against France.

It could be the same case regarding China if 900k US banknotes have been found, who knows what haven't been?

Here's a youtube summary of Nazi Germany's Operation Bernhard I saw awhile ago, for those who prefer video clips to reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey0Q-DPMgQU

With counterfeit bills, the concern isn't necessarily with what you see. But rather what you don't. $900,000 in countefeit could represent the tip of an iceberg with far more worrying sums & volumes going undetected.

As far as I know, amateur counterfeiters whose primary motive is greed or profit duplicate larger denominations of money. They would prefer to have counterfeit $10, $50, $100.

Counterfeiting $1 dollar bills could imply the motive is for the counterfeiting op to go undetected for as long as possible. Which could mean it is a large scale attempt to collapse the US economy or wage economic/financial warfare. Or that there is some other strategy or motive in play.

Also for those who say fiat money has an advantage in terms of it not being vulnerable to 51% attacks. Counterfeit cash could be their 51%.

[iamsheikhadil]

I see the news and whats concerning to me more than how or why it was done is how is this even possible, like, money as we know should be a proof of hard work and how easily they created almost a million fake dollars. That's why we need blockchain and Bitcoin to dethrone these establishments who can in their convenience play with proof of hard work by faking it lol.

[eaLiTy]

$900,000 in counterfeit US dollars seized on a rail container with its place of origin being china.

Since there is a trade war going on it is possible that they will do things like that but this is not a huge stash of counterfeit currency and the best part is that they were able to seize it before distribution and these small denomination will always pass through once it starts circulating and may be that is the reason they counterfeited the lowest denomination.

Have to expect a few conspiracy theories designed to explain this.
Could this represent an example of china waging trade war on the united states. Or perhaps it is completely coincidental a standard practice which had been ongoing for years until it was randomly exposed this week.

If you are looking for conspiracy theories Russia is accusing the US even for the new outbreak of Corona virus and they call it the new bio warfare to destabilize the economy which is already hammered by trade restrictions and sanctions and $900K seized is not a huge amount to destabilize the US economy and since they were able to identify counterfeit currencies they will be vigilant .

Counterfeit currency in the form of $1 bills?That's weird.
Usually the criminals print fake paper money with a way bigger value.

That is indeed weird, but whatever.  Who knows what they're thinking?

As i said for earlier it is easier for circulation as people will not carefully scrutinize a dollar bill but if the denomination is higher then the chances of getting identified is easier.

[NeuroticFish]

I mean, even if those 900,000$ got into the US, it won't change shit. There's so much of legit and counterfeit money  mixed up in the US

The quality of the counterfeit money is important too. The ones with poor quality are easily found and removed.
However, I've searched and it seems that there are about 11.7 Billion one dollar bills. So there's quite a quantity there and 900k can be easily mixed/lost there.

And the person who probably tried to get counterfeit from China, it would probably be some mid-tier drug dealer who just wants more money to make and sell drugs. ¯\_( ツ )_/¯  

Umm.. I think that a drug dealer would work with bigger bills. At least 20$. I mean that 1$ is small...
Edit: an idea would be that he'll give them as change to the junkies   (although that could be bad for the business)

[20kevin20]

China is developing so fast it's going to dethrone the USA soon unless something is done about it.

USA wants to be the top power in the world, and I believe these things like the coronavirus hysteria, the counterfeit money and everything is just a stunt to slow down their economy.


Nobody wants to buy things anymore from them because the products might be contaminated. This goes for everything, from AliExpress to food. Therefore, the economy is stunted in this way.

[Hydrogen]

If you are looking for conspiracy theories Russia is accusing the US even for the new outbreak of Corona virus and they call it the new bio warfare to destabilize the economy which is already hammered by trade restrictions and sanctions and $900K seized is not a huge amount to destabilize the US economy and since they were able to identify counterfeit currencies they will be vigilant .

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, located 20 miles from the epicenter, may be the most likely source of recent corona virus infection. Its been claimed SARS was leaked perhaps accidentally from a laboratory there in 2004.

Corona virus infects the lungs. Infection isn't spread by eating raw meat or unusual meals. Images and clips of chinese eating bats and other things see like the cover up story for what really occurred.

Don't forget only one shipment of counterfeit bills was intercepted. There could have been 10 shipments. 100. 1000. Who knows. Like I said before which everyone ignored: Its not what you see that is dangerous with counterfeit. Its what you don't see.