the Japanese authorities do not want to say anything. that means it is highly unlikely to be North Korean agents involved. if it were, the Japanese govt would be all over it.
so, it sounds like they were Japanese and they were duped by “someone” into this ridiculous smuggling. it reminds me of the kind of thing Nigerian spammer scammers are known for.
anyway, for some reason, the Japanese and Italian authorities would be embarrassed if the world were to find out who was duped and who did the duping. that’s your angle, now play with it…

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....66241.html

I honestly believe this is a coincidence, but a striking one for sure.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blo.....27232.html

I’ve had bing translate the text on this page http://mercatoliberonews.blogs.....iganti.htm to confirm it was reporting on the $134B smuggling story, which does appear to be the case.

There is .pdf attachment found on the page http://etleboro.com/documents/copy-title.pdf, but I am unable to tell if the documents are supposed to be directly related to the Japanese smugglers.

However, the documents reference two names. One is Yohannes Riyadi, and the other is Teo Hui Kiat.

A quick google search turns up a result for the former on the New York Fed’s page of banking scams http://www.newyorkfed.org/banking/frscams.html (no real useful results for Teo Hui Kiat).

Full text here:
The Federal Reserve is aware of a fraudulent scam involving individuals using the names Yohannes Riyadi and/or Wilfredo Saurin, or persons claiming to be representatives of these two men. In a typical version of this scam, Mr. Riyadi and/or his delegates falsely claim that they have on deposit with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York several U.S. Treasury Checks issued to Mr. Riyadi amounting to billions of dollars.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been contacted by several brokers and financial institutions worldwide inquiring about the validity of this fraudulent account documentation, which is being offered as collateral for lines of credit or other types of asset based financing. The fraudulent scheme includes multiple documents which purport to have the signatures of various Federal Reserve officials, including Chairman Ben Bernanke.

In some instances, individuals involved in this fraudulent scheme claim to have met with Federal Reserve officials and claim to have verified that the alleged account is in order. We have also learned that the fraud may include the purchase of certain documents by the introducing brokers.

If you have information regarding this fraud please contact either Robert Amenta, Special Investigator at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, or Erik Rosenblatt, Senior Special Agent at the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Pair this with reports that the Italian government is largely Mob-controlled anymore, and it makes me wonder who else is involved in this transaction…