Italy: Police Find Unmarked Gold Bars Worth $7.5 Million Hidden in Car
April 5th, 2013Maybe I should consider adding an Italy-Switzerland Border category…
The whole situation is strange, but the fact that the bars have no identifying stamps (manufacturer, weight, serial number, fineness) is extraordinarily strange.
Of course, the suspects’ names and the company the husband says he “represents” were not released.
Gold bars seized by Italian Financial Police
I have no idea why the AP version of this story says that a “ton” of gold was intercepted, when what is shown in the video and the estimated value indicate the weight is nowhere near any sort of ton.
The version of the story from Herald Sun indicates that both the husband and wife gave evasive answers:
“It looked like an ordinary Easter day out with the family,” the financial police said in a statement, adding that the couple had given “evasive answers” and were therefore taken to a police station for a full-scale search.
The video below might as well have the theme from The Twilight Zone playing in the background.
Via: AP:
Italian border police intercepted a ton of gold bullion worth $7.5 million hidden in a car.
The gold bars were wrapped in newspaper and stashed in an under-floor storage compartment. They didn’t bear any engraving, and their origin is unknown.
The car’s 53-year-old driver was accompanied by his wife and their three young children.
Police said he was a legal representative for a Swiss company and was unable to explain where the gold came from. He has been reported to the local prosecution office for the crime of money laundering.
The gold bars were found on Easter Sunday on the border with Switzerland.
Border police confiscated the gold and the car and are conducting an investigation. They also released video purporting to show the gold bars being discovered.
Classics:
Here We Go Again: U.S. Authorities Investigate $100 Billion Bond Seizure in Italy
At the current price of $1550/oz, $7.5 million is 4,839 troy ounces. A metric “tonne” is 32,150 Troy ounces.
So not even close. A metric tonne is worth almost $50,000,000.
Maybe there is only 4,839 Troy ounces of gold left after the cops swapped the rest of the tonne was tungsten. That is the only way the math works out…for the cops.
My first thought – Major Swiss firm – Nazi gold. Realistically any Nazi gold floating around will become more and more valuable for refilling vaults to keep the ball rolling.
$7.5 million worth of gold seems silly unless they were taking very frequent trips with 400 lbs at a time. I suppose it could just be a payoff for a politician who didn’t feel comfortable using ‘marked’ money.