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Police operation (symbolic image)
Photo: Marcus Brandt/dpa
Investigators have confiscated counterfeit dollar bills with a face value of $103 million in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. As the State Criminal Police Office in Kiel announced, the forgeries were discovered in Jübek in the Schleswig-Flensburg district and in Hamburg during searches at residential and company addresses. A 42-year-old businessman is suspected of having exported counterfeit money to the USA.
According to the information, during the searches the investigators came across four pallets with a total of 75 boxes of counterfeit dollar bills, which presumably came 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 onward transport to the USA."
The counterfeit money was so-called movie money or prop copy - i.e. imitations that can be recognized as counterfeits upon closer inspection. However, the Bundesbank and the US authorities classify them as suitable for being confused with real money. Production and distribution therefore constituted a criminal offense.
wit/AFP