$4.65 million in counterfeit bills seized from Vietnamese couple at Detroit airport

[Cebu_4_2]

$4.65 million in counterfeit bills seized from Vietnamese couple at Detroit airport

http://static.lakana.com/media.fox2detroit.com/photo/2016/02/17/4.65M%20COUNTERFEIT%20SEIZED_1455725156443_857700_ ver1.0.jpg

Posted:Feb 17 2016 11:06AM EST
Updated:Feb 17 2016 12:48PM EST

(WJBK) - The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport says it has seized $4,650,000 in counterfeit U.S. currency from a Vietnamese couple.

The CBP says the couple attempted to import the counterfeit U.S. $100 bills and counterfeit bills in the national currency of Vietnam into the United States. The CBP says the bills were going to be offered as burnt-offerings to the deceased, which they say is often practiced in certain Asian cultures.

The couple arrived in Detroit from a flight from Seoul Korea on Friday, Feb. 12. The CBP says they examined their bags after they made conflicting statements about carrying in excess of $10,000. During the search, bundles of the "hell money" were found. Authorities found 93 bundles of counterfeit U.S. $100 bills and 32 bundles of counterfeit Vietnamese Dong.

Hell money is a form of joss paper printed to resemble legal tender bank notes. The notes are not an officially recognized currency nor are they legal tender.

Federal authorities have taken custody of the currency.

[cheka.]

needs further explanation -- hell money, joss paper? federal authorities took custody of the CURRENCY

sounds like an interesting case

[cheka.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_money

Hell money is a form of joss paper printed to resemble legal tender bank notes. The notes are not an officially recognized currency or legal tender since their sole intended purpose is to be offered as burnt-offerings to the deceased as often practiced by the Chinese and several East Asian cultures.

This faux money has been in use since at least the late 19th century and possibly much earlier. Early 20th century examples took the resemblance of minor commercial currency of the type issued by businesses across China until the mid-1940s

[cheka.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_paper

Joss paper (simplified Chinese: 金纸; traditional Chinese: 金紙; pinyin: jīnzhǐ; literally: "gold paper", Chinese: 陰司紙; pinyin: yīnsīzhǐ, Chinese: 紙錢; pinyin: zhǐqián, or simplified Chinese: 冥币; traditional Chinese: 冥幣; pinyin: míng bì; literally: "shade/dark money" / Vietnamese: vàng mã in the North or giấy tiền vàng bạc in the South), also known as ghost money, are sheets of paper and/or paper-crafts made into burnt offerings which are common in various Asian religious practices including the veneration of the deceased on holidays and special occasions. Joss paper, as well as other papier-mâché items, are also burned in various Asian funerals, to ensure that the spirit of the deceased has lots of good things in the afterlife.

[ximmy]

sounds like they did nothing wrong... ?
HELL BANK NOTES
(HELL MONEY)When i was child, growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, a friend of mine's family ran a grocery store. They were Chinese, and although almost everything in their store was exactly like the stuff in all the other small groceries in Berkeley, they also carried a few Chinese specialty items up by the counter. One of these was Hell Money. The word Hell was introduced to China, my friend's parents told me, by Christian missionaries who claimed that non-converted Chinese folks were all "going to Hell" when they died -- and the Chinese, thinking "Hell" was the proper English term for the afterlife, adopted the word. Thus, Hell Bank Notes are simply Afterlife Monetary Offerings or Spirit Money. As they explained it to me, when people die, their spirits or ghosts go to an afterlife where they continue to live on, doing the same sort of things why did while alive, eating, drinking, wearing clothes, playing with their children, and so forth. In order to ensure that they have lots of good things in the afterlife, their relatives send them presents, and one of the best things to send them is Hell Bank Notes -- money to spend in the afterworld. In addition to Hell Bank Notes, some Chinese grocery stores also sell elaborately-made and multi-coloured paper watches, clothes, cars, Hell Credit Cards, and even refrigerators for the purpose of burning in the belief that doing so sends their essence to the afterlife world, where the recipient will be glad to receive such material goods.
The Hell Money i used to buy as a kid was always green, like the 10,000 dollar bill shown above, because it was made for American Chinese people to use, and American money is green. But in Hong Kong and Singapore, there is no such drab restriction on the colour of money. There, as witness the lovely Hell Bank Note for 5000,000,000 dollars, Hell Money can be a real work of art. Hell Bank Notes are printed on thin paper, and their designs change from year to year, making them quite collectible. Like earthly notes, they bear serial numbers, and the denominations vary, as do their sizes. They are sold in packs of 30 to 50 bills, wrapped in cellophane
http://www.luckymojo.com/hellmoney.html

More: http://www.anthropology.uci.edu/~wmmaurer/courses/anthro_money_2004/GhostMoney.htm

[burningleg]

The Fed/CIA is the best FRN counterfeiting crew in the world. This is just crumbs in comparison.

[Cebu_4_2]

The Fed/CIA is the best FRN counterfeiting crew in the world. This is just crumbs in comparison.


Dead nuts on.