Counterfeiter makes billion-dollar note <br /> <br />16.03.06 5.20am<br /><br /> <br />LOS ANGELES - The counterfeit money looked good, but there was one flaw. There's no such thing as a one billion dollar bill. <br /><br />US Customs agents in California said yesterday they had found 250 bogus billion dollar bills while investigating a man charged with currency smuggling. <br /><br />Tekle Zigetta, 45, pleaded guilty to three federal counts of trying to bring cash, phony bills and a fake US$100,000 ($155,227.98) gold certificate into the United States in January. <br /><br />Further investigation led agents to a West Hollywood apartment where they found the stash of yellowing and wrinkled one billion dollar bills with an issue date of 1934 and bearing a picture of President Grover Cleveland. <br /><br />"You would think the US$1 billion denomination would be a giveaway that these notes are fake, but some people are still taken in," said James Todak, a secret services agent involved in the probe. <br /><br />- REUTERS <br />
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372874 <br />
I broke one for a nice little old lady today at the restaurant where we ate lunch. Surely you jest.
