Eight people in southern Japan forked over ¥150 million (US$1.27 million) to a man who promised huge returns involving fake US$1 million bills and then disappeared with their money, a news report said yesterday.
The US Treasury does not make US$1 million bills.
The eight, including three who have filed for personal bankruptcy because of the huge outlays involved in the scam, are considering filing a criminal complaint with police, the national daily Asahi Shimbun said.
Police in Kumamoto, 900km southwest of Tokyo, could not immediately comment on the report.
The unidentified investors first heard of the US$1 million note from a 52-year-old construction material company president in early 2003, according to Asahi, citing several investors.
Big money
The president told them about a ``rare'' US$1 million bill that was for sale in Chengdu, China, and invited them to pool money to buy several such notes promising a return 10 times of their investment, the report said.
The investors were told that the US government printed the bills in 1928 to allow Americans in China to bring their assets back home, Asahi said.
The president showed them a thousand of the US$1 million notes featuring a portrait of George Washington at a Tokyo hotel, according to Asahi.
The investors were told the notes could be exchanged for smaller denominations in Hong Kong, but no exchange ever took place, it reported.
"We continued to fork over our money because we were promised, `You'll get several hundreds of millions of yen in three days,' or `You'll get that amount in a week,''' one investor was quoted as saying.
By last March, the eight had handed over a total of ¥150 million, but the company president said that the bills would be exchanged by the end of April and he disappeared, according to the report.
The largest US denomination ever produced was US$100,000 between 1934 and 1935, according to the Treasury.
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
CRACKDOWN: The Indonesian president vowed to clamp down on ‘treason and terrorism,’ while acceding to some protest demands to revoke lawmaker benefits Protests in Indonesia over rising living costs and inequality intensified overnight, prompting Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to cancel a planned trip to China, while demonstrators reportedly targeted the homes of the finance minister and several lawmakers. Rioters entered Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s residence near Jakarta early yesterday, but were repelled by armed forces personnel, Kompas reported. Items were taken from the homes of lawmaker Ahmad Sahroni and two others, according to Detik.com. The reports of looting could not be independently verified, and the finance ministry has not responded to requests for comment. The protests were sparked by outrage over
VENEZUELAN ACTION: Marco Rubio said that previous US interdiction efforts have not stemmed the flow of illicit drugs into the US and that ‘blowing them up’ would US President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified a lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the US to send a message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said that the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the US. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President
A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops. The pair were were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby. The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple’s window. Authorities captured the panther by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home. No injuries were reported during the animal’s time on the loose. The court in the
RSS