Feng's Distorted World : 鋒言鋒語

Man busted with billion-dollar bills in US



The counterfeit money looked good, but there was one flaw: there is no such thing as a billion-dollar bill.

US Customs agents in California say they found 250 bogus billion-dollar bills while investigating a man charged with currency smuggling.

Tekle Zigetta, 45, pleaded guilty to three federal counts of trying to bring cash, fake bills and a fake $100,000 gold certificate into the United States in January.

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.

"You would think the $1 billion denomination would be a giveaway that these notes are fake, but some people are still taken in," James Todak said, a secret services agent involved in the probe.

- Reuters