£12m fake dollars found in US, israel
That's a big chunk of change!
More than £12m-worth of fake dollar bills have been transported to the United States and Israel from a tiny separatist region of former Soviet Georgia.
The counterfeit $100 bills were printed in South Ossetia, disputed scrap of land that borders southern Russia, and then distributed abroad.
The US secret service and Georgian police are investigating the ring which has seen false bills turning up in Maryland, New York, Newark and Buffalo, the Washington Post reported.
According to a report to Congress, the secret service "is currently investigating a scheme with ties to suspects in Israel, Russia, and the Republic of Georgia to produce counterfeit US currency".
The claim is likely to become politicised because Georgia is the cockpit for a post-cold war conflict between the US and Russia.
Washington supports Georgia, which is pushing the idea of South Ossetia as a criminal haven to justify moves to regain the territory.
The leadership of South Ossetia, which has Moscow's backing, has denied that the counterfeiting scheme existed, suggesting it was fabricated to discredit the region.
Or maybe the idea of 'moving in to crackdown on crime' is just an afterthought - a distraction to coverup their own tracks.
After all, the bills were found in Maryland, New York, Newark, Buffalo, and israel.
More likely, israelis are just trying to finance their wars and stick the rest of us with the [fake] bill[s].
