German investigators announced that they confiscated counterfeit dollar bills with a nominal value of over $103 million, which apparently originated from Turkey and were stored before being transported to the United States. The Schleswig-Holstein Criminal Police Office in northern Germany reported that officers discovered 75 boxes of counterfeit dollars during searches of an apartment and addresses of two companies, after being tipped off by U.S. authorities about businesses operated by a man suspected of having transported counterfeit money to the United States in the past.
The police stated that the bills, known as "movie money," can be identified as fake upon close inspection, but the German central bank and American authorities believe they could be confused with real money in daily transactions. German investigators suspect that the counterfeit bills came from a wholesaler in Turkey, and the suspect (the trader) was using one of his export companies in Jubic, near the Danish border, for temporary storage before shipping to the United States. The suspect, a 42-year-old Turkish national, has not been arrested but is facing an investigation under German anti-counterfeiting laws.
