Find during raids

103 million dollars in counterfeit money seized in Germany

During raids, the police found four pallets with 75 boxes (the picture shows a small part of them) filled with counterfeit dollar bills.(Bild: Polizei Schleswig-Holstein)

German investigators have seized counterfeit dollar bills with a face value of 103 million dollars in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. A 42-year-old businessman is suspected of having exported "flowers" to the USA in the past.

As the State Office of Criminal Investigation in Kiel announced on Friday, the counterfeits were discovered during raids at three residential and business addresses in Jübeck in the district of Schleswig-Holstein and in Hamburg.

Four pallets of counterfeit money
According to the investigators, during the searches the officers came across four pallets with 75 boxes of counterfeit dollar bills, which are suspected to have come from a "wholesaler from Turkey". The latter is said to have used one of the suspect's companies in Jübek as a "temporary storage facility for onward transportation to the USA". Information to this effect came from US security authorities.

So-called movie money
The counterfeit money was so-called movie money or prop copy - i.e. imitations that could be recognized as counterfeit on closer inspection. However, the Bundesbank and the US authorities would classify them as suitable for being mistaken for real money. The production and distribution therefore constituted a criminal offense, it said.

According to the criminal investigation department, the accused is, among other things, the managing director of two export companies. According to a spokeswoman, he was not in custody due to a lack of grounds for arrest. The Flensburg public prosecutor's office is investigating the man on suspicion of counterfeiting money, and his home was searched last week.