September 18, 2008, - 11:17 am
North Koreans Take Page From Al-Qaeda: Try to Disrupt Vegas Casinos, U.S. Economy with Fake $$$
By Debbie Schlussel
In the past, I’ve written about how tens of millions of dollars of fake bank checks were cashed by Al-Qaeda operatives at various casinos in Vegas. The apocryphal checks were drawn on a branch of the Bank of America that didn’t exist. Omar Abdel-Fattah Al-Shishani was stopped by then-U.S. Customs agents at Detroit Metro Airport with over $10 million in the fake checks. It was all part of the Al-Qaeda plot to commit jihad on casinos and simultaneously cheat infidels.
Now the North Koreans are taking a page from the Al-Qaeda playbook. Brett Winterble, host of Covert Radio Show (and former Rush Limbaugh producer), sends this latest example, which he’ll be covering on his podcast show today. In studying for his Masters Degree studying national security issues, he did a study in 2005 on this:
Chen Chiang Liu dealt in counterfeit $100 bills authentic enough to trick bill validators installed in Las Vegas slot machines.
A Las Vegas jury didn’t find his defense so convincing.
The 45-year-old man was found guilty Wednesday of coordinating the delivery and sale of millions of dollars worth of North Korean-produced “Supernotes,” a high-quality counterfeit currency.
After a seven-day trial, Liu was convicted of one count of conspiracy to sell, deal and pass counterfeit U.S. currency and one count of fraudulently passing and keeping counterfeit U.S. currency.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Liu transported the fake bills to Las Vegas and used them in slot machines. He played a nominal amount of money before cashing out and receiving authentic currency.
Liu met with an undercover FBI agent in March 2005 to negotiate the sale of the Supernotes. Between April and August of 2005, Liu delivered $2 million in bogus $100 bills to the agent. . . .
Liu’s wife, Teresa Liu, was also charged in the case. When authorities converged on the couple in Las Vegas in July, they found 301 Supernotes in Teresa Liu’s possession. But as the seven-day trial wound down, U.S. District Judge James Mahan ruled there was not enough evidence against the wife. . . .
During a subsequent search of Liu’s vehicle, agents found three envelopes containing 301 Supernotes hidden in a red shopping bag underneath clothes. . . . Agents also found $23,800 in genuine U.S. currency in Teresa Liu’s make-up bag.
Says Brett Winterble:
This is yet another example of North Korea committing an ongoing act of war against the United States, by counterfeiting our currency. They have a whole organization inside their diplomatic corps called “Bureau 39”– the entire purpose is to build criminal enterprises worldwide. They primarily traffic counterfeit U.S. dollars and high grade meth, which they move into Asia. They do both via diplomatic pouches, which is why the Russian Embassy in Beijing was involved.
Very interesting. If only the U.S. Customs Service–which did fine work in this area–was still around to investigate and stop these kinds of operations.
If he worked for a foreign government that is an enemy of ours, I say hang him. We are far to easy on terrorists and enemy agents. If they commit a crime of terror and/or economic terrorism, they should be given the ultimate penalty.
FIVEOFNINE on September 18, 2008 at 11:58 am