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Flush With Cash: Swiss Toilets Mysteriously Stuffed With 500-Euro Bills (npr.org)

Posted by msmash on from the down-the-drain dept.

Someone in the Swiss city of Geneva has been trying to flush tens of thousands of euros down toilets. From a report: The bathrooms at a branch of the UBS bank in Geneva, as well as in three nearby restaurants, had pipes stuffed with 500-euro bills that had apparently been cut up with scissors and flushed down the toilets. The mysterious misplaced funds were first reported by a Swiss newspaper, and local authorities have confirmed the incident to multiple media outlets. Each individual bill is worth nearly $600. Collectively, the destroyed bank notes were worth tens of thousands of dollars. The Geneva Prosecutor's Office tells Bloomberg it has launched an investigation into the bathroom bills. Switzerland is not in the European Union, although it is entirely surrounded by EU member countries, and the nation's currency is the Swiss franc.

8 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. And nobody has asked by taustin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    if it's maybe a failed test run by a currency counterfeiter?

    Really?

    1. Re: And nobody has asked by gman003 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Could have been going there to try to deposit them or exchange them, converting them to "real" money, and got cold feet at the last second.

    2. Re: And nobody has asked by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Could have been going there to try to deposit them or exchange them, converting them to "real" money, and got cold feet at the last second.

      And so he stuck around, cut up the bills, and flushed them down the toilet at the bank ... and then walked to three nearby restaurants and did the same thing?

      Not saying it's not possible -- people do weird things under pressure -- but it sure doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    3. Re: And nobody has asked by istartedi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Because he's an insider at the bank, working with his partners to test the bills. The insider was using the bank's counterfeit detection machinery to see which bills would work. These were detected, so he disposed of them.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  2. Re:Support by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There was a spate of incidents a few years ago where someone in Japan was leaving 10,000 yen notes (worth about â60) in bathrooms, with a note expressing the hope that they brought whoever found them happiness. I don't know if they ever caught the person behind it.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. Re:Is that a normal denomination? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We often see $100 bills used in our store.

    My personal observation is that the people using them are always old, as in clearly past retirement age. I have no clue why this is the case.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  4. Money laundering crim by mbkennel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    > It's not like "phasing out" means the same thing as "make possessing a crime".

    But if somebody did possess them as part of a crime, what then?

    > That doesn't explain why somone who had them would destroy the rathe rather exchange them or juts leve them in the box.

    Money laundering investigators are closing in on the perp, and the perp found out.

    Exchanging the notes leaves a record of the person being connected to the money which is very bad evidence. The second takes the risk the box will be opened by an investigator.

    Think legal jeopardy. If person X, maybe part of a plea deal or whatever said, "yeah I gave 2 million in euro notes to Boris who was going to keep them in his box in UBS", and then, a few days later, Boris is on tape exchanging 2 million in euro notes and depositing it.... or if his box is opened thanks to a search warrant and they find the money----that's conclusive evidence linking Boris as a beneficiary. Now, if some random notes are randomly found in a sewer, the connection to Boris though suspicious is hardly as black-and-white conclusive to a jury or judge as being caught with the money personally.

    This is somebody with more fear of prison (or Putin diplomatic "retirement") than greed for the money.

  5. One possibility: by John+Jorsett · · Score: 4, Interesting

    nasty divorce. People do all sorts of strange and illogical things when they're embroiled in a divorce battle, including burning down houses, crushing cars, etc.