Wallet Full of Billion Dollar Bills

Tekle Zigetta probablly read the Forbes 400 richest people in the US and and wondered how Bill Gates got top billing with only $46 Billion. Chump change compared to a man with $250 billion in cash.

There is such a things as having too much money. U.S. Customs agents in California bust a man with 250 bogus billion-dollar bills while investigating him for currency smuggling.

Tekle Zigetta, 45, pleaded guilty to three federal counts of trying to bring cash, phony bills and a fake $100,000 gold certificate into the United States in January.

Further investigation led agents to a West Hollywood apartment where they found the stash of yellowing and wrinkled one billion dollar bills with an issue date of 1934 and bearing a picture of President Grover Cleveland.

An elderly couple who lived in the apartment told authorities they received the counterfeit notes from Zigetta before he left the country three years ago.The largest denomination ever printed by the United States was a $100,000 bill bearing the photo of President Wilson. That bill was used only for transactions between government agencies.

I wonder how many times he tried to feed one of these bills into a change machine.

Basil's