MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US warns about “cloned” US dollar bills in S. America

Special agents from the United States Secret Service arrived this week in Santiago to instruct Chilean banking and police authorities on US dollar bills security seals and other safeguards following a warning from the Federal Reserve about fake 50 and 100 US dollar bills circulating in South America.

Earlier this month the US Federal Reserve informed authorities in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay about the circulation of 50 and 100 dollar bills, series CB B2 from 2001 and AB from 1996 which proved fake, most of which were detected during last February.

US Secret Service agents arrived in Santiago after two court cases were opened in Santiago involving alleged attempts to exchange fake US dollars.

Apparently the "top quality" fake dollars are "cloned", a repeat of existing serial numbers and could have originated in Pakistan.

The announcement of fake US dollars circulating caused an alarm in the Peruvian and Chilean banking systems as well as in money exchange houses, which refused to receive bills with marked series CB, B2 year 2001 and AB from 1996.

The situation improved when Chilean authorities revealed that the potential number of bills involved given the daily turnover in the local market was "insignificant".

Authorities also invited holders of the 50 and 100 US dollar bills identified with those series and issue years to present them in court or local police stations.

However the Santiago press reported that at least one leading bank of Spanish origin "cleaned" its vaults of 2001 and 1996 high denomination US dollars and had then flown to the Federal Reserve in New York.

The Peruvian press reported that in a 40 million dollars shipment to United States, allegedly the Federal Reserve discovered 260,000 US dollars in fake bills.