BOGUS MONEY ORDERS BRING JAIL

On 25 April 2003, two Americans of Yugoslav origins were sentenced to 90 days in jail for attempting to cash counterfeit international money orders drawn on the Security Pacific National Bank of Brea, California USA, bought out by Bank of America in 1993 (Article by Edgar Sanchez, The Sacramento Bee, 26 April 2003).

ALEXANDER v.PINOCI
Tel. +39-328.162.0531
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alexander.vonpinoci@poste.it

BOGUS MONEY ORDERS BRING JAIL

On 25 April 2003, two Americans of Yugoslav origins were sentenced to 90 days in jail for attempting to cash counterfeit international money orders drawn on the Security Pacific National Bank of Brea, California USA, bought out by Bank of America in 1993 (Article by Edgar Sanchez, The Sacramento Bee, 26 April 2003).

But are these international money orders (of which $520.000.000 were still in circulation in 2001) truly counterfeit?

"According to Dale Lee, chief investigator for the State of California controller's office in Sacramento, the roots of the case go back to the early 1990's when the Security Pacific National Bank suffered a security breach. Before being purchased by Bank of America, Security Pacific contracted out for the destruction of its international money orders, to be done in the Philippines."

Why would a California bank contract out the money order destruction to the Philippines? Money orders are prepaid banking instruments and they are normally printed at the time when someone pays for them. So for whose account were $700 million (original amount) of international money orders printed? What was their purpose? What was the "security breach" mentioned by Dale Lee of Sacramento? Was the bank involved in some illegal business? Did it have to do with money laundering? Humanitarian aid? CIA operations?

"According to Dale Lee, some money orders became templates for counterfeiters and counterfeit money orders drawn on Security Pacific began circulating in Eastern Europe in 1992." How did they wind up in Eastern Europe? Why are they still circulating eleven years later?

Why did the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency determine on 19 December 2001 (case #282826) that "the items are not valid documents", while at European banks sophisticated fraud control equipment recognizes them as valid instruments? Why did the Comptroller not come out and say "counterfeit" or "fraudulent"?

Why does the U.S. government only prosecute the people who bring these money orders to a bank and has made no effort to arrest the person(s) who are holding the bulk of the money orders? Why has the government not arranged for their seizure at the bank(s) where they are on deposit? Why does the U.S. government not simply take these money order off the market?

Where is the governments proof that these international money orders are counterfeit, fraudulent, or otherwise illegal?

The undersigned spent two years asking questions (to include but not limited to: the FBI, BofA, AG's, Senators, Comptrollers, etc.) about these money orders and not getting any answers. There was and is a real rubber wall surrounding this issue. Now the undersigned is under extradition to El Paso TX USA (where he has never been) for "conspiracy to commit bank fraud" and "bank fraud", on an indictment which contains factual misrepresentation, facts presented out of context, events presented out of sequence, and glaring omissions, which all together paint an inaccurate picture and raise more questions than they answer (indictment EP-03-CR-108DB).

ALEXANDER v.PINOCI
Rome, Italy
2003-08-26

PS Detailed supporting documents are available.
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