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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/world/europe/01iht-coins01.html?_r=1&ref=world

German prosecutors on Thursday uncovered a multimillion-euro scam that stretched over three years and involved shredded euro coins, China, flight attendants and the German central bank.

The Frankfurt prosecutor said six men, four of them Chinese, had been arrested and 10 locations in Frankfurt and its vicinity searched in a peculiar case of fraud to turn scrap metal into cash.

The scam generated a total of €6 million, or $8.5 million, from 2007 to November 2010 for the suspects, the prosecutor said.

The suspects worked with groups in China that reassembled shredded €1 and €2 coins, according to the prosecutor.

The euro coins were probably shredded in Europe and then sold to China as scrap metal, the prosecutor said.

The reassembled coins were then probably flown to Germany with the help of four flight attendants, who did not have any weight restrictions for their luggage, the prosecutor said in a statement.

Lufthansa, the biggest German airline, was informed that some of its employees were part of the investigation, Claudia Lange, a spokeswoman for the airline, said Thursday. She declined to give any more details.

Once in Germany, the prosecutor said, the coins were mixed with real €1 and €2 coins, put in official bags and taken to be exchanged for cash at the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, in Frankfurt.

The Bundesbank is the only central bank in Europe that exchanges old or damaged euro coins without a fee and then transfers the amount to any bank account.

The bank generally weighs the bags of coins it receives to determine the value. Trying to exchange such reassembled coins at the bank is legally seen as fraud and distributing counterfeit money, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor said that no Bundesbank employees were being investigated. The Bundesbank said that it was familiar with the investigation and that it was not involved in the destroying of the coins or the recycling of the metal. The bank would not comment further.

During the raids, the prosecutor confiscated some documents, laptops and desktop computers and found about three tons of coin parts as well as a machine to reassemble coins.

Five of the six arrested were men who handed in the damaged coins at the central bank, according to the prosecutor.
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Didn't anyone notice it during the scanning of the flight attendants' baggage ?
 
Damaged coins that were shredded into scrap metal. I'm assuming that they had a way of reassembling them crudely into something that could be exchanged for pristine coins.

Not a bad little scam. :biglaugh:
 
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Dress like a Muslim while flying (act serious but don't do anything stupid), hope to get thrown off the flight and sue them. And if nothing happens, just consider it as a practice for Halloween. This is not the first time such a thing has happened and nor it is the last time.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/05/08/muslims.kicked.off.plane/

Two imams heading to a conference on prejudice against Muslims said they were forced off their North Carolina-bound flight to undergo an additional security check -- only to have the pilot take off without them, even after they were cleared.

Atlantic Southeast Airlines said in a statement that it was investigating the incident, which took place Friday night aboard a flight out of Memphis, Tennessee.

Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul, both imams in the Memphis area, were clad in Islamic attire when they were told to leave the aircraft as it was taxiing toward the runway. Their lawyer, Mo Idlibi, told CNN on Saturday that neither man had done anything out of the ordinary, nor were they praying or chanting.

Rahman, who is also a professor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, said he and his colleague cooperated throughout the process and thanked Transportation Security Administration agents and others for their kindness and courtesy. But he said, through intermediaries, that they had difficulty finding out why they were ever kicked off the plane.

One representative of Delta Air Lines, who claimed to be advocating on the two men's behalf, came out visibly red-faced after a long talk with the pilot, according to Rahman. This was after the plane had returned to the gate and Rahman and Zaghoul had gotten off and gone through a secondary screening process. Shortly thereafter, the plane took off -- without the men, who hadn't been allowed back on board.

"He didn't give any reason," said Rahman, referring to the pilot. "(The representative) said only that the pilot is not allowing you to go."

Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which runs Delta Connection and United Express flights, apologized "for any inconvenience that this may have caused."

Atlantic Southeast did not say why the two men were taken off the flight, but did claim they were given the opportunity to fly on a different flight.

"Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 5452 from Memphis to Charlotte returned to the gate to allow for additional screening of a passenger and the passenger's companion," the statement said. "We take security and safety very seriously, and the event is currently under investigation."

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations, told CNN the two men contacted his office and said they were told that other passengers did not want them on board the small commuter plane.

"TSA came on and pulled them off and said the pilot was refusing to fly with them because passengers were uncomfortable with them," Hooper said, referring to the Transportation Security Administration.

Earlier, Rahman told CNN affiliate WCNC that the incident reminded him of the prejudice Rosa Parks faced during the civil rights movement.

"That history I found today in that plane, and it shouldn't happen with any other person," he said.

Incidentally, the two men -- both of whom hold high religious positions in the Memphis community, with Zaghloul being an imam at Masjid Al-Noor -- were headed to a conference on Islamophobia. The meeting is sponsored by the North American Imams Federation.

Rahman, with Zaghloul by his side, eventually got to North Carolina and talked to CNN from there.

The men's attorney said they have not yet decided whether to sue the airline or anyone else involved in the case.

"We're keeping all options open," Idlibi said. "We do want to make sure that the pilot is held accountable for his actions."
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Archie
I was at a Depaul basketball game and caught a t-shirt thrown by a cheerleader. I ended up giving it to a depaul father and daughter fan couple next to me. as I'm not a depaul fan.

he bought me a beer.

I'm thinking I might start charging a few hundred for people to go to college hoops with me, and i'll teach them how to catch t-shirts
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laughing all nite at this
 
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