The forgery was so perfect that not even the experts of the US secret service could initially determine if what they had before them were real dollars or a copy.
Only after a sophisticated forensic analysis They could confirm that they were imitations.
But those $ 87 dollars were so millimeter perfect that they dubbed them “the false superdollars ”
They had the same high-tech color change ink as real US dollars.
They were also printed on paper with exactly the same fiber composition as the originals : three quarters of American cotton and one quarter of linen.
The engraved images were, in In any case, finer than those produced by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
A small variation The New York Times reported then, which revealed that they were not originals.
The United States was very alarmed because counterfeits passed through banks without being detected , since no one could tell the difference.
These “super dollars” circulated in various parts of the world in the decades of 1990 Y 2000.
During these years, the United States decided to change the design of the $ 100 dollars, but counterfeiters managed to adapt.
They appeared in Denmark, France, Austria, Germany, Latvia, Russia, the Czech Republic and Ireland. Also in Russia.
For years they were a headache for the FBI.
They did not know where they came from or who was producing them
And it would take a covert operation of more than 8 years to begin making arrests.
The first were made in California and New Jersey, after federal investigators found several shipments of these notes on ships arriving from the southeast Asian .
Those arrested had connections to international criminal networks but the FBI had long suspected that something bigger was happening.
Counterfeits were not manufactured by petty criminals or highly sophisticated criminal cartels, but by the North Korean government, said US authorities.
Again and again these banknotes appeared in the hands of North Korean diplomats , perhaps to increase the income of the country, which had suffered a series of famines and the collapse of its partner, the Soviet Union.
However, North Korea denies any accusations of being involved in the printing of counterfeit money.
“The North Koreans have denied being involved in the distribution and manufacture of counterfeits, but the evidence is overwhelming that they are, ”Daniel Glaser, then-Deputy Under Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime at the Treasury Department, told the New York Times.
“There is no doubt about North Korea’s participation,” he said.
Other authorities described the forgery as “a serious assault on the system of the United States. ”
However, among the FBI’s priorities was to stop the circulation of these banknotes on US soil.
The arrival of “super dollars” to its ports was linked to the smuggling of cigarettes and drugs.
The agency designed a double plan to attract the largest number of criminals involved in the plot: a fake wedding and divorce party at the Playboy Mansion.
It worked, and were performed 87 arrests in total.
But it is believed that a small number of super dollar counterfeits are still in circulation today.
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