Counterfeiter makes billion-dollar note

LOS ANGELES - The counterfeit money looked good, but there was one flaw. There's no such thing as a one billion dollar bill.

US Customs agents in California said yesterday they had found 250 bogus billion dollar bills while investigating a man charged with currency smuggling.

Tekle Zigetta, 45, pleaded guilty to three federal counts of trying to bring cash, phony bills and a fake US$100,000 ($155,227.98) 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.

"You would think the US$1 billion denomination would be a giveaway that these notes are fake, but some people are still taken in," said James Todak, a secret services agent involved in the probe.

- REUTERS