RUSSIA EXPORTS...
Half a billion counterfeit dollars?
The notes issued were so perfect that every bank in England received them.

London, April 4 (from our corr. by telephone). A criminal operation of unprecedented scale has been uncovered: the forgery and circulation of at least half a billion dollars in Imperial Bank of Canada notes.
The point of origin of the counterfeit banknotes appears to be Russia.
The banks and financial circles of London, says the Daily Express, are disturbed by the idea that this may be the beginning of the Bolsheviks' realization of their threat to "disrupt" the circulation of capitalist countries. The counterfeiting is so perfect that it indicates means of execution beyond the reach of the ordinary forger; judge by the counterfeit notes that have passed through numerous banks on the Continent and in London without arousing the slightest suspicion. It was only the confusion caused by the unusual presentation to the Imperial Bank of Canada last October of nearly $300 million worth of these notes that led to their discovery that they were counterfeit.
It has been learned that a large quantity of these notes were sold by Russians in Persia last summer as payment for goods. They were sent to the London headquarters of the Imperial Bank of Persia via its Recht branch and were traded in London through ordinary channels on the foreign exchange market. Others arrived in London directly from Russia, sent by the State Bank, and still others passed through continental banks.

A Series of Lawsuits
The Imperial Bank of Canada has a total issue of approximately $11 billion in notes: it announces that it is withdrawing the counterfeit series and will sue the various banks for reimbursement of the sums it disbursed for these forgeries. In turn, the banks through which these forgeries were passed will sue each other, and all this heralds a series of lawsuits.

T. B.