Fake $100 bills found in Abu ransom payment

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Even if only 2,398 bills were real greenbacks, that’s still a lot of pesos in today’s exchange rate.

Two $100 bills out of a total 2,400 pieces reportedly paid as ransom by the German government to a terrorist band for the release of one of its citizens turned out to be counterfeit, officials here said.

Assistant Regional Prosecutor Ricardo Cabaron told a local daily that US agents and a representative from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas discovered the fake bills.

Two agents of the United States Secret Service recently examined the $240,000 seized by agents of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) from suspected Abu Sayyaf couriers who were trying to change the currency at the local branch of the Land Bank of the Philippines.

According to a PAOCTF official, David Popp and an unidentified companion arrived here Sept. 29 to inspect the confiscated $100 bills.

The inspection was witnessed by Rufino Atienza Jr., branch manager, cash department investigation staff of the Central Bank, and PAOCTF Mindanao Area II officer Chief Inspector Bayani Gucela.

In a letter, Popp explained that genuine US currency is printed on unique 100 percent cotton and rayon rag bond paper produced exclusively for the US government.

He said in their analysis, only 2,398 of the federal reserve notes were genuine US currency.

Cabaron disclosed that the confiscated dollars came not from the Libyan foundation that brokered the release of the 21 foreign and Filipino hostages seized at a Malaysian resort by the Abu Sayyaf last April, but from the German government.

There were three Germans in the group of hostages, the Wallert couple and their son.

The cash suspected to be part of the ransom money was recovered by PAOCTF agents last Aug. 24 from Jeffrey Jinnul, a security guard based in Davao and an alleged cousin of Abu Sayyaf leader Mujib Susukan and Army integree Adjik Halik.

The two were apprehended while trying to convert the dollars into pesos in the Land Bank along Veteran’s Avenue here.

Cabaron also said that they had reliable intelligence reports that the money was the ransom paid for the release of Mrs. Renate Wallert.

Wallert’s husband Werner and son Marc were among the 21 tourists and resort workers seized by the terrorist band at a dive resort in Sipadan, Sabah on April 23 and brought to Sulu where they were held for months.