Thursday
Sep202012
Video: Counterfeit Engelhard 100 Ounce Silver Bars
In Late September, 2010 we received our first of several reports of suspicious Engelhard 100oz silver bars. They were underweight, and it at first appeared that they were real Engelhard bars that were shaved (where someone would cut off a small amount from the sides of the bar). However, upon receiving a sample, it turned out not to be made of silver, and is most likely lead.
Continue reading at 'All About Silver'
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Sep 20, 2012 at 8:52 PM
Reader Comments (6)
http://about.ag/UltrasonicThicknessGauge.htm
source for story...
Side note, I'm truly horrified by US property taxes. Isn't it just about time to say 'No'?
"Here Come the Huge Property Tax Increases"
Property values have been overvalued around here for at least 10 years, most just pay anyway. If you take a bank appraisal, you can contest the "alleged" valuation and get it reduced.
My last reduction was thirty something thousand dollars.
If you did this to people it would be considered a scam, Governments perpetrate fraud in this manner and it is considered glorious.
One could use a sandwich of molybdenum, lead and perhaps air to make a better fake. Mo has nearly the same density but much higher sound velocity than Ag, while Pb has a somewhat higher density and lower sound velocity. An air layer in the middle could get the thickness measurement to come out correct - but not at the edges as you were testing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/business/energy-environment/us-struggles-to-rescue-green-program-hit-hard-by-counterfeiters.html?ref=science&_r=1&
[snip]
WASHINGTON — A Maryland man is awaiting sentencing for what may seem an unusual crime: selling bogus renewable energy credits and using the $9.3 million in illicit proceeds to buy jewelry and a fleet of luxury cars.
In a similar case in Texas, a man has been indicted for selling a whopping $42 million in counterfeit credits. He bought real estate, a Bentley and a Gulfstream jet...
...Under the E.P.A. program, initiated in 2009, a producer who makes diesel fuel from vegetable oils and animal fats receives renewable energy credits for every gallon manufactured. The producer can then sell the credits to refiners, who pay millions of dollars for them under a government mandate to support a minimum level of production.
The credits can also be resold, a commonplace activity in the arena of corporate compliance with federal environmental rules.
The problem is that at least three companies were selling bogus credits without producing any biodiesel at all, the E.P.A. has said in announcements over the last year. Agency officials declined to comment for this article.
Now no one is certain how many of the credits are real. So far, more than $100 million in fraudulent credits have been identified, the refining industry estimates. That amounts to roughly 5 percent of the credits issued since 2009, but the percentage could rise as current investigations of other producers progress.
The credits are easier to counterfeit than hundred-dollar bills. Known as “renewable identification numbers,” or RINs, the 38-digit credits have no physical form and are traded electronically. Exxon Mobil, Marathon and Sunoco are among the many big companies that have bought bogus credits.
Last April, the E.P.A. announced settlements with oil companies that had submitted invalid RINs sold by two of the three fraudulent producers. The penalties, amounting to 30 cents per gallon of biofuel, ranged from a few thousand dollars to a maximum of $350,000. The agency also required such companies to buy legitimate credits to replace them.
But the industry still argues that the penalties are unfair, saying that the unscrupulous vendors were implicitly approved by the E.P.A. when it listed them as producers on its Web site. The agency continued to list them there even after a federal investigation of the three companies began, Bob Greco, the American Petroleum Institute’s group director for downstream and industry operations, pointed out at a recent news conference.
Note: All that glitters is not green.