Lufthansa’s offices were raided yesterday by German investigators in connection with an alleged fraud. Police allege at least €20 million worth of scrapped coins were sent to forgers in China where they were minted again and brought back to Germany. Lufthansa flight attendants are alleged to have smuggled the counterfeit coins back into Germany and exchanged them for paper currency from accomplices in on the scam at the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, which was also raided yesterday. When flown back to Germany every transaction to change the coins into paper was under €10,000. Anything more than that requires paperwork involving customs declarations.
Police were alerted to the potential fraud when one flight attendant was spotted coming through Frankfurt Airport early last year pulling a trolley suitcase with great difficulty. A random search revealed she had thousands of fake €1 and €2 coins inside.