Offshoreonly.com - OT: Don Johnson's $8 Billion and looking for a new car

I like to carry a little extra cash when I travel, but this is going a little overboard:

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

NEW YORK — Actor Don Johnson is caught up in a money-laundering probe by German authorities, who say they found the Miami Vice star in a car with a suitcase stuffed with $8 billion worth of share certificates, bonds and credit notes when he crossed the Swiss border, it was revealed yesterday.

Johnson reportedly told customs officials, "I am going to buy a car," when quizzed about the abundance of loot in the black Mercedes-Benz he was driving from Zurich to Germany with three other men in November.

"With that kind of money, you could buy the factory," a customs man joked, according to a German TV news program broadcast yesterday.

Leonhard Bierl of the German Customs Criminal Investigation Department said "a decision on whether to launch a criminal probe against [Johnson] will come soon."

Bierl added that American tax authorities were notified about Johnson, whose last TV hit was the cop show Nash Bridges.

Johnson, 53, yesterday denied he was carrying $8 billion in any form during the customs check in Bietingen, a German town about two miles from the Swiss border.

"I was on my way to Germany to look at a car," Johnson told The New York Post yesterday.

"None of these documents belong to me. They're all legitimate papers and stuff from a passenger that was in the car. It had nothing to do with me."

And the actor threatened, "Someone is going to get sued."

Johnson's spokesman told The New York Post the actor was stopped during a routine border check and "asked for his credentials," which Johnson provided.

"After a few minutes, he was told to go on his way," said Johnson's spokesman, Elliot Mintz.

"Like most tourists, he travels with some credit cards and some cash on his person, but on that occasion he did not happen to have a spare $8 billion," Mintz deadpanned.

But German customs officials said when they stopped the car in which Johnson was driving on Nov. 6, they found the financial documents in a black leather suitcase.

In recent years, German police have stepped up border spot checks on motorists in a bid to stop money laundering through Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg and staunch the flow of illegal money into undeclared accounts.

Officials said Johnson cooperated when they asked to search the luggage but became "extremely critical" when they photocopied the documents. Johnson "worried whether American tax authorities would be informed," according to officials. He said one of three companions was his investment adviser and another was a personal assistant. The identity of the third man is not clear.