Giant fraud uncovered at Germany's Oktoberfest beer party

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040922/323/f34lz.html


A waitress at Munich's Oktoberfest


MUNICH, Germany (AFP) - German police said they seized some 30,000 fake tokens used for buying beer at the Oktoberfest, which could have cost the world's biggest beer festival nearly half a million dollars.

A 33-year-old man from the former Yugoslavia was arrested on suspicion of making the counterfeit tokens, which are used for buying a Mass, or liter, of beer at three of the giant tents at the fairgrounds in the southern city of Munich.

His 50-year-old alleged accomplice was released after questioning.

Police said they could not rule out that twice as many tokens, which are often given to staff as gifts by their employers, had been made.

The scam was exposed Monday when two students who had bought the fakes and tried to sell them were caught by police.

"This is my 20th Oktoberfest by I've never seen a crime of this scale," the the head of the festival, Gabriele Weishaeupl, said.

Police suspect that a professional counterfeiting operation based in the former Yugoslavia was behind the pyramid-style scheme.

The counterfeiters sold the tokens for 3.50 euros (4.2 dollars) each to middlemen, who sold them for four euros. Festival goers paid a price of five euros for them, nevertheless a discount of two euros on the usual price.

The Oktoberfest runs to October 3 and is expected to attract some six million visitors.