The Portuguese Banknotes Scandal

The subtitle is how frauds reveal the inner workings of our world. The Portuguese banknotes scandal is slightly more abstract than just borrowing money and not paying it back. And so what happened is that if you managed to get some headed note paper from the Bank of Portugal and you were able to forge the signature of the government, you could show up at the London firm that printed their banknotes with a letter saying they wanted $20 million worth of Portuguese escutos for a secret project. It's like being a doctor who tries to learn about the human body from studying well people. That's what I love about it. But this is just endemic.