The offices of the Vatican bank.

Two men toting a briefcase stuffed with false bond certificates purportedly worth trillions of euros tried to bluff their way into the exclusive Vatican bank in a foiled fraud plot, Italian police said Sunday.
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Financial Guard police Lt. Col. Davide Cardia said the would-be swindlers, who were wearing business suits, tried to convince Swiss Guards at a Vatican City gate earlier this month that “cardinals were expecting them.”flower for valentines day　

Cardia told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the suspects, a middle-aged Dutchman and a U.S. citizen, were detained by Vatican authorities after rapid checks by Vatican officials showed they had no such appointment nor connections with the Institute for Religious Works, the formal name of the bank, which is behind the tiny city-state’s walls and isn’t open to the public.Nutrition

The Vatican has been scrambling to upgrade procedures and standards at the bank since a 2010 money-laundering probe.

Cardia said the fake documents purported to be bond certificates for non-Italian companies. “The sum — worth some 3 trillion euros (more than $4 trillion dollars) — is impressive, even though it’s only symbolic because we’re talking about false” certificates, said Cardia, in charge of the financial police’s operations in Rome and surrounding area.

Investigators suspect the men might have planned to use the fake bonds as security to open a hefty line of credit through the Vatican bank.

The Vatican asked Italian authorities to help in the investigation.DIY home