Eight people in Kumamoto Prefecture were duped into investing 150 million yen in a scheme that involved several "rare" $1-million U.S. bank notes--a denomination that doesn't even exist... The eight investors have not seen their money since. Three of them have filed for personal bankruptcy, in part because of the huge outlays they invested in the scam. The eight are likely to file a criminal complaint with the Kumamoto prefectural police. According to several investors, they first heard of the note from a 52-year-old president of a Kumamoto building materials importing firm in spring 2003. The company president described how a friend had told him about a "rare" $1-million note that was for sale from Chengdu, China. He invited them to pool money to buy up several such notes, and promised a tenfold return on their investment. "The United States government printed the bills in 1928 when Chiang Kai-shek was still in power in China to allow Americans to bring their assets back home," the company president said. "Not too many people know about the $1-million note"...To back his claim, the president showed investors 1,000 $1-million notes featuring a portrait of George Washington at a Tokyo hotel. Only a genuine $1 bill carries a portrait of the first U.S. president...more...