In the meantime, Reis’ having cultivated friends in high places was able to have his conviction overturned and he was set free. He formed Alves Reis, Ltd in Lisbon and soon discovered that all Portuguese currency was issued exclusively by the Bank of Portugal, an independent public company. However, he learned that, by law they could only issue notes equaling three times their capital. However, by digging further he discovered that every time the government started to run short of money to pay its bills, it would tell the Bank of Portugal to start the presses rolling once again. Often the value of currency issued by the bank equaled more than 100-times the allowed amount but that was always because the Bank of Portugal acted at the convenience of the government.

Reis also discovered, to his amazement that even when thoroughly over-used paper currency was returned for reissue, there was no one that ever checked to see if the serials had been duplicated. Apparently the Bank of Portugal did not believe that anyone could forge their money. Making life even simpler for our forger in waiting was the fact that the Bank of Portugal had their money printed by Waterlow & Sons of London a prestigious old-line firm that also printed all of the English postage stamps. A plan was starting to materialize in Reis’s mind.

Reis concentrated on the various problems that he could have faced and within several days he strongly believed that he had the problem wiped. All that was left to do was to hire some well placed co-conspirators and the job would be done. He went about determining who to contact and did it in a very professional manner. He took weeks researching in minute detail the backgrounds of hundreds of potential candidates that he had accumulated through his research. He was looking for men with nerve, a successful criminal career in their pasts, knowledge of finance and the ability to understand the nuances of counterfeiting. A last but no least, men with guts. After months of painstaking research, he had identified his candidates, they were a group of misanthropes that seemed to have no loyalty to anything or anybody in their histories. They all had been involved in highly sensitive dealings on both sides of the law. But the best was the last, they all had substantial experience in the various areas of counterfeiting and the passing of money.

He traveled extensively to interview his contenders for this ultimate game he was in the process of creating. He meet with each of them on their own turf and explained his plain to them openly and in intimate detail. Ultimately high picked the three associates he wanted to move forward with. It was shortly after that that the first part of the plan was put into effect. A compact was created and the forged signature of the High Commissioner of Angola was elegantly implanted on grant from that colony which allowed Reis to print $5 million worth of escudos in exchange for a loan of the same amount that he would make directly to the colony for the purposes of mineral exploration. The next step was having the forged document notarized and witnessed. From there it was hardly a stretch to have the consuls of France, Germany and Great Britain verify the notary’s signature. The con was in motion. From that point they were able to arrange meetings with prominent Portuguese officials, all they way up to and including the president of the country. Unaware of what was going on, each person in the chain became an import cog in the counterfeiting deal.

Armed with this legitimate looking document, there was a world-class printing firm that had to be approached.  It was the Dutch firm of Enschede & Co .Ltd. that promised that for a price would create endless streams of the Portuguese equivalent of $25 and $50 bills. Rather than create any suspicion in the minds of the folks at Waterlow, the conspirators indicated that when the money arrived in Angola, the Portuguese money would be overprinted, Angola in bold black letters to distinguish it from the real thing. Waterlow was impressed with the concept, the men’s credentials and the opportunity they presented and without too much thought, readily accepted the assignment. Waterlow was told that, naturally, the highest secrecy was imperative because this matter was of extremely delicate. However, Waterlow knew that they already had the necessary plates in house and that the printing of additional batches would not require any serious dislocation but would be extremely profitable.

While this plan contained numerous nuances and sub-plots, the last element in the plan was to apply for a charter for a brand new Portuguese bank to be owned by Reis and his merry men.  It was Reis’s theory that , by offering high level social and politically connected people slots on the board of the new bank and offering them large stipends to with the board seat, the government would have little problem approving the new charter. Reis had covered all the bases and inserted all of the right people to get the government to go along. The well-oiled plan was approved by the Portuguese Government creating the new Bank of Angola e Metrople; finally, the last of all of the pieces had been put into place. The money from Waterlow had been shipped to Portugal and the serial numbers were thoroughly shuffled to avoid the look of anything untoward.  The bank opened for business in July of 1925, less than a year from the time Reis had come up with his startling plan.

In sort of a test the waters, they began to circulate a small amount of their money around town. Naturally, it passed the litmus test because it had been printed by the same people, on the same presses, with the same plates as the real thing. For all intents and purposes it was the real thing. However, with a lot of shinny new bills circulating in Lisbon, some shop keepers started questioning their legitimacy. The Bank of Portugal investigated the allegations and then publicily    denied that there was any counterfeiting going on at all. The shinny money was every bit as good as the older dirtier money, however the dirty money would stain you hands and the new stuff would not. Many people opted for the newer variety in order to keep their hands clean.

This certainly made things easier. In the meantime the bank had entered in almost every commercial area doing money exchanges, mortgages and consumer lending at a price somewhat under that of their competition. Business in Lisbon thrived because people now had money to spend while the forgers had conceived of the most unusual method of money laundering ever heard of. Moreover, although no one could realize it, the forgeries that were getting into circulation were getting businesses that had been moribund up and running once again. There was a better feeling in the air in Portugal but nobody could figure out way. With the economy picking up sped, the Bank of Portugal was not keeping up with the need. More money was needed as it was flying out the teller’s windows at an outrageous clip. Seeing the crisis evolving Waterlow soon delivered twice the original amount and then anti was upped another notch.

The last piece of the puzzle was now put into place. The Bank of Portugal even though it was the currency arm of the Portuguese Government was also a public company. With the laundered funds that the Bank of Angola was receiving, it started to buy shares in the Bank of Portugal in the open market. However, the conspirators were also living well and the five-hundred pound escudos were flouting around the city of Lisbon like pebbles on the beach. Still there were those that thought something untoward was going on. The Bank of Portugal had started another and more serious investigation. The government it turns out had by this time discovered the fact that numerous bills had duplicate serial numbers and the jig was literally up. The partners scattered among the more friendly locals where the smarter ones had stashed substantive reserves. Although the fraud had been discovered, the Bank of Portugal became catatonic when they realized that the fraudulent bills in circulation we exactly the same as the real bills. In reality there was no real or unreal, there were just the bills. Numerous useless meeting were called by senior officials who had not a clue about what to do in this dreadful situation.

While the Bank of Portugal people were running around the room in ever widening circles trying to figure out how to resolve this weighty problem, Reis realized that the plot had unraveled, this as just round one and he was determined not only tough it out but to confuse the police to a degree that they would not know where to turn next. He counterfeited some official looking documents, which implicated the Governor and Vice Governor of the Bank of Portugal into the counterfeiting ring. The Portuguese press not wanting to name the Bank of Portugal as the dubs looked around for a mark and came up with the Russians as the bad guys in this one.

Upon hearing that the Russians were involved in the counterfeiting, everyone in Lisbon started running in circles like a headless chickens not having the slightest clue as to what to do next. The Chief of Waterlow was brought to Portugal under armed guard and barely escaped with his life because of the turmoil that he had innocently been a part of creating. Crowds of people in Portugal’s capital chanted for his execution.  In all major Portuguese cities, there were runs on the banks and substantial street rioting occurred when people could not immediately access their funds. The Bank of Angola’s cliental suffered an even worse fate because there was no insurance on bank accounts in Portugal. The Bank of Angola was summarily closed on a permanent basis. 

The people’s faith in the government tanked and a military junta was able to take the reigns of the country in a rather bloodless coup. Sadly, for Reis, it was to a military tribunal that was going to be responsible for his fate. For his efforts, Reis received a sentence of eight-years in jail and twelve years in exile in the Azores. Waterlow was sued by the Bank of Portugal for a fortune but the timing of the trial was delayed because by this time, Sir William Waterlow, the man that had made the deal with Reis was now the Lord Mayor of London. Suing the standing mayor of London would not have been a good move under any circumstances When the trial finally did commence, the defense argued that the Bank of Portugal had really suffered no actual damages primarily because the country had nothing backing their currency. In a split vote, the Bank of Portugal won the case from Waterlow along with $3 million for legal fees. However, it was a private bank and when push really came to shove; the Bank had made $3 million on this little escapade. Reis died in 1955 and one of the great criminal minds in history was buried in a small plot without the least fanfare.

This was the greatest bank robbery of all time and we hardly know about it. It the one additional step that Reis had just started, the buying in of the stock in the bank, the man would have literally owned Portugal.

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