Bundles of chopped up €500 notes totaling in the tens of thousands of euros have been found flushed down toilets in Geneva. Plumbing repairs to a downtown UBS branch and three nearby restaurants where the bills were flushed have cost thousands of francs, Bloomberg reports.
A lawyer representing two women who were the purported owners of the cash has reimbursed the businesses for the repairs but declined to comment further, according the the Telegraph (U.K.).
The European Central Bank is scheduled to stop producing €500 notes in 2018 over fears that they facilitate illegal activity, though existing bills will remain legal tender. Although destroying banknotes is not in itself a crime in Switzerland, authorities are investigating the odd discovery to determine whether the notes were connected to a crime.