http://courierpress.com/news/2007/nov/15/liberty-dollar-office-raided/?print...
Evansville Courier Press
Liberty Dollar office raided
Staff report
Originally published 01:42 p.m., November 15, 2007
Updated 01:42 p.m., November 15, 2007
The future of an Evansville-based company that produces a "private
voluntary barter currency" known as the Liberty Dollar is in question after
federal agents raided the facility this week, according to an e-mail sent
by its founder.
Federal officials reportedly raided the group's headquarters, located in a
strip mall at 225 N. Stockwell Road, early Wednesday morning and seized
documents and precious metals.
FBI Agent Wendy Osborne, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Indianapolis office,
directed all questions on the raid to the Western District of North
Carolina U.S. Attorney's Office. A spokeswoman there said she had no
information on the investigation.
Bernard von NotHaus, the group's monetary architect and the author of the
e-mail, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Von NotHaus developed the Liberty Dollar in 1998 as an "inflation-proof"
alternative currency to the U.S. Dollar, which he has claimed has devalued
since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913. The silver medallions
are produced by a private mint in Idaho on behalf of Evansville-based
Liberty Services, which also issues paper notes which the group says are
backed by silver reserves.
Liberty Dollar employees were at the office this morning cleaning up after
the raid. They referred all questions to von NotHaus.
According to the e-mail, about a dozen agents arrived Wednesday morning and
seized gold, silver, platinum and nearly two tons of recently delivered Ron
Paul Dollars. They also took all the files, all the computers and froze the
group's bank accounts, the e-mail said.
"We have no money. We have no products. We have no records to even know
what was ordered or what you are owed," von NotHaus wrote in the e-mail,
which was sent to Liberty Dollar customers. "We have nothing but the will
to push forward and overcome this massive assault on our liberty and our
right to have real money as defined by the US Constitution. We should not
to be defrauded by the fake government money."
The e-mail said the gold and silver that backs up the paper and digital
currency was confiscated, as were the dies used to mint the Liberty Dollars
themselves. As a result, it warns that recent orders placed for Liberty
Dollars may not be filled and it encourages supporters to band together for
a class action lawsuit.
The e-mail repeatedly defends the Liberty Dollar as legal.
"You did nothing wrong," von NotHaus wrote. "You are legally entitled to
your property. Let us use this terrible act to band together and further
our goal to return America to a value based currency."
- Gavin Lesnick
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R. A. Hettinga