Creator of Liberty Dollar Sent to Jail
August 2, 2010 by Statesman Sentinel · 7 Comments
Bernard von NotHaus
By Stephen Otto
STATESMAN SENTINEL
August 2, 2010
Bernard von NotHaus, creator and monetary architect of the Liberty Dollar, a popular alternative commodity based currency, was jailed when he appeared to answer charges that he violated the terms of his Appearance Bond before Magistrate Judge Cayer, Federal District Count in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday, July 14.
Bernard von NotHaus has been out on bond since a 2007 FBI raid on the Liberty Dollar headquarters in Indiana, when he was charged with conspiracy to possess and sell coins in resemblance and similitude of genuine coins of the United States. The FBI and Secret Service confiscated gold, silver, platinum, and almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars, which was the property of Liberty Dollar customers, when executing a seizure warrant for money laundering, mail fraud, wire fraud, counterfeiting, and conspiracy.
The Liberty Dollar website was ordered to be taken down and von NotHaus has been communicating to his customers and supporters via email.
Bernard von NotHaus awaits trial along with Liberty Dollar Representative William Kevin Innes, who has been incarcerated for 14 months after being charged with trying to pass off a private currency as legal tender. Innes is a Canadian citizen and therefore considered a risk to abscond and thus has been unable to secure his release on bond.
Innes asserts that his “alleged crime” amounts to no more than “trying to help small businesses by promoting the use of a local-acting, precious-metal currency as the United States Constitution says the whole country should be using.” Indeed that is what the United States Constitution mandates in Article I, Section 10, Clause 1: “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debt.”
The federal government, however, says that by passing off coins that led customers to believe that they should be spent like U.S. Federal Reserve Notes, they were seeking to undermine the U.S. currency system, a hypocritical statement since it is the U.S. government itself, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve System, that is undermining the currency with its massive monetary inflation that is causing the debasement of the dollar, which in fact has led to more than a 95 percent devaluation of the dollar in the last century. The printing of fiat paper money by the Federal Reserve is itself legalized counterfeiting and completely unconstitutional, which by definition would make the Feds criminals, not Liberty Dollar.
Silver Liberty Dollars - Click to enlarge
Interestingly, a U.S. Secret Service agent has stated regarding the Liberty Dollar, “It’s not counterfeit money.” The promoter of the Liberty Dollar asserts that Claudia Dickens, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing, had told them that American Liberty Currency is legitimate and was quoted as having said “There’s nothing illegal about this” and “As long as it doesn’t say ‘legal tender’ there’s nothing wrong with it.”
Von NotHaus believes that he and Innes have a very strong case against the Feds and is optimistic of its outcome:
“We have an extremely strong, winnable case and the government is going to lose dearly for this shortsighted misadventure.”
Stevens, all good points, except I have to take issue with a couple things.
1) It's not evil to make a profit. You try to make it sound like these guys were doing wrong because they were making a profit. People gotta eat, ya know?
2) Even if the raw ounce of silver wasn't worth the $10 (or $20) it was being passed of as at the time, it was still worth *something*, which is more than you can say for federal reserve notes.
Stevens, I agree with Rev. Dr. Federal Reserve Notes are an example of systemic dishonest weights and measures. I purchased a few Liberty Dollars and always knew the spot value of silver and the amount of mark-up. Monetary economics dictates that a coin of silver must have a higher face value than the melt value of the silver in the coin or they will be hoarded as an investment hedge. U.S. silver dollar coins were established in this way with the government fixing the price of silver (a mistake too). The information on the mark-up was never hidden from view of purchasers of Liberty Dollars. The silver confiscated was stolen from average Americans who wanted to own silver and use it as barter money as our Founding Fathers recommended. The modern banking system protects the fraud of fiat money. Those people who are still holding LDs have pieces of silver worth far more than they paid for them. Where is the fraud? A $100 Federal Reserve Note costs $0.03 to produce. Now that's a fraud!
LDs could be spent everywhere if the government and its central bank didn't mind honest competition. Instead we get to use cheap cotton rag tickets within the realm. One of the oldest frauds in the world. Kublai Kahn first thought of the idea and it made his dynasty rich and his subjects poor. Feel prosperous? You cannot within a state-run fiat money system.
For those of us whose property has been improperly seized and held — i.e., the holders of paper or electronic Liberty Dollars — when and how can we get justice and recover our property? I have tried writing to the prosecutors and judge in this case, on several occasions, and have never received any kind of reply. The rounds seized by the government appear to have fallen into a deep, dark hole. LD paper money and electronic LDs were said to be warehouse receipts. Audits were said to have been conducted at the mint, to verify that there were at least exactly as many silver LDs in storage as there were paper notes and eLDs issued. So the government should have all of that silver. Why can't they simply pay LD and eLD holders who tender paper LDs or show up in the seized records as owners of eLDs? They can keep a few of the rounds as "hard" evidence, and even retain claim receipts or statements of LD owners who had their property returned.
How would it hurt either the defense or the prosecution in this case, were the government to return to innocent people their justly acquired and unjustly seized property? And how can we put pressure on the government to do the right thing in this case? The delay is becoming intolerable.
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MISSOURI …
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