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."