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1st Anniversary of the FBI Raid on the Liberty Dollar
Table of Contents: 1. From the CEO's Desk: Synopsis of the Impact of the FBI Raid on Liberty
Dollar and our customers
Today is the 1st anniversary of the Liberty Dollar® raid by the FBI. Much has happened in a year and this newsletter provides a brief synopsis of impact of the FBI raid on Liberty Dollar and on our customers. November 14, 2007: The FBI initiated simultaneous raids in four locations:
1) Sunshine Mint in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where all the silver backing the eLDs
as well as the gold and silver backing the paper Liberty Dollar Warehouse Receipts
were located. 2) Kevin Innes, RCO in Asheville, North Carolina, where the FBI
seized 100 of his copper Ron Paul Dollars and his George Carlin tape. What?
Is the George Carlin tape some form of evidence? 3) Verify First Technologies
in Paso Robles who printed the warehouse receipts lost all receipts. 4) Liberty
Dollar Fulfillment Office in Evansville, Indiana, lost all the computers, boxes
of files and records, approximately 24,000 Ron Paul copper Liberty Dollars and
all the gold, silver, and platinum Liberty Dollars in a variety of sizes and
denominations. (I say approximately because all the records were seized and
the FBI did not leave a detailed inventory of the seizure.) Liberty Dollar was definitely in growth mode just prior to the raid. Business
was going "gang busters." Ron Paul gold, silver, and copper issues
were in hot demand. The half-ounce silver Peace Dollar was available and orders
were pouring in. Liberty Dollar Fulfillment Center had added seven people to
meet the growing demand. Now let's take a look at who was affected by the actions of our government
agents. The eLD or the digital Liberty Dollar system had 4,795 user accounts
holding a total of 111,723 ounces of silver. That means 4,795 people had their
private silver seized from them because they chose to store silver with Shelter
Systems, LLC. If you are reading this, most likely you are one of those who
had your property seized by the FBI. Let's look further. The last available audit of the warehouse, which included an accounting of physical Silver Liberties backing the paper Liberty Dollar Silver Certificates, shows the following facts:
Many of you had orders outstanding for the Peace Dollars in either the copper
or the silver form that were scheduled to be shipped directly from the mint
to you. I personally ordered 800 ounces of the $10 Peace Dollars. I had been
notified that they shipped via UPS Ground several days before the FBI raid,
and they were scheduled to be delivered to me the day of the raid. I watched
the UPS website and saw the status of the package change from "Out for
Delivery to customer" to "Recalled by Shipper." Unfortunately,
I never received the package. Big Brother's tentacles run deep, even into UPS's
shipping system to recall packages shipped before the warrant was even signed.
But this isn't about me; it's about clearing the air around the Liberty Dollar
and the raid and getting clear the legal trail that leads us to where we are
right now. This is about what happened and what's being done about this injustice.
So far we have looked at what happened. Liberty Dollar Associates and RCO's tend to be in one of several places regarding
the raid:
Regardless of where you are in these three categories, everyone wants their
property back. Some have the means to wait it out. For others, the confiscated
Liberty Dollars represent their entire retirement savings, and they need their
property back now! What is being done to engage the government legally and lawfully to get every
single Liberty Dollar returned? Just prior to the FBI raid on the Liberty Dollar, Bernard von NotHaus initiated
a Declaratory Judgment lawsuit that named the U.S. Treasury, US Department of
Justice, and the U.S. Mint. Filed in the US District Court in Evansville, Indiana,
it specifically requested that the US Mint should stop all activities designed
to scare people away from the Liberty Dollar because the Liberty Dollar was
not breaking any laws. This would have ended the argument by adjudication simply
and cleanly. Either we are operating legally or not. Let a judge decide and
be finished with it. The government didn't want to follow that process to truth
and justice. They decided that a raid and seizure was in their best interests. After the raid Bernard proceeded to attempt to initiate a class action lawsuit
in Idaho where Sunshine Mint had been holding all the Liberty Dollars that backed
both the eLibertyDollars and the Silver Certificates on behalf of Shelter Systems,
LLC. Many of you signed up for the class action lawsuit. This was an ill-fated
attempt at justice hamstrung from the beginning by a scoundrel of an attorney
who walked away with thousands of dollars in legal fees and never did a damn
thing! Finally, Bernard created the Contingency Club and retained Robert Stientjes,
the attorney who now represents a core group of people who are demanding the
return of their property. Stientjes filed a "Motion for Return of Property"
on behalf of Shelter Systems, LLC and twelve additional plaintiffs. This is
no longer a class action lawsuit. Shelter Systems, LLC is the company that held
all the silver backing the Silver Certificates and the eLibertyDollars. When
the matter of Liberty Dollar's legality is resolved, a receiver will manage
the return of the silver to all holders of Silver Certificates and eLD's. The
return of the property taken from the Evansville office is a separate legal
action and should proceed quickly after we win back the silver seized from the
warehouse. The government filed a sealed civil forfeiture action against the Liberty Dollar's
seized property on May 29, 2008. The Court granted a stay in the case, essentially
allowing the government an additional six months to find evidence they haven't
yet found after two years of investigation. It is clear they do not want the
people to scrutinize their actions. October 21, 2008: The magistrate judge granted the government another six-month
stay, again via a sealed motion. We are faced with a waiting game very similar
to the sieges in the wars throughout history. We must thrive in the face of
suppression by the enemy. Our mission is to change the money because by changing the money, we change
the world! Our success does not rely on our "knowledge." All the books
about the Fed or money system don't make one ounce of difference. The only thing
that matters is our unwavering stand for the future that we envision: "A
world where money has known value; and people do not sell out their power to
governments or politicians for empty inflationary promises made today and paid
for with the labor of generations of hardworking men and women." In spite of all that the government has taken from us and their obvious attempts
to starve the Liberty Dollar out of business, we are still here and we are not
afraid! The Liberty Dollar and all the people who have participated and partnered with us, in my experience, stand for good judgment, open-mindedness, inclusiveness, long-term thinking, and an unshakable commitment to authentic communication, empowerment, innovation and collaboration. The world needs the Liberty Dollar and what it stands for. I for one am in the fight for the long term. I am an American and my government answers to me. 2) Success Story - New Associate Fernanda Powers I asked you to send in your Liberty Dollar success stories and you have. Fernanda
Powers is an example of an American who has taken a stand. A stand for a private
silver backed currency in her community. Thank you Fernanda for being courageous,
having conversations about money and community as you spend Liberty Dollars
during your day. Here is the story she sent in: You said you wanted to hear our success stories, so here is my experience with
spending $15.00 in Liberty Dollars today. A friend of mine ordered ten pounds
of lamb bones from a local butcher for me and today I finally picked them up
from her. It turned out all I had to pay with were my Liberty Dollars, but not
enough FRN cash. I figured she'd be warm to the idea of Liberty Dollars, so
I asked her what she thought of using a local currency (as a general question).
She said she liked the idea but that you'd need a lot of people involved to
make it work. I then told her a bit about the Liberty Dollar, as this private
silver-backed currency I'm playing around with. She said "Now that intrigues
me even more." So I told her a bit more, then offered a $10 piece to pay
for my lamb bones. She said: "Well, I guess the best way to get started
is to... get started," and she took it. Later tonight I went out for dinner in my small town for a planned ladies'
night out. The cost of the evening was $8.50, so I planned to pay $5.00 in ALD
and $3.50 in FRN (but I made sure I had the full amount in FRNs). I gave my
money to the lady who was collecting the money, and told her a bit about the
Liberty Dollar. She said I should ask Judy, the restaurant owner, if she'd take
it, so I took my money to her and showed her the $5.00 ALD. I started to explain
a bit what it was and she just took it from me and put it in her pocket, so
I took that as a yes, then went back to the lady collecting the money and gave
her my remaining FRNs, saying Judy had accepted it. Anyway, these are my first two experiences. Nothing earth shattering, but encouraging to me. I will see if I can spend my remaining 70 ALDs (from the initial special offer) while I'm waiting for the new ALDs from the Associate package to arrive." 3) A plug for Sales Finally an obvious plug for business. Your generous purchases are what have
kept us going and keep us going. We have several hundred of the Peace
Dollar Errors remaining and less than 100 of the Hallmarked
and Numbered
editions of the same Peace Dollar errors. We have less than 20 each of the Tenth
Anniversary Set with four silver liberties First Day of Issue and Limited Numbered
Edition. The new brochures at the $50 base are on sale now at our cost of 5 cents each. Let's blast them out and spread them around as you spend Liberty Dollars. We are offering the Merchant Counter Mats at a great price and these are great as we head towards a move down to the $20 base. Thanks again for your support and your courage as we work together to transform a money system that rewards moochers into a money system that honors the free exchange of value for value. Dan Priest, Return to Newsletter and Alert Archive |
