NYTimes: Liberty Dollar creator awaits his fate

[sailingaway]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/us...nted=all&_r=1&

in small part:

At his federal trial, witnesses testified to the Liberty Dollar’s criminal similitude to standard American coins. They said his coins included images of Lady Liberty and cheekily reversed “In God We Trust” to “Trust in God.” Then again, his coins were made of real gold and silver, as American coins are not, and came in different sizes and unusual denominations of $10 and $20.

In his own defense, Mr. von NotHaus testified about a “philanthropic mission” to combat devaluation with a currency based on precious metals and asserted that he was not involved in “a radical armed offense against the government or their money.”

It was, of course, to no avail; and in 2011, a jury found him guilty after a 90-minute deliberation.

These days, Mr. von NotHaus paces shoeless in a mansion, in the hills above the ocean, that was lent to him by a friend. His sentencing has yet to be scheduled, and this leaves time for reflection. He feeds the hummingbirds outside his window. He reads books on fiat currency. He is even writing a book — on the gold standard, of course.

“The thing that fires me up the most,” he will say, “is this is what happens: When money goes bad, people go crazy. Do you know why? Because they can’t exist without value. Value is intrinsic in man.”

[donnay]

The Federal Reserve will have no competition! This is proof.

[Lucille]

The story of Mr. von NotHaus, from his beginnings as a hippie, can sound at times as if Ken Kesey had been paid in marijuana to write a script on spec for Representative Ron Paul. At 68, Mr. von NotHaus faces more than 20 years in prison for his crimes, and this decisive chapter of his tale has come, coincidentally, at a moment when his obsessions of 40 years — monetary policy, dollar depreciation and the Federal Reserve Bank — have finally found their place in the national discourse.
[...]
Mr. von NotHaus claims he never meant the Liberty Dollar to be used as legal tender. He says he created it as “a private voluntary currency” for those conducting business outside the government’s purview. His guiding metaphor is the relationship between the Postal Service and FedEx. “What happened in the FedEx model,” he testified, “is that they” — a private company offering services the government did not — “brought competition to the post office.”
[...]
Now jump ahead to 2004. A detective in Asheville, N.C., learned one day that a client of a credit union had to tried to pass a “fake coin” at one its local branches. An investigation determined that some business acquaintances of Mr. von NotHaus were, court papers say, allied with the sovereign citizens’ movement, an antigovernment group.

Oh no, not them! @@ And the DoJ and the FBI called this "a unique form of domestic terrorism," of course.

United States Code (U.S.C.)
Title 22, Chapter 38 of the United States Code (regarding the Department of State) contains a definition of terrorism in its requirement that annual country reports on terrorism be submitted by the Secretary of State to Congress every year. It reads:
"Definitions ... the term 'terrorism' means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents;"[53]
Title 18 of the United States Code (regarding criminal acts and criminal procedure) defines international terrorism as:
"[T]he term 'international terrorism' means activities that . . . involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; [and] appear to be intended . . . to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; . . . to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or . . . to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and [which] occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum."[54]

He doesn't sound like a "terrorist" to me.

In 2006, with millions of the coins in circulation in more than 80 cities, the United States Mint sent Mr. von NotHaus a letter advising that the use of his currency “as circulating money” was a federal crime.

He ignored this advice,and in 2007, federal agents raided the offices in Evansville, seizing, among other things, copper dollars embossed with the image of Mr. Paul.

I want one of those coins.

I'll be praying for this man, and I'll also buy his book.

[ClydeCoulter]

Oh no, not them! @@ And the DoJ and the FBI called this "a unique form of domestic terrorism," of course.

United States Code (U.S.C.)
Title 22, Chapter 38 of the United States Code (regarding the Department of State) contains a definition of terrorism in its requirement that annual country reports on terrorism be submitted by the Secretary of State to Congress every year. It reads:
"Definitions ... the term 'terrorism' means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents;"[53]
Title 18 of the United States Code (regarding criminal acts and criminal procedure) defines international terrorism as:
"[T]he term 'international terrorism' means activities that . . . involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; [and] appear to be intended . . . to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; . . . to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or . . . to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and [which] occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum."[54]

He doesn't sound like a "terrorist" to me.



I want one of those coins.

I'll be praying for this man, and I'll also buy his book.

Based on the USC sited above, many media outlets (MSM) are terrorists, no?

edit: and I would like to have one of those Paul copper dollars also....

[HOLLYWOOD]

Oh no, not them! @@ And the DoJ and the FBI called this "a unique form of domestic terrorism," of course.

A few statements like that and the people can be brought to their knees to the bidding of the state. Herman Goering revealed how it's all done.

These cases are WON/LOST in the selection of (apathetic, ignorant, lazy, uninformed, incapable of independent-critical thinking) proletariat jury members. That's the very first reassurance of the "State"(plan A).

[itshappening]

they're going to give him a hefty 20 year prison sentence I bet

[NewRightLibertarian]

I sent in a piece of mail to the judge a few months back. He said that the judge seemed like a fair person so I hope it got through and many other people wrote.

[Lucille]

I was checking prices on those coins.

Ron Paul Gold Liberty Dollar Reaches $3,537 on eBay
http://digitaljournal.com/article/246325

The FBI may be unwilling to talk, but the Treasury Department has commented on the currency. After the Department's legal team reviewed the currency, Claudia Dickens, spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing stated that the currency is legitimate. "There's nothing illegal about this," she said, "As long as it doesn't say 'legal tender' there's nothing wrong with it."

The Liberty Dollar is legal because it is voluntary exchange between individuals. Why should I not be allowed to trade in gold and silver pieces if I so choose?

Hm. Did Treasury change their tune, or does what they say about it not matter?

So alarming has been the collapse of the dollar that the legislatures in as many as a dozen American states are considering using their authority—under Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution—to make legal tender out of gold and silver coins. Lest the ghost of Friedrich Hayek or any other advocate of privately issued money get any bright ideas, however, the von NotHaus verdict will stand as a warning.

The warning is contained in paragraph 33 of the indictment handed up against Mr. von NotHaus in a courtroom at Statesville, N.C. It said:

"Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution delegates to Congress the power to coin money and to regulate the value thereof. This power was delegated to Congress in order to establish a uniform standard of value. Along with the power to coin money, Congress has the concurrent power to restrain the circulation of money not issued under its own authority, in order to protect and preserve the constitutional currency for the benefit of the nation. Thus, it is a violation of law for private coin systems to compete with the official coinage of the United States."

Yet a curious thing happened in the courthouse on the day before the jury went to deliberate. According to Aaron Michel, Mr. von NotHaus's attorney, the judge granted Mr. Michel's request to delete paragraph 33 from the indictment.

A few statements like that and the people can be brought to their knees to the bidding of the state. Herman Goering revealed how it's all done.

These cases are WON/LOST in the selection of (apathetic, ignorant, lazy, uninformed, incapable of independent-critical thinking) proletariat jury members. That's the very first reassurance of the "State"(plan A).

Yup.

[nobody's_hero]

If Ron Paul had won I'm sure he'd be among the first on the pardon list.

[FindLiberty]

So sad... I wish they'd release him and return all the seized property and advise him to re-issue his "Liberty Metal" leaving off the magic word "Dollar" and just call them xxxgram or xxxounce @ xxx% purity "rounds". Liberty Rounds.

He might have had a chance if only he hadn't pushed and suggested their use as a substitute for official U.S. gov fiat coins (simply allowing such usage to evolve naturally... if owners someday decided to exchange them as Constitutional "legal tender", etc.)

At least the standard scorched earth protocol was not followed and rained down upon him, (instigate unrest and riots, cut undersea communication cables, bomb infrastructure food and power sources, kill innocents directly or indirectly and generate propaganda placing blame and glorifying "liberation" as a new friendly leader gets installed to run the show) like what happens to all others who dare try to avoid, resist, substitute or reject the "world's" rapidly-becoming-worthless USD.

[DamianTV]

Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies.

[Lucille]

I was reading Casey Research (James Turk: German Gold Has Been Gone Since 2001) and saw this linked:

‘Rosa Parks’ of the Dollar
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-...-dollar/88051/

The case throws into sharp relief an astonishing irony — that a man who issued money that has sharply appreciated in value is facing the rest of his life in prison while the officials who issue the official Federal Reserve Notes, the value of which has in four years plunged in half, to less than a 1,750th of an ounce of gold, are walking around free. We do not mean to suggest that Chairman Bernanke and his colleagues have committed a crime. We do mean to suggest that it’s a context that makes the verdict against Bernard Von NotHaus seem absurd. We’d like to think that the federal judge in the case, who is a sage jurist, understands all this and is trying to come up with a solomonic solution.

One of the things we learned from Mr. Feuer’s dispatch is that Von NotHaus has been called “the Rosa Parks of the constitutional currency movement.” We’ve written about the case before in these columns in an editorial called “Von NotHaus’ Question” and our editor has written about it in the Wall Street Journal. But we hadn’t encountered the Rosa Parks quote. The Times dispatch relates how Mr. Von NotHaus evolved from a hippie in a commune to a currency idealist to a convicted felon. It’s a classic American story. Its similarity to the story of Rosa Parks, a heroine of the civil rights movement, is that at bottom there is a moral issue. It’s nice to see that fact illuminated in the Times. With our country in the midst of a global currency crisis, it is important that those who decide actual cases and controversies think through whether they really want to cast Bernard Von NotHaus into prison.

[Lucille]

This judge was appointed by Reagan, who wanted to go back to a gold standard. Hopefully he holds the same sentiment! Sen: General Inclination in Criminal Cases, Sentencing (1=Pro-Defense,10=Pro-Government), he rated a 5. He's not a fan of jury nullification.

http://lewrockwell.com/wenzel/wenzel126.html

His sentence could result in anywhere from probation to 15 years. The betting is he will get 3 to 5. That is if the judge in the case does not make history and dismiss the case. It is very much a long shot, but the case could be dismissed.

An Amicus Brief was filed by the Gold Anti-Trust Committee and was then joined by major league Washington D.C. lawyers at William J. Olson PC, who believe strongly that the case should be dismissed.

The briefs are fascinating reading and quote the writing of such scholars as Robert Higgs, William Anderson and Murray Rothbard, in defense of the argument that the case against von NotHaus should be dismissed. The briefs make the correct argument that the Constitution does not limit an individual citizen from coining gold and silver. And as for the counterfeiting charges, von NotHaus has a letter from the chief counsel of the U.S. Secret Service stating that what von NotHaus was doing was not counterfeiting.

There is no time period during which United States District Court Judge Richard Voorhees has to rule on the motion to dismiss. Von NotHaus tells me that in one North Carolina case the Judge took 10 years to rule.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...TING-his-JUDGE

He is asking YOU to write letters to his judge...

Here is the adress of the judge:
United States District Court
The Honorable Judge Richard Voorhees
704-350-7440
250 Charles R. Jonas Federal Bldg.
401 West Trade Street
Charlotte , NC 28202
http://www.ncwd.uscourts.gov/Chambers/Judges.aspx

[Dr.3D]

The most damage that was done by the Liberty Dollar was really done by the U.S. government taking the gold and silver that backed the certificates. Other than that, no one has been damaged in the least and those who hold those gold and silver rounds should be happy they have them. The money they spent getting them is far less than they are now worth. If anything, the Judge should require the government to return the gold and silver backing for the certificates so that no damage was done by anybody. As for NotHaus, he should be released, as he hasn't cause damage to anyone.

[Anti Federalist]

Soon to be just another political prisoner in the world's largest prison gulag.

The land of the free...

I can barely bring myself to type those words, let alone say them.

The lie is so monstrous, it gets caught in my throat, like a chunk of rancid, maggot infested, meat.

[Dr.3D]

Soon to be just another political prisoner in the world's largest prison gulag.

The land of the free...

I can barely bring myself to type those words, let alone say them.

The lie is so monstrous, it gets caught in my throat, like a chunk of rancid, maggot infested, meat.

Land of the free, only pertains to government enforcers. The rest of us must live in fear.

[EBounding]

von Nothaus should have made his "silver pieces" in the shape or rectangles or something. Of course, he wouldn't have been as successful in getting people to accept them instead of FRNs.

[Dr.3D]

von Nothaus should have made his "silver pieces" in the shape or rectangles or something. Of course, he wouldn't have been as successful in getting people to accept them instead of FRNs.

They would wear holes in people pockets faster.

[EBounding]

They would wear holes in people pockets faster.

That's true, but he needed to do something to make it clear that they were not legal tender.

While the charges are ridiculous, he was deceptive in his marketing. He basically implied to people that these were equivalent in value to FRNs. In his videos he would offer a $10 FRN or his $10 silver piece to store clerks. They of course take the silver piece, but he never says that it's not legal tender. If he did, I'm pretty sure they would run away like it was radioactive.

But at worst he should be charged for fraud and everyone's property should be returned.

[heavenlyboy34]

They would wear holes in people pockets faster.

Mandatory wallets for all users! Handy and economy-stimulating.

[oyarde]

von Nothaus should have made his "silver pieces" in the shape or rectangles or something. Of course, he wouldn't have been as successful in getting people to accept them instead of FRNs.

I have some privately minted small Californian gold pc.'s from about 1849 on . Some of these are octagon shaped . There was a shortage of coins .Gold quarters , half dollars and dollars were being made . Paper money was not legal . Sometime during the Civil War if I recall a law was passed against this and enforcement started in the early 1880's . People still made them , they just left the denomination off the back and called them " tokens " .These were made and used through the 1880's and made up to the early 1900's , probably about 1915 .

[Lucille]

I was really hoping that judge would dismiss the case.

Here is the address of the judge:
United States District Court
The Honorable Judge Richard Voorhees
704-350-7440
250 Charles R. Jonas Federal Bldg.
401 West Trade Street
Charlotte , NC 28202
http://www.ncwd.uscourts.gov/Chambers/Judges.aspx

Bernard von NotHaus of Liberty Dollar Has His Motion for Post-Conviction Relief Denied, Will Face Sentencing
http://reason.com/blog/2014/11/14/be...erty-dollar-ha

This week, a long-simmering motion to have his conviction overturned was denied by U.S. District Judge Richard Vorhees.

Summation and excerpts from Vorhees' order:

these post-conviction filings present a question as to the scope and extent of Congress’s constitutional power to coin money and regulate its value whether Congress, under the Constitution and by enactment of 18 U.S.C. § 486 and its prohibition of coins “intended for use as current money,” has the power to coin money to the exclusion of all others, including individuals like Defendant von Nothaus.....

After presenting a series of what he sees as precedent decisions in support of his conclusion, Vorhees writes:

the undersigned is of the opinion, and this Court so finds as a matter of law, that Congress indeed possesses the power to criminalize an individual’s minting of coinage, whether in resemblance of U.S. coins or of original design, that is intended for use as current money.

Von NotHaus had more arguments:

Defendant contends that in order to be “current,” the U.S. money with which the Liberty Dollar is accused of seeking to compete must be genuine items of U.S. currency presently in circulation and of the same denomination.....

According to the defense, because the United States does not mint silver coins in denominations of $5, $10, $20, and $50, the values of the accused Liberty Dollar pieces, the conviction under § 486 must be vacated. The undersigned declines to construe the phrase “intended for use as current money” as narrowly as the defense proposes.....

the Court construes 18 U.S.C. § 486 such that, regardless of the nature of the subject coin (in resemblance or of original design), if a coin is “intended for use as current money” then there must necessarily be a deceptive quality about its design. In other words, resemblance and original design, while capable of independent existence, are not necessarily mutually exclusive under a plain reading of the statute.

The rest of Vorhees' opinion knocks down von NotHaus' claims of insufficient evidence of criminal intent, that the jury was given improper instructions on the extent of the government's exclusive power to coin money, and that some of the evidence against him given by federal agents should be considered inadmissable hearsay.

As noted in this Coinweek story on the case, von NotHaus is scheduled to finally receive sentencing in this case on December 2, reminding readers that the 70-year-old man has been awaiting sentence for over 3 and a half years now.

[Anti Federalist]

As noted in this Coinweek story on the case, von NotHaus is scheduled to finally receive sentencing in this case on December 2, reminding readers that the 70-year-old man has been awaiting sentence for over 3 and a half years now.

Just Us delayed is Just Us denied.

Fair and speedy trial my ass.

He'll join the long list of forgotten "politicals" in the gulags.

Maybe Ed and Elaine Brown can help him adjust to prison life.

Land of the free...

[Anti Federalist]

Hah, I realized that I just repeated myself from two years ago.

"Sick and tired of what to say,

No one listens anyway,

Drink...that's all you can...do."

[Anti Federalist]

////

[Lucille]

I don't know, I heard a rumor Bernard Von NotHaus sentencing went surprisingly well. This is all I saw, I don't know if its true:
http://www.silverseek.com/article/li...ntencing-13866

Great news!

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

We have it only through a reliable intermediary that Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von Not Haus, convicted rather strangely almost four years ago of counterfeiting for issuing silver coins worth more than the originals they were supposed to be imitating, received a lenient sentence today from Judge Richard Voorhees in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina -- six months of home confinement and three years of probation.

It's said that the judge observed that von Not Haus' motivation with the Liberty Dollar was philosophical rather than criminal. It's also said that the judge ordered the federal government to return to its owners the millions of dollars of metal held by Liberty Dollar for its clients.

A lawyer representing GATA appeared in court today to argue for leniency for von Not Haus.

http://www.nysun.com/editorials/beyo...nothaus/88958/

Congratulations are in order to United States District Judge Richard Voorhees of North Carolina for the judiciousness of his decision in the case of Bernard von NotHaus. We weren’t personally present at the courthouse at Statesville, where von NotHaus had been ordered to appear Tuesday for sentencing on his conviction of uttering — introducing into circulation — his Liberty Dollars. But we were on tenterhooks, because von NotHaus, 70, was looking at the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.
[...]
In the three and a half years since the jury reached its decision, Judge Voorhees allowed constitutional and procedural objections to be heard but in the end supported the jury. The government on Tuesday asked for a prison sentence of at least 14 years and as much as 17 ½ years. The government was also seeking forfeiture of some 16,000 pounds of Liberty Dollar coins and specie, which in 2011 it had valued at nearly $7 million.

Then spake the judge, sentencing von NotHaus to but six months of home detention, to run concurrently with three years of probation. He departed from non-binding guidelines because, he suggested, von NotHaus had been motivated not by criminal intent but by an intention to make a philosophical point. That is what these columns have been reporting for more than four years, and, while the Sun’s coverage played no part in the case, we are glad to discover that the judge is of a similar, if not identical, mind.

Von NotHaus is no doubt relieved that he doesn’t have to go to jail, but he has put out no statement. Our guess is that it is sinking in on him that he has been marked now as a felon, and his own dream of a parallel form of money, composed of constitutional specie, is gone. There may yet be surprises, but the sagacity of Judge Voorhees’s handling of this case lies in, among other elements, the fact that he has left no great incentive for either side to make an appeal.

[youngbuck]

It's also said that the judge ordered the federal government to return to its owners the millions of dollars of metal held by Liberty Dollar for its clients.

Once in a while good news comes along...

[Weston White]

If he asserts that one of his $10 piece is equal to a $10 FRN, and it is, then that is not fraudulent. The underlying issue is may Liberty Dollars be passed as counterfeited FR coins and dollars, and clearly they cannot, as these are two vastly different things—moreover, he has never claimed to be part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury or Federal Reserve. Otherwise, based upon such vague legal standards, it is so much more appropriate to criminally charge those responsible for doling out merchandise from the Danbury Mint, Franklin Mint, and especially Disney Dollars, no?