by Björn Schöpe
January 15, 2015 – In 2011 a US court convicted Bernard von NotHaus of counterfeiting money and conspiracy. The reason was the so-called Liberty Dollar, a gold-based private currency issued by von NotHaus since 1998. The verdict was 15 years of prison, $250,000, and confiscation of all the gold worth ca. $7 millions. The USA intended to make an example of the ‘domestic terrorist’ (statement by the FBI).
The case passed to a Federal court and on 2 December 2014 a more moderate sentence was pronounced. According to the judge, von NotHaus is no terrorist with criminal intent as the prosecutor had expressed again. The judge followed the jury and said that according to him 70-year-old von NotHaus wanted to make a philosophical point with his Liberty Dollar.
Von NotHaus reckoned all the fuss about himself and his private money, anyway, to be out of proportion as he had stated once in an interview: ‘This is the United States government… it has nuclear weapons, and it’s worried about some ex-surfer guy making his own money? Give me a break.’
However, the judge stressed that the private currency was strictly illegal. Von NotHaus was now sentenced to six months of home detention, to run concurrently with three years of probation.
You can read an article on the story of the Liberty Dollar in CoinsWeekly.
The Wall Street Journal offers a detailed article on the new judgment.
E-Sylum gathered many articles from online media.
And now there is again a Liberty Dollar – but the new distributor makes it very clear that this is no private money but a simple medal.