Liberty Dollar Founder Reportedly Found Guilty

The "Liberty Dollar Trial" web site, with extensive notes on the trial goings-on by an attendee, is reporting that Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von NotHaus has been found guilty on all counts.

Coin World magazine with details on what was at stake in the trial, in an article written as the trial got swinging last week:

Trial began March 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in Statesville, where Bernard von NotHaus — creator of the Liberty Dollar – is being prosecuted on three criminal charges related to counterfeiting.

The federal government alleges that Von NotHaus, with three other defendants, worked together to violate the law by making Liberty Dollars the government characterizes as "coins" of silver "intended for use as current money" and "in resemblance of genuine coins of the United States …"….

U.S. Assistant Prosecutor Craig Morenao, in opening statements, said the government would set out to prove that von NotHaus deliberately told people to give Liberty Dollars as change for Federal Reserve notes, in direct violation of laws that specifically prohibit the use of passing originally designed coins as current money…..

The prosecution's first witness, an FBI special agent, testified that the Liberty Dollar resembles and is confused with U.S. currency, and that the marketing of the Liberty Dollar was a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme.

The court in Statesville is already closed as I write this, so was not able to verify the "Liberty Dollar Trial" site report directly, but its author has been in court for the whole trial. Reason's previous coverage of Liberty Dollar legal troubles as they began back in 2007 here and here.