Asheville resident Kevin Innes was among those arrested for dealing in alternative currencies. He and his associates at NORFED (The National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Codes, renamed Liberty Services, Inc.) made headlines about a year ago for marketing gold Ron Paul coins. At that time, federal agents confiscated several of the coins.

With respect to the recent arrests, Acting US Attorney Edward Ryan stated:

These coins are not government-produced coinage, yet purchasers were led to believe by those who made and sold them that they should be spent like U.S. Federal Reserve Notes. . . . Such claims are in violation of federal law.

FBI agent Owen Harris remarked:

When groups try to replace the US dollar with coins and bills that don’t hold the same value, it affects the economy.

Innes claimed he was upfront about what he was doing, and was careful not to refer to his coins as “legal tender.” It is not against the law to barter. Liberty Services, Inc. sold gold and silver coins to people and encouraged local merchants to accept them instead of Federal Reserve notes.

Innes’ supporters scoff that US currency is not federally-produced, the dollar is officially defined in terms of ounces of silver, and the federal government was the organization defrauding people with Monopoly money.