There are two stories here. The first may be old news to you. The second is not meant to alarm but to alert those who have purchased Liberty Dollars so that they can take whatever steps they deem appropriate. (Having never been a customer, I cannot even offer an assessment of what I would do.)

Number 1....The Mountain Xpress (June 8th) reports,

Asheville resident William Kevin Innes, known for running the local branch of the Liberty Dollar private currency, was arrested June 2 on charges of trying to pass off coins as U.S. currency. The arrest came as part of a countrywide sweep of the organization’s officials. An announcement from the Justice Department alleges that Innes, along with Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von NotHaus and two other employees of the Liberty Services, the company that made the currency, were engaged in a conspiracy to pass off their product as legal tender.

The federal indictment charges Liberty Dollar officials with "a conspiracy to pass off their product as legal tender"; that is, counterfeiting. [Note: the Dollars do not resemble fed-issued coins except for in being round and flat;moreover the website made it very clear that the Dollars were a means of exchange among like-minded individuals who rejected Federal Reserve Notes as monopoly money.] The indictment further charges Innes and Liberty Dollars founder Bernard von Nothaus with mail fraud; they could receive a maximum of 45 years in prison if convicted on all counts. (Sarah Jane Bledsoe and Rachelle L. Moseley were also indicted. Government press release on indictments found here.)

Liberty Dollar's real crime was being nationwide and offering an increasingly popular currency that safeguarded value. The real crime: Liberty Dollar spotlighted the massive theft being committed by the Federal Reserve in issuing gluts of paper dollars that reduced the value of every other dollar in circulation. But you will never see the head of Fed arrested for the trillion dollars of new dollars he is passing off as money.

Number 2: Note: the actual indictment, which has just recently been posted, (located here in .pdf) includes on page 11 a Notice of Forfeiture and Finding of Probable Cause by which the defendants "forfeit to the United States all of the property involved in the offenses with which they are charged in the indictment, and all property traceable to such offenses." Clause (d) of the Notice of Forfeiture includes the following property as subject to forfeiture:

"any property described in (a), (b), and (c) [property=the Liberty Dollar coins]...[that]has been transferred or sold to, or deposited with, a third party; has been placed beyond the jurisdiction of the Court;...or has been comingled with other property which cannot be divided without difficulty..."

Does this mean that the feds intend to confiscate Liberty Dollars from the owners they can trace? I don't know...but, in the likely event of a conviction, they seem to be giving themselves the legal muscle to steal caches of precious metal from individuals/businesses. Not being a lawyer nor an owner of Liberty Dollar coins, I have no advice to offer. Again, I do not mean to spread alarm but I do think people should be aware of the wording of the indictment..