Thread: US Treasury Seizes $80 Million in Gold From Private Owner

SHTF
Author: Mac Slavo
Date: July 7th, 2011
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

US Treasury Seizes $80 Million in Gold From Private Owner

This is why you can’t trust Tim Geithner’s US Treasury:

[quote][i] A jeweler’s heirs are fighting the United States government for the right to keep a batch of rare and valuable “Double Eagleâ€

Family, U.S. claim rare 1933 'double eagle' gold coins

By Maryclaire Dale, Associated Press
Updated 4h 43m ago |

PHILADELPHIA — A jeweler's heirs with a cache of rare $20 gold coins will fight for the right to keep them when they square off in court this week against the U.S. Treasury.

Treasury officials charge that the never-circulated "double eagles" were stolen from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1933. They could be worth $80 million or more, given that one sold for nearly $7.6 million in 2002.

The coins come from a batch that were struck but melted down after President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the country off the gold standard in 1933.

Two were preserved for the Smithsonian Institute. But a handful more mysteriously got out.

The daughter and grandsons of Israel Switt, a jeweler and scrap metal dealer on nearby Jeweler's Row, say they discovered 10 of them in his bank deposit box in 2003.

Joan Langbord of Philadelphia and her sons went to the U.S. Treasury to authenticate the coins, but the government instead seized them. Authorities noted that the box was rented six years after Switt died in 1990, and that the family never paid inheritance taxes on them.

What's more, the Secret Service has long believed Switt and a corrupt cashier at the Mint were somehow involved in the double-eagle breach.

"A thief cannot convey good title to stolen property," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Sweet wrote.

The 2011 trial that starts Thursday might therefore have echoes of a 1930s-era criminal case.

Double eagles, first struck in 1850, feature a flying eagle on one side and a figure representing liberty on the other. They get their name from their $20 value, twice that of gold coins known as eagles. Collectors would love to see the 1933 coins go to auction since they are so rare.

Lawyer Barry Berke, who represents the Langbords, won a 50-50 split with the government in the only other double eagle case, involving the coin that was sold at auction $7.59 million.

He argues that the family's coins could have left the Mint legally because it was permissible to exchange gold coins for gold bullion.

The government instead insists that no double eagles lawfully left the Mint, and that the coins were legally seized. The coins are being kept at Fort Knox.

Switt had been investigated at least twice by 1944 over his coin holdings.

In 1937, U.S. officials seized nearly 100 pre-1933 double eagles from him as he prepared to board a train to Baltimore to meet with a coin dealer. Switt said he knew it was illegal to possess the gold coins, and said he had eventually planned to surrender them, according to a ruling issued by the trial judge this week.

In 1944, the Secret Service traced 10 separate double eagle coins that had surfaced to Switt. He acknowledged selling nine of them, but said he did not recall how he had gotten them. The statute of limitations prevented authorities from prosecuting Switt.

However, his license to deal scrap gold, which sometimes took him to the Mint, was revoked.

U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis will allow that evidence in, despite the family's efforts to block it.

"The documents appropriately go to Switt's knowledge of the repercussions from breaking the gold laws and provide evidence of a motive to conceal his possession of the 10 1933 Double Eagles presently at issue," Judge Legrome Davis wrote.

The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.

"What the Langbords are trying to say here is it's not clear what happened, that there's at least a possibility the coins were just exchanged for ounces of gold," said Armen Vartien, general counsel of the Professional Numismatists Guild.

"The records are incomplete, inconclusive," he said. "No one can really know what happened, and none of the people involved are alive to tell (the tale)."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2 ... coin_n.htm

Tough case. If they were indeed stolen then so be it. But where are the documents showing they were never circulated or all melted down in 1933? Wheres old documents showing that they were stolen and who they suspected stole them? Show us the documents man, just show us the documents! Course we been saying that for years, so not like they will start producing anything relevent.

As far as inheritance tax..... umm maybe the feds need to hire a highschool graduate for a change. To pay a tax one needs to know the worth of an object. To know the worth of an object one needs to have it appraised. To get it appraised one when it matters one needs to be able to authenticate and verify the said object is what is looks like. Then finally after all that one can have it appraised, then as they now would know the value they can pay the inheritance tax on said item....

But hey, I can understand these days with the poor government and horrible public education standards its hard for the government to hire top people who graduated highschool....

When this goes to court the evidence will be presented and the facts will become known.
Until then it's just people talking.

1933 double eagle case ready to go to trial

Jury selection set to begin July 7 in Philadelphia

By Steve Roach-Coin World Staff | July 07, 2011 3:09 p.m.

Article first published in 2011-07-18, U.S. Collectibles section of Coin World

Images by Thomas Mulvaney courtesy of United States Mint.

The federal trial that should decide whether a family or the government owns 10 1933 Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagles will begin July 7 in Philadelphia.

The trial of Langbord v. U.S. Department of the Treasury et al, is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. It is anticipated that the trial will take two weeks. Judge Legrome D. Davis will preside over the case in Room 6A of the U.S. District Court, 601 Market Street in Philadelphia.

Coin World will be attending the trial starting July 11, providing daily updates online at www.coinworld.com and through social media including Coin World’s Twitter account and its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/coinworld .

http://www.coinworld.com/articles/1933- ... -to-trial/

1933 double eagle trial: Tripp sits in the hot seat

Langbord attorney grills government’s star witness for six hours

By Steve Roach-Coin World Staff | July 13, 2011 8:03 a.m.

David Enders Tripp was on the hot seat for more than six hours Tuesday, July 12, as the Langbords’ attorney, Barry Berke, cross-examined him, focusing on the ambiguity of language and the unreliability of Mint records in the 1930s.

Berke was endeavoring to poke holes in the evidence and methods that Tripp used in concluding that no 1933 Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagles left the Mint through legitimate channels.

Tripp — the government’s numismatic witness in the long-running case involving the Langbord family’s attempt to keep 10 1933 double eagles found in a family’s safe deposit box in 2003 — generally kept his cool despite being subjected to lines of questions that at times seemed relentless.

Berke began his cross examination of Tripp by zeroing in on Tripp’s language saying that as of March 6, 1933, no gold coins could be “paid outâ€

Tripp adamant: Every 1933 double eagle 'accounted for'

Government concludes examination of its first witness in trial

By Steve Roach-Coin World Staff | July 12, 2011 11:37 a.m.
Article first published in Published online July 12, 2011, 1933 Double Eagle Trial section of Coin World

The government's star witness adamantly maintained in a full day of testimony Monday, July 11, that no 1933 double eagles left the U.S. Mint through legitimate channels.

David Enders Tripp, the government's numismatic witness, was the only one to testify during the third day in Philadelphia's Federal District Court, where ownership of 10 1933 gold $20 double eagles is at issue.

The trial seeks to answer the question of who owns the rare gold coins ” the government or the Langbord family, who allegedly discovered them in a safe deposit box in 2003.

The trial started just after 9 a.m. in a muggy courtroom, with Tripp taking the stand to help describe evidence that filled at least five 6-inch thick three-ring binders. In characterizing the letters, records and other documents that composed the evidence binders, Tripp said that the disparate pieces fit together like a jigsaw.

1933 trial: Judge describes trial as 'spinning out of control'

Warns attorneys for both sides about line of questioning

By Steve Roach-Coin World Staff | July 14, 2011 8:20 a.m.

Barry Berke, attorney for the Langbord family, continued his cross examination of the government’s numismatic witness David Enders Tripp on July 13, until Judge Legrome D. Davis ended the day early, reminding both sides to stay focused in a trial that he described as spinning increasingly “out of control.â€

1933 double eagle trial: Tripp's testimony ends

Judge calls key government witness's time on stand longest in his career

By Steve Roach-Coin World Staff | July 15, 2011 1:54 p.m.


Two key events occurred Thursday, the sixth day of the Langbord trial: The end of the testimony of the government’s coin expert David Enders Tripp, and the presentation of the 10 1933 Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagle coins to the jury.

Judge Legrome D. Davis described Tripp’s five days of testimony as the longest he has ever experienced as either witness or lawyer testifying in his courtroom, “by a factor of two.â€

1933 double eagle trial: Late dealer Harry Forman 'testifies'

Jury hears deposition of deceased Philadelphia dealer

By Steve Roach-Coin World Staff | July 16, 2011 11:43 a.m.

Day seven of the Langbord 1933 Saint-Gaudens $20 double eagle trial started with a snooze as an account testified on behalf of the government, but ended with a bang as the depositions of Joan Switt Langbord and deceased Philadelphia coin dealer Harry Forman were read to the jury.

Mrs. Langbord is matriarch of the family that found the 10 1933 double eagles in a safe deposit box in 2003. The trial is seeking to resolve whether the rightful owner is the Langbord family or the government.

Prior to the government’s forensic accounting expert Wayne D. Geisser’s testimony, Judge Legrome D. Davis advised attorneys for the government and the Langbords to “keep it interesting, keep it shortâ€