What were the reasons given by the FBI for this confiscation?
This is serious stuff!  For my money Ron Paul is the only truly serious candidate for the presidency of either party.  Of course, this outrage had to have had something to do with his candidacy.

I don't buy it till it's confirmed, smells like an hoax to me.

You're not all that logical, Vandaler.

This is NOT helping Liberty Dollar out AT ALL. If anything, it's going to scare all their customers away. It will make people afraid to use the coins, etc.

Matthew

I don't buy it till it's confirmed, smells like an hoax to me.

OK, let's confirm the story.  Did this confiscation by the FBI occur, or didn't it?  It's a subject worthy of further discussion.  Surely the story can be corroborated or dismissed.  Let's start there.  But if it is confirmed, I've got a whole lot of questions.

So, the story has legs then.  It's about money- lots of it, belonging to a company(?)- to private investors(?)  A powerful agency of the Federal Govt. moves in and confiscates this money.  No explanations yet, apparently.  No reasons given, An FBI spokesperson is stonewalling.  .  I say it again:  This is a big story.  Why is there not more reporting about the incident?   Sounds like a blatant incident of government theft to me.  This is a repackaged Jesse James-type robbery. Are they getting tired of stealing from the people in the old fashioned way, through inflation and unjust taxation?

The reason behind the raid is unclear. The Justice Department's position, according to a year-old consumer alert on the Web site of the United States Mint, is that using Liberty Dollars "as circulating money is a federal crime."

I wonder where the provisions of this alleged "federal crime" are clearly stated in law.  I should think that such a statute mighty require something a bit sturdier than an online "consumer alert."

Mint officials said the Liberty Dollar looks similar to legal tender, with inscriptions that say, "Trust in God" and "USA."

It's not the inscriptions on the coin which shake them up, but that each Liberty Dollar is worth much more than Federal Reserve coinage.

It's not clear, however, what the Justice Department's view is on the legality of possessing the coins for novelty or as protection against the declining value of government notes.

It's pretty clear to me.

Mr. von NotHaus said he suspects the raid is in response to "the competition" his currency poses to the U.S. Mint.

Like duuhh!

 "This is an example of Bernanke trying to protect his own nest because he knows it's got holes in it," Mr. von NotHaus said, referring to Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. "He can't have something like the Liberty Dollar running around competing with his currency. It points out the fallacy of the fiat monetary system(i.e. the system that creates money out of nothing). They had to do something. Their currency is losing and we're going to the moon."

It is not unlikely, in my opinion, that the FBI and other Federal agents were dispatched to the scene by none other than Bernanke himself.  It never occurred to me until now that the Federal Reserve might have arrogated to itself law enforcement authority with the ability to manipulate and command, not just the currency of the realm, (which they've done for decades), but the key Federal law agencies themselves.

the feds have been investigating Liberty Dollar not just for violating federal bans on circulating alternative currency, but also for mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

Then issue a Federal indictment, already!  I think you may think that the FBI is justified in ripping off  millions of dollars in Liberty Dollar assets in the midst of an investigation.  By definition, an 'investigation' is just that, viz. a fact-finding phase in which evidence is accuмulated prior to a possible indictment.  You mean to tell me that just because the FBI "has been investigating"  they should have the subsequent right a priori, as it were, to go in and confiscate a company's assets in the absence of established evidence rime has been committed?
The FBI tacks on other prospective charges, including "mail fraud," "wire fraud," and "money laundering," none of which, taken alone or collectively, can remotely justify the confiscation of the company's assets.  Do the indictment, prove the charges in court, then confiscate the assets.  Wouldn't that be the natural and reasonable course to follow?