the Liberty Dollar is a numismatic piece or medallion which may be used voluntarily as barter. Bernard von NotHaus v. the U.S. Mint On March 20, 2007, Liberty Services owner Bernard von NotHaus filed suit in the District Court for the Southern District of Indiana against the U.S. Mint's claims regarding the Liberty Dollar. Defendants include Henry M. Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury; Alberto R. Gonzales, former Attorney General of the United States; and Edmund C. Moy, Director of the Mint. The suit seeks a declaratory judgment that circulating Liberty Dollars as a voluntary barter currency is not a federal crime and an injunction barring the Defendants from publicly or privately declaring the Liberty Dollar an illegal currency and to remove any such declarations from the U.S. Mint's website. FBI / Secret Service raid The Liberty Dollar offices were raided by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) on November 14, 2007. Bernard von NotHaus, the owner of Liberty Services, sent an email to customers and supporters saying that the agents took all the gold, silver, and platinum, and almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars. The agents also seized computers and files and froze the Liberty Dollar bank accounts. Von NotHaus's email linked to a signup page for a class action lawsuit so that the victims might recover their assets. At the same time, all forms on his website relating to purchases of Liberty Dollars became nonfunctional. Copies of the email and the warrant documents have been posted to the website. The seizure warrant was issued for money laundering, mail fraud, wire fraud, counterfeiting, and conspiracy. The local Evansville Courier & Press reported the email, stating that "FBI Agent Wendy Osborne, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Indianapolis office, directed all questions on the raid to the Western District of North Carolina U.S. Attorney's Office. A spokeswoman there said she had no information on the investigation. Bernard von NotHaus, the group's monetary architect and the author of the email, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment." The Associated Press quoted von NotHaus on November 16, 2007, as saying that the federal government was "running scared right now and they had to do something .... I'm volunteering to meet the agents and get arrested so we can thrash this out in court." Indictment A federal grand jury brought an indictment against von