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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ahda who wrote (66889)	4/2/2001 3:11:31 PM
From: Just G	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116764

Gold commerce company raided by Secret Service By: Tim Wood Posted: 04/02/2001 12:00:00 PM \| © Miningweb 1997-2001 NEW YORK -- The nascent digital "asset currency" industry that uses physical gold as its backing asset has attracted the wrong sort of attention from American law enforcement. Syracuse, NY based Gold-Age was raided in mid-month by the Secret Service and other officials who effectively shut it down by seizing its computers and business documents. Daniel French is leading the investigation into Gold-Age from the US Attorney's office of the Northern District of New York. French hadn't responded to a request for comment at the time of publication but told Wired that no charges had been laid as the investigation was ongoing. Gold-Age is part of a growing industry that might be described as a voluntary return to the gold standard. Typically, customers buy four nines gold or any other precious metal, which is stored on their behalf and used to underwrite digital cash exchanges with other customers. The digital cash can be redeemed in physical metal or converted to major trading currencies. The most attractive aspect of digital gold is its anonymity. There is also a growing interest in it as an alternative to fiat currencies, especially since nearly all the offerings decry fractional reserve banking methods. Ounces in circulation match ounces in the vaults. It would appear that anonymity, somewhat undesirable in a system plagued by money laundering, is what caught the eye of the US Attorney. The investigation centers around credit card fraud, which Gold-Age proprietor Parker Bradley had previously admitted was endemic in his business. Gold-Age is a market maker for Caribbean domiciled E-Gold, which makes it a magnet for investigators suspicious of tax havens. E-Gold's Web site currently shows its clients own nearly one and a half tonnes of gold, held in London and Dubai, along with a substantial horde of silver and lesser amounts of platinum and palladium. Bradley, in a very strongly worded statement posted on his Web site, accuses the Secret Service of stealing Gold-Age's property. The raid, which took place on 12 March, included an eight-hour interrogation of Bradley during which he says: "the whole thing seemed to become less about Gold-Age, and more about e-gold & politics - they wanted us to lie about e-gold." Gold-Age intends suing over the violation of civil and constitutional rights. Using gold as money has become increasingly associated with a survivalist mentality in the US that runs the gamut of declaring taxes unconstitutional and Federal Reserve money a conspiracy to defraud people of self-sufficiency. Authorities are most likely to be concerned about the money laundering possibilities of cash-for gold projects. Illicit cash can be converted into hard assets and distributed very rapidly. Digital gold companies are excluded from standard banking transaction reporting rules because they do not engage in lending. Business users seem to be warming to the idea of a gold backed electronic currency that diminishes the risk of default and reduces the complexity of exchange rate management. One of the companies credited with conceptualizing digital gold, GoldMoney.com is now catering to the business market in more pinstripe fashion from a London address.