I was buying from them before the last raid in 2009, in fact they confiscated my last order. This prosecution is very clearly politically motivated. BVNH took appropriate steps to bring himself into alignment with the law. IMO he was abiding by the law creating NORFED, but when the powers that be don't like what you create you become a criminal very quickly. He was advocating a return to trade in gold and silver, if everyone did that who would the parasites leech off of then? If anyone wants to buy NORFED silver check out my thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=58518.0NOTE: It is not illegal to own, The Secret Service simply pressured ebay to remove them in order to create that appearance as well as shut down the most active NORFED marketplace. If it is illegal why are they still on Amazon?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=norfedThe problem is that he said one thing.... return to trade in gold and silver....
But all he really did is allow himself to do is print a USD denominated note. He was printing something denominated in USD and the government does not like competition. If it was done like shire silver it would have been ok. If it was a receipt/coupon for 1 oz of silver in a vault it would have been ok. None of those things would have let BVNH print money denominated in USD like he did and he did not go that route.
While I do believe that currency competition should be legal in more forms, it is not.