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Feds
seize gold coins worth $80 mln from Pennsylvania family
A
federal judge has upheld a verdict that strips a Pennsylvania family
of their grandfather’s gold coins — worth an estimated $80
million — and has ordered ownership transferred to the US
government.
RT,
7
September, 2012
Judge
Legrome Davis of the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania affirmed
a 2011 jury decision that a box of 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle
coins discovered by the family of Israel Switt, a deceased dealer and
collector, is the property of the United States.
In
the midst of the Great Depression, then-President Franklin Roosevelt
ordered that America’s supply of double eagles manufactured at the
Philadelphia Mint be destroyed and melted into gold bars. Of the
445,500 or so coins created, though, some managed to escape the kiln
and ended up into the hands of collectors.
In 2003, Switt’s family
opened a safe deposit back that their grandfather kept, revealing 10
coins among that turned out to be among the world’s most valuable
collectables in the currency realm today.
Switt’s
descendants, the Langbords, thought the coins had been gifted to
their grandfather years earlier by Mint cashier George McCann and
took the coins to the Mint to have their authenticity verified, but
the government quickly took hold of the items and refused to
relinquish the find to the family. The Langbords responded with a
lawsuit that ended last year in a victory for the feds.
Because
the government ordered the destruction of their entire supply of
coins decades earlier, the court found that Switt’s family was
illegally in possession of the stash. Even though they may had been
presented to the dealer by a Philadelphia Mint staffer, Judge Davis
agrees with last year’s ruling that Mr. McCann broke the law.
"The
coins in question were not lawfully removed from the United States
Mint,” the judge rules.
Despite
this decision, though, the attorney representing Switt’s family
says the government has no right to remove their own items and
transfer property back to the state.
"This
is a case that raises many novel legal questions, including the
limits on the government's power to confiscate property. The Langbord
family will be filing an appeal and looks forward to addressing these
important issues before the 3rd Circuit," Barry Berke, an
attorney for the Langbords, tells ABCNews.com
Bank
loses all of family’s possessions after wrongfully foreclosing on
home
Wells
Fargo employees wrongfully foreclosed a modest home near a small town
in California, removing and destroying nearly all of an old couple’s
belongings.
RT,
7
September, 2012
Alvin
and Pat Tjosaas, who have been married for 56 years, lost three
generations worth of their belongings when a contracted foreclosure
crew accidentally broke into the wrong house. The Tjosaas had no
mortgage on the house that Alvin had built with his dad as a
teenager.
“Good
news, we know who took it: Wells Fargo. Bad news, the stuff is all
gone,” Alvin Tjosaas told CBS Los Angeles.
Subcontractors
hired by the bank broke doors, smashed windows and stole valuables
while foreclosing the couple's vacation home near Twentynine Palms.
A
14-year-old Alvin had build the house brick by brick with his dad in
1961 and has taken his family and kids there ever since...
While
the costly mistake was at the fault of Wells Fargo, the bank only
recently started responding to the incident after the media got ahold
of the story.
“The
way it’s been going, I don’t think they really care. That’s the
way it’s been for three months. Now, all of a sudden, it’s you
guys,” Alvin said in an ABC interview, referring to the media.
“Now, all of a sudden, they call me.”
Wells
Fargo released a statement of apology for the losses suffered by the
Tjosaas family and said they are moving quickly to “resolve this
unfortunate situation in an attempt to right this wrong.”
The
bank is offering the couple $260,000 for their losses, but the
Tjosaas have not yet made a decision on whether or not to accept the
money and move on....
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