Spreading the Word
[Guest post by DRJ]
Here’s an unusual search and seizure case:
“The million-dollar question: Will you go to heaven?” is printed on the back of bills used as gospel tracts by a Dallas-area evangelical group.
The counterfeit money was seized by Secret Service Agents back in 2006 when a North Carolina man tried to deposit the $1 million bill in his bank account.
Last week, a Texas federal district court ruled that the fake money, printed by the Great News Network, is fake enough that it doesn’t pose a risk of fraud, so it’s not illegal.
Note: The U.S. doesn’t make a $1 million bill, or any bill over $1,000 for that matter. The slip–which bears the face of President Grover Cleveland–also says: “This is Not Legal Tender” and “Department of Eternal Affairs.”
The court also ruled that the Secret Service violated the Fourth Amendment when it took more than 8,000 of the bills from the organization’s offices without warrant, an unconstitutional search and seizure.”
The decision overturned a 2006 preliminary injunction ruling that treated the $1M bills as counterfeit money, not religious tracts, even though it appears only one person out of millions thought it was real:
“U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis refused to grant a request by Darrel Rundus of the Great News Network to order federal agents to return thousands of tracts – printed as million-dollar bills – seized June 2 from the ministry’s Denton office.
According to court documents, Secret Service agents became involved in the case after a bank customer in North Carolina recently tried to deposit one of the tracts. That led agents to the Denton ministry, where they grabbed up more than 8,000 tracts.
***
The government argued in court filings that the million-dollar bills are the same size as federal reserve notes, use a portrait of President Grover Cleveland and have the distinctive peach and green coloring of new currency denominations. The back of the bill also looks like the $20 bill, except that the borders contain type-written warnings against sins such as lustful glances at women. Repentance is also urged.Brian Fahling, a Mississippi attorney who filed the injunction request on behalf of Great News Network, said the ministry has passed out millions of the tracts to spread a Gospel message, not to circulate counterfeit currency.
“One person out of 6 million was confused by this?” Mr. Fahling said about the bank incident in North Carolina. “It’s just absurd to think anybody would view this tract as real money.”
No word on the fate of the eternal optimist in North Carolina who tried to deposit one.
— DRJ
They should make a “$ Trillion note” with Obama on the front and Pelosi, Reid and Waxman, Mount Rushmore-like on the reverse
Steve G (7d4c78) — 4/6/2010 @ 7:38 pmtypical of the Secret Service, they waste time with silly crap because real criminals are hard work.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/6/2010 @ 7:59 pmThere are two people to be concerned about;
AD - RtR/OS! (cf9e75) — 4/6/2010 @ 8:03 pmnot just the one who tried to deposit it in his account,
but the judge who presided over the trial:
A clear case of common sense having departed both of them.
Every single Secret Service agent and director involved in that case should be fired, criminally prosecuted, and forced to pay reparations for wasting the taxpayer’s money on such ass-idiot nonsense. And why the hell did the bank call them anyway when it was plainly obvious the bill was fake? Who needs to be slapped in the face, then fired there as well?
Metallica (bb58d8) — 4/6/2010 @ 8:18 pmThis World Net Daily report said the head of the Los Angeles Secret Service office refused to take action against the group. That didn’t stop the Dallas office, though.
DRJ (daa62a) — 4/6/2010 @ 8:34 pmnote the US mint doesn’t make any bills over $100.00 and hasn’t for some time (It was either the Nixon or Ford presidency). The US mint has made $100,000 bills which were only transferred between federal reserve banks and $10,000 bills which were available to the public. this isn’t all that rare knowledge and I would think it could be googled pretty easily but that is probably too hard for a reporter.
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as for the gentleman in North Carolina, he is a serious test case for my belief that you cannot lock people up just for being stupid, anyone stupid enough to deposit a million dollar bill is going to have problems dealing with more complicated things like doorknobs. I somehow doubt he seriously tried to deposit the bill, I suspect he found the bill and just used it as a joke. heck if I were in the bank and found a $1million dollar bill in my wallet I might good naturedly hand it to the cashier and ask if they could break it, but I wouldn’t expect them to do anything but laugh.
max (383bf5) — 4/6/2010 @ 8:57 pmAs a child in Vegas many years ago (the Fifties), I recall that Joe. E Brown’s Horseshoe club had 100 Ten Thousand dollar bills under glass within a big horseshoe. That’s a cool million.
What’s the difference between counterfeiters printing fake money and the Treasury printing money with no backing to inflate the currency?
aoibhneas (6e9f23) — 4/7/2010 @ 3:55 amaoibhneas — one’s a crime, the other is politics. If there’s a difference there ….
htom (412a17) — 4/7/2010 @ 7:23 amhtom —
I think they are both crimes, it’s just that the feds enforce consequences for one and try to avoid consequences for the other.
(thanks for the opportunity!)
MD in Philly (59a3ad) — 4/7/2010 @ 7:30 amThey could use those bills to pay the debt! 😉
Lord Nazh (0d312a) — 4/7/2010 @ 10:12 amI would actually respect Obama a little more if he mailed China a special printed $800 billion bill with a nice Barack Obama picture.
I realize this isn’t how the US Debt works, but we might as well ignore reality as much as we can if we’re spending like we are.
dustin (b54cdc) — 4/7/2010 @ 11:00 amHey, Myroon and IMDEEDOUBLEDOO… I got somethin’ for you… just on principle.
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GeneralMalaise (139767) — 4/7/2010 @ 4:39 pm………………..,/¯../
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