RichmondLiberty.org

by Robert Russo

The editors at Virginia News Source are posting continuing coverage of their story A Tale of Miscarriage of Justice about the Agnew family, a Virginia Beach couple sentenced to prison on 17 counts of bank fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and conspiracy because of policy changes their bank made to their account, "making" their transactions illegal retroactively for the three years since its inception. Mike Agnew has already served his term and his wife Barbara is currently incarcerated for a period of two years all the way out in Lee County, VA.*

The Agnews were convicted without a jury, by a judge who had business relations with the two plaintiffs, Resource Bank and its star client Armada Hoffler (a real estate/development/asset management giant whose tower looks over the Virginia Beach skyline). The family's entire assets were seized by the bank, shutting down their concrete business and laying off 200 employees.** An FBI agent assigned to the case received a major loan from the bank during the investigation, and a witness for the prosecution received a similar loan after testifying against the Agnews.* Today's update focuses on the perspective of their two teenage children whose lives have been torn apart.

This September the US Postal Service will be issuing a stamp to commemorate the jury system. The Fully Informed Jury Association is a site I came upon which deals mainly with promoting the integrity of the individual juror, falling just short of actually saying there is a decline of jury trials or anything we can do about it. (This is like people trying to convert other religions when their own religion is under siege from atheists and secularism. The stamp is like the 2007 commemoration of Jamestown while other key historic sites along the James are being sold this year for development.)

The first judge in the Agnew case declined to preside because his son went to the same school as the Agnew kids, before it was assigned to a former business partner of the plaintiffs. Another judge told VNS, "In my court, the bank would have been charged as the crooks, not the Agnews."** This is occurring at the same time the FBI is now reopening their case files from the civil rights era and cracking down on their own corruption, over $100 million awarded to four men wrongfully imprisoned.*** Justice, like so many other things, has become arbitrary. Authorities are defining it independently based on whether or not they give a damn, sometimes hitting the mark righteously (albeit a bit late), sometimes missing it entirely.

I mentioned in a previous piece that school boards have decided since grading and diplomas are their invention they can alter or withhold these from any student, and since government is the printer of money they are now calling the shots on "their" property we citizens are borrowing. People are beginning to see these forms of compensation are illusions, phantoms mass-produced to steer us along. Now banks are doing the same thing. A bank can say what a transaction, deficit or infraction is, and therefore what the capital in its care is worth. Withdrawing from one's business account becomes embezzlement, transferring funds becomes money laundering, joint accounts become conspiracy. A bank is a private business with its own interests, if it didn't depend on new customers it would simply be a scam run by its shareholders.

If one wonders why conglomerates go after innocent citizens at such great risk to themselves (as VNS says "no one was left a winner")**, it's the same reason that nations go to war. Conflagrations are profitable no matter whose side one is on. Whatever faction is entrenched both financially and unaccountable through any one individual, just needs to keep the wars going and it will eventually be the victor. Anyone who can point out Lee County on a map can see the federal prison is our Guantanamo.

We libs preach diversity but with the condition of personal responsibility. We have become a nation of children, everyone having their own agenda. VNS asks the question "Conspiracy or Coincidence?"*. The conspiracy exists only if we give a damn about it. Astoundingly good things happen when we do, like the recent vote in Naples, FL by a libertarian majority to give money back to the public.**** Let us incite the right kind of unconventional legal decisions on the right issues. The next installment of the Agnew story will post tomorrow at www.virginianewssource.com.

*http://www.virginianewssource.com/VNS/Agnew/agnew1_070907.html
**http://www.virginianewssource.com/VNS/Agnew/katelins_story_073007.html
***http://news.aol.com/story/_a/wrongfully-jailed-men-to-get-101-million/20070726152809990001
****http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jul/16/government_wants_give_you_money_honest/?breaking_news

Question of the Week: Every lesson in finance from college courses to seminars still teaches the same tired doctrine that banking is an honest arrangement between two parties, which it is not. No advisor says "it's us against them", helping the little guy take advantage of lenders before they take advantage of him. Should we defend the old standard against corruption or start withdrawing our money? Would you support a plan that would allow people to provide their own banking? Send your opinions to henrico@richmondliberty.org.

If you have topics of interest to Libertarians please let us know. We welcome your input!