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 October 30, 2008
  
3 men with gold confuse sheriff's sale

They say bidders' paper cash is 'illegitimate.'

By Matt Assad | Of The Morning Call 
October 29, 2008 

With the economy in decline, the list of foreclosed properties up for 
Northampton County sheriff's sale this month was long, but Deputy Sheriff 
Dave Ruberry figured his last stint supervising the sale would be uneventful.

Then Michael Proetto of Whitehall Township, clutching a bulging sandwich bag, 
walked up.

''I'd like to register my bid of $30 [over costs] in gold and silver U.S. 
currency,'' said Proetto, bidding on a two-bedroom condominium in Williams 
Township.

''Excuse me?'' Ruberry said.



''I have lawful gold and silver U.S. currency,'' Proetto said, plunking the 
bag of gold and silver on the table.

At the Oct. 10 sale, Proetto and colleagues Michael Reis of Bethlehem and 
Victor Balletta of Allentown would make unsuccessful bids ranging from 
$12,000 to more than $75,000 on nine properties. At the time, they declined 
to reveal their motives, and their bids left county officials scratching 
their heads.

Ruberry thinks the three men are anarchists, while a county lawyer thinks 
they could be after a quick buck.

Whatever their motives, the three returned last week to file 27 notices 
challenging the foreclosure sales, in which they lost bids to people using 
''illegitimate paper'' money.

''[The other bidders] made an unlawful money bid in credit in opposition to 
my lawful money bid,'' Proetto wrote in nine challenges he made. ''I was the 
only lawful bidder and therefore the only bidder.''

In other words, Proetto said earlier this week, his gold was the only valid 
money at the sale and the rest of the bids used ''worthless paper backed by 
nothing more than black ink.''

Ruberry, who has run the sale for five years and is handing the duty over to 
another deputy, said, ''Obviously the United States of America takes a 
different view and so do we....This isn't the barter system, where you can 
bring your jewelry here to be melted down to buy a house.''

Ruberry speculated the three men might be part of an anarchist movement 
engaging in a ''paper terrorism'' campaign to clog the courts.

Assistant county solicitor Christopher Spadoni, who handles the sheriff's 
sales, said they may simply be opportunists.

Most of the properties the men made unsuccessful bids on were bought by the 
banks holding the mortgages. By challenging the sales, the men could hold up 
the bank's ability to sell the property for up to two years, Spadoni said.

''A bank lawyer might just want to pay them to go away. Maybe they are 
smarter than we think,'' Spadoni said. ''But if their argument is that their 
money is real, and everyone else's is fake, well, I find their argument 
baseless.''

Courts in Lehigh and Carbon counties report no similar appeals.

Ruberry believes the men may be fellow travelers of anti-government groups 
such as the Sovereign Citizen, Posse Comitatus and Liberty Dollar movements 
that believe paper money is not legal tender.

In some states, members of those groups have clogged court systems, flooding 
government offices with liens, civil suits and legal challenges to purchases 
made with what they say is illegal money. In Texas, a group calling 
themselves Republic of Texas conducted such a successful effort that the 
Texas Legislature passed a law in 1997 to prevent it, and similar efforts 
were reported in Wisconsin and Ohio in the 1990s, according to newspaper 
reports.

Proetto said while he and his colleagues may hold similar philosophies to 
those organized groups, they are not associated with any of them and are not 
on an anti-government campaign.

''Don't read too much into this,'' said Proetto, who would reveal little 
about himself other than that he is retired and once served in the Navy. 
''We're just three guys trying to buy $4 million worth of property with gold 
and silver -- the only real money that was bid.''

Spadoni said if the men filed their appeals properly -- he questions whether 
that will happen -- the matter would have to be heard by a county judge.

In the end, Proetto, Reis and Balletta walked out of the sheriff's sale still 
carrying the gold and silver they came with.

And Ruberry walked out thankful that if they return at the next sale Nov. 7, 
they'll be someone else's problem.

''It's not every day you get someone trying to buy property with 30 pieces of 
gold,'' Ruberry said. ''Interesting, but I won't miss it.''


http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_3gold.6647031oct29,0,1837218.story