A federal judge in Miami has blocked a group that
promotes its own currency and independent banking system from
attempting to carry out a threat to seize more than $15 billion from
Bank of America branches using purported ``armed private security
officers.''
The restraining order issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge
Ursula Ungaro came after Bank of America sued The United Cities
Group to stop the ''seizure,'' which was threatened on the group's
Internet site and on a YouTube video it posted. United Cities says
it is based in Coral Gables.
The YouTube video includes footage of the inside of several
Miami-area bank branches that were apparently visited by group
members last week.
''It will be an interesting, historic occurrence and no one can
really say what will happen exactly,'' the group, known as TUC, said
in a news release on its website.
Ungaro said the threat should be taken seriously because the
group could gain access to bank computer information and equipment
for printing legitimate financial documents.
''Allowing an anti-government group access to such materials
would cause a threat to the entire banking system,'' Ungaro said in
a three-page order.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., said in its lawsuit
that bank executives were notified Monday by the Secret Service that
TUC planned to carry out its plan the next day. The plan apparently
arose from a dispute over TUC ''drafts'' that the group attempted to
deposit with Bank of America but that were returned unpaid.
''Bank of America has a legitimate interest in protecting its
property, as well as the safety of its employees and customers,''
attorneys Mary Leslie Smith and Christi Adams said in the
lawsuit.
There was no immediate response Wednesday to an e-mail sent to
one of the group's mailboxes listed on its documents, and a
telephone number it provided was not a working number.
TUC says its goal is to create a private currency and banking
system outside the U.S. Federal Reserve and ''not affiliated with
any political office, religious order or selfish agenda.'' Court
documents show that the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have
issued several fraud and worthless-instrument alerts regarding
TUC.
A July 22 hearing was scheduled on whether to make the
restraining order
permanent.
