Status 30 June 2009

All the Dinars were recovered. The Department finished counting the Dinars, and arrived at essentially the same total. The Dinars were examined by the Secret Service again, and, again were confirmed to have all the anti-counterfeiting measures expected in currency.
The Dinars have been packaged, sealed and are stored in a bank vault.

Proof of Claim. The Department is going through the process of confirming how much each investor invested with Jack Smiley. The Department cannot simply accept a person's unsupported claim, and will require some proof or evidence of the amount actually invested.

Send documentation of your investment to the Department. Smiley's record keeping was inaccurate and unclear, and in many cases it is difficult to tell how much the investor actually gave to Smiley. The Joint Venture agreements alone probably cannot support a claim, for various reasons. The best evidence will be cancelled checks, or wire transfer receipts. Bank statements or records that show withdrawals of money in amounts and on dates that coincide with the Joint Venture Agreements are also helpful. Although many investors have already provided this documentation, the verification process make take a few weeks. The Department is preparing to notify investors who need to provide more documentation.

You can fax your material (208) 332-8016.

The process. Once the Department is satisfied that investors have verified their claims, it can determine how the Dinars will be distributed. That is, if 80% of the money was recovered, for example, investors will get 80% of their investment. The Department must provide the Judge with an accounting showing how it plans to distribute the Dinars, and cannot distribute them until the Judge signs off on the plan. The judge will oversee the entire distribution process.

The Department's interest. Some investors appear to believe Smiley's absurd claim that the State will keep some of the Dinars. The Department is not legally entitled to keep any of the money. The Department is entitled to be paid the penalty Smiley was ordered to pay, but the Department is not going to take the penalty from the Dinars unless all investors recover 100% of their investment and some surplus exists. This does not seem likely. Again, remember that the Judge will be overseeing the distribution.

Jack Smiley's status. A telephonic status conference has been set for Tuesday, 30 June 2009 with Judge Mitchell regarding Smiley's ongoing incarceration. Now that the Dinars have been recovered, ongoing incarceration cannot have a coercive effect, and civil contempt is over. It is likely that Smiley will be released from jail very soon.