The silver that Jeffrey Mark McMeel bought from Northwest Territorial Mint never arrived to his home in Washington, but the unorthodox method he chose to protect his investment has him facing sanctions in a Seattle courtroom on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Since Northwest Territorial Mint filed for bankruptcy on April 1, McMeel filed a set of disconnected documents not based on traditional law but on his own, improvised legal theories. Some of his filings to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Seattle try to guide the financial investigation that is well underway at the one of the country’s largest private mints, which has stranded more than 3,000 customers. One excerpt from his filings attempts to prove the validity of his purchase; other documents include grainy copies of archived historical documents. But what got him in trouble was when McMeel appeared to identify himself as a special agent for several state and federal agencies, including the Justice Department’s U.S. Trustee Program. “He is not, nor has he ever been” a Justice Department official, the agency’s lawyers said in response.
