Don't they first have to prove that all the Bitcoins are from illegal purposes?
That's what I would have thought. What if their case falls apart and they fail to prosecute? Will they have to buy them all back, lol?
I seriously doubt they are sweating this scenario et all. Even if it did come to pass just stick in a slightly larger order for freshly printed fed bills for a day and bingo bango, debt covered by even more wonderful debt.
You know, if I where a huge government in possession of a large # of coins that I found threatening to my "money printing operation"...I don't think I could've thought of a much more effective way to try and crush the confidence in my competition by destroying any sort of confidence in price stability...just sayin.