http://www.charismanews.com/us/60354-new-expose-on-mormon-church-claims-joseph-smith-ran-a-counterfeiting-ring

From the article:

Book Synopsis: Using original documents and on-site research in Vermont, New York, Missouri, Michigan, Illinois and Utah, this book begins with figures in 18th- and 19th-century America who developed secret networks to promote counterfeiting and other illegal schemes and often used religion as a cover.

Kathleen states, "The historical record indicates how Joseph Smith, Sr., father of the Mormon Church founder, was involved in counterfeiting and how this involvement was passed on to Joseph Smith, Jr. and was practiced by Mormon leaders throughout the development and migration of the early church."

The pre-publication version has received enthusiastic reviews from such leading historians of Mormonism as Sandra Tanner, Will Bagley, Charles Larsen and Dr. James Beverly, Professor of Religion at Tyndale Seminary. The book is described as riveting, fast-moving and revealing on an "explosive topic."

http://mormoncounterfeiting.com/

On my reading list.

The book looks interesting.
The web site in the link above, not so much.
It's like mormonism without the gold plates and polygamy...

"Porn has created a battlefield for men!" sidenotes and such.
Ugh.

...but it's nice to see an entire book dedicated to the subject.

Joseph Smith's Kirtland Bank was little more than a counterfeiting operation, seeing as how it took in gold and silver coins in exchange for worthless bank notes.

Also, one reason why the Mormon leaders left Nauvoo in 1846 was that they were being sought on counterfeiting charges.

"A disaffected Mormon writes that Theodore Turley, of the Council of Fifty, has prepared a press in Nauvoo for counterfeiting, and that Turley gave the man a counterfeit $5.00 bill. (4)"

http://mormon-church-history.blogspot.com/2011/12/mormon-history-mar-22-1845.html

Also:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,408992,409069#msg-409069

"The United States Government has preserved some important records concerning the indictment of the Mormon leaders for counterfeiting. In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 539, we have a photograph of a U.S. Government record which shows that Brigham Young and four of the other Mormon Apostles (Willard Richards, John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde) were indicted for counterfeiting."

/silly

I am horrified by this use of historical facts to attack the young, struggling True Church of Joseph Smith, of Latter-day Saints.

Please keep in mind that there was no American national banking system in place at that time. The Saints were just early practitioners of the "... If we print it, they will come..." philosophy of life.

Remember, it's better to have tried and failed than to just be honest.

/silly

This topic was one of the main themes in the book "The Refiner's Fire: the Making of Mormon Cosmology" by John L. Brooke (which I am currently re-reading)

And didn't Fawn Brodie (No Man Knows My History) write about early leaders and their involvement in counterfeiting?