> I would think they were more interested in the products being sold as compared to the made-up currency that was being used to purchase said products.
I'm not talking about the SR related prosecutions, I'm talking about, among others, the ponzi scheme prosecution against Bitcoin Savings & Trust, where bitcoins were invested for promised returns in bitcoins in a ponzi scheme. (Though I misrecalled, and this prosecution was a civil prosecution by the SEC not the Justice Department; still, its a pretty strong indicator that the US federal government recognizes bitcoins as thing of value when it comes to the law regarding such things.)