UPDATE: Andrew Isaac Chance, 65, Convicted Of Filing False Lien For $1.313 Billion Against Federal Prosecutor In Maryland

UPDATE: Andrew Isaac Chance, the Maryland man accused last year of filing a false lien against a federal prosecutor, has been convicted. Sentencing by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. is set for Feb. 15, the Justice Department announced in a news release last month.

Chance, a recidivist who filed the lien while on probation for his 2007 conviction for making a false claim for in income-tax refund in 2005, targeted the prosecutor “[s]hortly after” Chance was released from prison in the tax case.

Federal prison records say Chance is 65.

The lien came in the firm of a UCC financing statement that claimed the prosecutor owed him $1.313 billion, the Justice Department said.

Chance was charged in December 2010 with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1521: Retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title.

AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming was charged by the FBI last month with violating the same statute, amid allegations he filed false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. Leaming, 55, of Spanaway, Wash., is jailed at a federal detention center near Seattle.

In December 2010, Chance also was charged with filing three false claims that sought $900,000 in  income-tax refunds. He was convicted last month on those counts, as well, prosecutors said.

“This verdict is a clear message that filing false retaliatory liens against federal officials, including federal prosecutors who are simply doing their jobs, is illegal and will be punished,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ronald A. Cimino of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

Prosecutors said Chance faces a maximum term of 25 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $ 1 million. He admitted filing the bogus lien against the federal prosecutor, explaining that the prosecutor had “done him wrong,” the Justice Department said.

Chance, though, did not limit his lien escapades to the federal prosecutor, the Justice Department said.

“The evidence showed that Chance filed a similar lien against a Maryland state prosecutor for her role in prosecuting him for crimes relating to his attempts to cash the fraudulently obtained U.S. Treasury check for the 2005 tax return,” the Justice Department said.

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