From pleadings by Christian Oesch in a lawsuit filed against him in Utah by Fannie Mae. (Redaction/emphasis by PP Blog.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: In July 2010, Christian Oesch of Utah, and Kenneth Wayne Leaming of Spanaway, Wash., sought to sue the United States — apparently for the staggering sum of more than $29 trillion — for its actions in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi forfeiture case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. The Secret Service described ASD as a “criminal enterprise” operated by Andy Bowdoin, a 77-year-old recidivist con man.
ASD had gathered at least $110 million from tiny Quincy, Fla., by offering outsize investment returns of 1 percent a day, the Secret Service alleged. It has been known since the earliest months of the ASD case that the business had ties to so-called “sovereign citizens.”
One of the calling cards of the “sovereign citizen movement” is what has been described as “paper terrorism”: an effort to clog the courts with baseless or vexatious litigation and legal pleadings designed to tie the hands of public servants and/or courtroom opponents
Leaming, a 56-year-old purported “sovereign citizen,” was arrested by an FBI terrorism task force in November 2011 on charges of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD case. A superseding indictment was returned against Leaming earlier this year. He remains jailed at a federal detention facility near Seattle. A September trial date for Leaming has been set in federal court in Washington state, the venue from which he allegedly filed the false liens and committed other crimes such as harboring fugitives and possessing firearms as a convicted felon.
Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ultimately dismissed the lawsuit brought by Oesch and Leaming, saying in December 2010 that the “complaint deteriorates into rambling.” Earlier — in July 2009 — Oesch had sought to intervene in the ASD case and set aside the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of Andy Bowdoin. Like Leaming, Bowdoin is scheduled to go on trial in September. Bowdoin’s trial will be conducted in the District of Columbia.
Oesch, known to have business ties to Leaming, has not been accused of wrongdoing in the ASD case.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of the District of Columbia — later allegedly targeted by Leaming with false liens — denied standing to Oesch and numerous other pro se litigants in the ASD case.
The ASD case has been marked by strangeness, including pro se court filings that accused Collyer of treason and operating a “Kangaroo Court.” Oesch accused Collyer of interfering with commerce, arguing that the judge and federal prosecutors also were guilty of “Anti-Trust Violations” and “Criminal RICO” violations.
That same type of language now is being used by Oesch in his responses to a January 2012 lawsuit in Utah in which he was named a defendant by mortgage giant Fannie Mae . . .
Using the same street address in Midvale, Utah, that appears in court filings in the civil-forfeiture portion of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, ASD figure Christian Oesch curiously declared himself a “Fiction & Transmitting Utility” in his response to a lawsuit in which he was named a defendant by the Federal National Mortgage Association, the PP Blog has learned.
The U.S. mortgage giant commonly known as Fannie Mae initially sued Oesch, Becky Oesch, Michael A. King and two alleged “Doe” occupants of a home on South Wayside Drive in Sandy, Utah, in January 2012. The complaint was removed to federal court in Salt Lake City in February, but now has been kicked back to Utah state court, according to court dockets.
Oesch, who once claimed that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer and other public officials involved in the ASD case were guilty of racketeering and antitrust violations, now has essentially accused Fannie Mae of the same thing.
“Securitization is illegal under US legislation — primarily because it is fraudulent and causes specific violations of R.I.C.O., usury, Antitrust and bankruptcy laws,” Oesch argued.
At issue in the case is a dispute over the ownership of the Sandy home. King was listed as the owner of the home in a September 2011 notice of trustee’s sale for the property. Fannie Mae said in court filings that it purchased the home at the September trustee’s sale and that “Defendants have failed to vacate and yield possession of the Subject Property” and hold it in “unlawful detainer.”
Oesch went on to argue that “US authorities from the highest level downwards, financial institutions, intermediaries, Intelligence Power operatives and others are gearing up for what they doubtless hope will be intensified racketeering and trading activity with (corrupt) foreign counterparties.
“This behavior is being fine-tuned ‘as we speak’ . . .” Oesch ventured.
He went on to advance a conspiracy theory that involved the “US Treasury, the White House, the US State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency and its subsidiaries such as the lethal Office of Naval Intelligence . . .”
ASD is not referenced in the Utah complaint against Oesch and the others. Filings suggest, however, that Oesch lived at one time in the Sandy house that is the center of the case. Fannie Mae is seeking treble damages for an alleged failure of the defendants to vacate the property when requested.
Purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming remains jailed near Seattle a week after his arrest on charges of filing bogus liens against five public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case in the District of Columbia, according to prison records.
Leaming, 55, was arrested in Spanaway, Wash., on Nov. 22. He was charged with retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title, amid allegations he filed false liens against a federal judge, a former U.S. Attorney, a former assistant U.S. Attorney, a current assistant U.S. Attorney and an active-duty special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.
The office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia — the venue from which the ASD case was brought in August 2008 — declined to comment yesterday on Leaming’s arrest on the other side of the country.
“Because our office is not handling this particular case, we have no comment on this particular matter,” Machen’s office said.
The office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington is supervising the Leaming prosecution. An FBI affidavit filed in the case last week references the name of American-International Business Law Inc., a Spanaway company associated with Leaming.
The company’s name also is referenced in the April 8, 2011, Congressional Record as the presenter of a “petition . . . relative to a claim against the United States of America.” (Story here.)
Whether the firm filed a claim against the United States through the U.S. Congress for a dollar sum is not known.
Meanwhile, American-International’s name appeared in a November 2010 email received by some members of ASD. (Story here.)
Pasted into the November 2010 email was a purported “legal opinion” by a person described as “Keny” of “AMERICAN-International Business Law inc. (sic).”
“Keny” is a Leaming nickname. Advertisements describing Leaming as an attorney appeared online last year, but Leaming appears to have no law degree. Some ASD members, however, appear to have turned to him for legal advice.
When Leaming was arrested last week, he was found in the company of two federal fugitives from Arkansas, Durkan’s office said last week. The fugitives, who were indicted in February 2011 amid allegations they hatched a home-business scheme involving stuffing envelopes, were identified as Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen.
Donavan, 63, and Henningsen, 67, made an appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura in Tacoma yesterday, according to records. They remain in custody at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle, according to records.
Leaming is being held at the same facility.
A grand jury in the Western District of Arkansas returned mail-fraud indictments against Donavan and Henningsen on Feb. 24. The envelope-stuffing scheme, according to the indictment, was “created solely to defraud persons seeking home-based employment” and operated through entities known as Trial Head Options Inc. and Premier Solutions in Van Buren, Ark.
When the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissed the lawsuit brought by Leaming and Oesch last year, Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller noted that their “challenge took the form of presenting claims issued by Tina M. Hall, a notary public in the State of Washington . . .”
Hall’s name appears on the court docket in the ASD case on Jan. 27, 2010, and Feb. 12, 2010 — with entries of “Leave to file denied” by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, whom the FBI now says was one of the targets of Leaming’s bogus liens. Hall’s license later was revoked by the state of Washington.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming, aka "Kenneth Wayne" and "Keny."
BULLETIN: The state of Washington has revoked the notary license of Kathryn E. Aschlea. The precise reason for the revocation was not immediately clear, although the state’s website said Aschlea “failed to comply with [a] fine and education sanction.”
Aschlea is listed in Washington state records as a business associate of AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen.” On June 11, 2010, Aschlea was blocked by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer from filing a document styled “Claim by Notary Presentment/Acceptance” in the ASD forfeiture case in the District of Columbia.
The revocation of Aschlea’s license occurred about 10 months after the state revoked the notary license of Tina M. Hall, another Leaming business associate who tried to file notary claims in the civil-forfeiture case against the assets of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.
Collyer blocked Hall from filing claims on Jan. 27, 2010, and Feb. 9, 2010, according to the docket of the case.
Aschlea is listed in Washington records as vice president of American-International Business Law Inc., Leaming’s Spanaway-based firm.
In 2010, some ASD members said Leaming was performing legal work for them. There is no record that he is a licensed attorney, despite the fact advertisements describing him as one have appeared online.
Cornell University Law School, Justia.com and Oyez.org removed Leaming’s online profiles in November 2010. The profiles had featured a photograph of Leaming — and advertised a fee structure of up to $250 an hour.
In December 2010, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissed a bizarre, ASD-connected, pro se lawsuit brought against the United States by Leaming and ASD figure Christian Oesch. Hall’s also name is referenced in the dismissal.
Dozens of pro se litigants sought unsuccessfully to intervene in the ASD civil-forfeiture case brought by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Among the bizarre claims in the pleadings was that the government had produced no “EVIDENCE” against ASD — despite the fact that some of the evidence had appeared on the public record of the case a year before the claims that no “EVIDENCE” had been produced were made.
At least one other notary public in Washington state lost her license as a result of performing work for Leaming, according to records. In 2005, the notary — a woman — told the Washington State Bar Association that Leaming had coerced her into notarizing documents and that he had been “physically and emotionally abusive to her.”
The woman “voluntarily resigned her notary license as a consequence of the acts” directed at her by Leaming and obtained a protection order against Leaming, according to a letter the Practice of Law Board of the State of Washington sent Leaming in 2005.
BULLETIN: It has happened again, this time in the Sunshine State.
Mark D. Leitner has been indicted in Florida on charges of filing false liens against federal prosecutors, investigators and court personnel involved in his criminal trial last year on tax charges.
Leitner, whose age and address were not provided in a Justice Department statement, was accused of filing liens for $48.489 billion against a number of federal employees. He was specifically accused of filing false liens, corruptly endeavoring to impede and impair the Internal Revenue Service and publicly disclosing Social Security numbers in the commission of illegal activity.
In at least five instances, Leitner disclosed the Social Security numbers of federal officials, prosecutors said. Records at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, meanwhile, show that Leitner unsuccessfully tried to sue the United States last year.
Records at the Federal Bureau of Prisons show that Mark Daniel Leitner is an inmate at the Lewisburg federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania. His age is listed as 39.
Mark Daniel Leitner was convicted in Pensacola last year in a tax case, according to federal records.
The new case against Leitner is reminiscent of events surrounding the AdSurfDaily autosurf, which federal prosecutors described as a $110 million Ponzi scheme.
ASD figures Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch unsuccessfully sought to sue the United States last year, apparently for the staggering sum of $29 TRILLION, after key court rulings went against the Florida-based company operated by Andy Bowdoin.
Leaming and Oesch also used the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. As was the case with Leitner, their lawsuit bid was rejected.
ASD is known to have members who define themselves as “sovereign” beings who are not answerable to U.S. law.
In the Leitner case, prosecutors said that he “filed and mailed numerous harassing and frivolous documents to the court and personnel.”
Some ASD members claimed a federal judge owed tens of millions of dollars for her role in the ASD case. The U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors also were targeted with mail that demanded them to take certain actions.
See earlier story on Kenneth Wayne Leaming. See another one. Leaming, who claims to practice maritime law but appears never to have attended law school, has been sanctioned in Washington state for filing bogus liens, according to records.
See December 2010 story about a false-liens case against Andrew Isaac Chance in Maryland.
See an August 2010 story about a false-liens case against Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao in California.
See a June 2010 story about a false-liens case against Ronald James Davenport in Washington state.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming, also known as "Kenneth Wayne."
BULLETIN: A bizarre lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by AdSurfDaily figures Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch has been dismissed.
In dismissing the complaint, Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims agreed with the government’s contention that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the claim.
The judge described the complaint by Leaming, Oesch and an affiliated company known as MYHUB GROUP LLC as a bid to argue about “an unlawful taking of the forfeited property” in the ASD case, which was heard in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Meanwhile, the judge ruled that MYHUB GROUP inappropriately sought to act as its own attorney.
Corporations are required to have professional counsel to appear in court, the judge ruled.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin suffered a similar setback last year when he tried to represent ASD pro se in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Leaming and Oesch appear to have tried to use the U.S. Court of Federal Claims as an appeals court for U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, while apparently seeking the staggering sum of $29 trillion from a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent involved in the ASD Ponzi scheme forfeiture case.
“Plaintiffs’ challenge took the form of presenting claims issued by Tina M. Hall, a notary public in the State of Washington to officials associated with the forfeitures,” Cook Miller noted in the order of dismissal. “Ms. Hall issued ‘Certificates of Default on February 16, 2010, against these government officials for failure to respond to plaintiffs’ claims ‘in admiralty.’ At this point the complaint deteriorates into rambling.”
The judge also barred Leaming and Oesch from seeking sanctions against the government.
“As an initial matter, this court notes that, during the course of briefing on defendant’s motion, defense counsel has suffered the opprobrium of plaintiffs’ aspersions and disparagement, including charges of unethical practices,” Cook Miller said in the ruling. “Defendant charitably characterizes this argument as hyperbole . . . and the court will lay the matter to rest by denying any request for sanctions that plaintiffs may be making.”
Kenneth Wayne Leaming, also known as "Kenneth Wayne" and "Keny."
UPDATED 5:52 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A Washington state man emerging as a figure in the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case claimed a small town targeted him for “DEATH” and threatened to kill him by “HUNTING” him down “in screaming packs and mobs” and using “several armed street gangs” that served as police, according to records.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming of Spanaway filed a lien for $10 million in 2009 against the city of Puyallup, Wash., in the case. Among the claims were that Puyallup engaged in terrorism by controlling “multiple electronic broadcast media” and employing police who used “chemical and biological weapons,” “machine guns” and “explosives.”
The lien was notarized by Tina M. Hall, a Leaming business associate and another emerging figure in the ASD case. Hall’s notary license was revoked last month. Leaming has been linked by the Anti-Defamation League to an “extremist group” known as “Little Shell Pembina Band of North America.”
Puyallup is a city of about 33,000 in Pierce County.
Pattern Of Filing Astronomical Liens
In a separate case in which Leaming’s name is referenced as a co-defendant with Janice Kay Bryson, a lien for more than $19 billion was placed against several individuals and the city of Fife, Wash., another small town in Pierce County. Records show that Leaming has been assessed sanctions of at least $15,000 in Washington state for filing false liens.
Fife has a population of about 4,800. Puyallup, named in the $10 million lien, somehow also became a party along with Fife in the $19 billion lien.
Lien For Billions Filed Against Hospital With Historic Roots To St. Francis Of Assisi And The Order Of Poor Ladies Founded By St. Clare
Leaming also filed a bogus lien for $9.2 billion against St. Clare Hospital, a faith-based facility in Washington state that admitted 6,995 patients, handled 48,363 patient visits to its Emergency Department and received 26,114 outpatient visits during the 2008 fiscal year.
Hall also affixed her notary seal to the lien against St. Clare, which is operated by Franciscan Heath Systems and traces its faith-based healthcare mission in Washington state to 1891.
The Franciscan Order is named after St. Francis, known the world over as St. Francis of Assisi, who died 784 years ago, in 1226, after rejecting earthly wealth and living in poverty as a street preacher. He is one the most revered figures in the annals of Christianity.
One of the first followers of the man who became known as St. Francis of Assisi was Chiara Offreduccio. She became known as Clare of Assisi and, after being elevated to sainthood, St. Clare. Clare of Assisi was the founder of the Order of Poor Ladies which, like the Franciscan Order, rejected earthly wealth. The Order of Poor Ladies went on to become known as the Order of St. Clare, known the world over as the “Poor Clares.”
Leaming sought to attach “all tangible and intangible property” of the St. Clare Franciscan facility, including its money, furnishings and fixtures, according to records. St. Clare was Leaming’s community hospital in Spanaway. Ironically, AdSurfDaily members had positioned ASD in promotional materials as the invention of a Christian “genius” and an attractive way for people of faith to make enormous sums of money by clicking on advertisements for less than 20 minutes a day.
Members who recruited other members were paid commissions of 10 percent. Commissions for second-level recruits in the MLM scheme were set at 5 percent. ASD member and purported company “trainer” Robert Fava claimed in a testimonial that he made $1,000 a day from ASD.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin, speaking at an event in Las Vegas in May 2008, exhorted attendees to “to have an attitude of gratitude with God” and imagine themselves in possession of “a big check coming in from AdSurfDaily.” Bowdoin thanked God from the stage for developing him into a “money magnet.”
Video from the Las Vegas event shows members standing in line to turn money over to ASD — and employees placing paperwork into plastic baskets. By Aug. 1, 2008, about two months after the Las Vegas gathering, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from 10 personal bank accounts held by Bowdoin, amid allegations of money-laundering, wire fraud and operating a Ponzi scheme. Court filings placed the amount seized from Bowdoin at $65.8 million.
One of his personal accounts contained more than $31.6 million; another contained more than $23.7 million. Prosecutors said ASD was not Bowdoin’s first brush with the law. In the 1990s, he pleaded guilty to felonies that flowed from an Alabama securites caper, avoiding prison by agreeing to make restitution to victims.
About $14 million more under the control of Clarence Busby and an ASD-related company known as Golden Panda Ad Builder also was seized by the Secret Service. The abbreviation “Rev.” was attached to Busby’s name 120 times in an ASD-related court filing that accused the company and unnamed co-conspirators of racketeering.
Busby was accused by the SEC in the 1990s of participating in three prime bank schemes in which investors were promised enormous returns that did not materialize.
Why Leaming, who acknowledges an “Almighty Creator” only known as “I am” in documents that identify Leaming as “Postmaster,” would seek to vex and bankrupt a faith-based hospital and two small towns in Washington state is unclear.
Also unclear is why any ASD member would put faith in the purported legal skills of Leaming, who was accused of the unauthorized practice of law in the state five years ago and was the subject of a protection-from-abuse order filed by a notary public who claimed he coerced her into notarizing documents.
At least two notaries public have lost their licenses in Washington state after performing work for Leaming, according to records.
At Least 3 ASD Filers Have Leaming Ties
Excluding himself, Leaming now has been linked to at least three people who either filed or attempted to file documents in the ASD case: Hall, Christian Oesch and Kathryn E. Aschlea.
On June 11, 2010, Aschlea was blocked by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer from filing a document styled “Claim by Notary Presentment/Acceptance” in the ASD forfeiture case in the District of Columbia.
The nature of the blocked filing is not publicly known.
Records in Washington state identify a woman by the same name as a notary public. Meanwhile, Kathryn Aschlea is listed as a business partner of Kenneth Wayne Leaming in a venture known as FAN NW LTD INC. Aschlea is listed as a “governing person” and vice president of the firm, with Leaming — shortening his name to “Kenneth Wayne” by dropping the surname “Leaming” in the registration — listed as president and a “governing person.”
The unsuccessful bid to file in the ASD case occurred more than five months after Collyer issued a final order of forfeiture that granted the government title to the money seized by the U.S. Secret Service from Andy Bowdoin. Collyer signed an order in July 2009 that awarded the money seized from Busby’s Golden Panda to the government.
Federal prosecutors announced more than two years ago that money declared forfeited would be used to compensate victims.
Prosecutors brought the forfeiture case to enforce wire-fraud and money-laundering laws, according to court records. A racketeering statute also is referenced in the forfeiture complaint.
Collyer has consistently ruled that nonparty claimants have no standing in the ASD case.
On July 2, 2010 — nearly six months after Collyer issued the final forfeiture order and four months after Bowdoin appealed it — Collyer blocked Leaming and Christian Oesch from filing a document styled “Notice of Final Determination and Judgment by Christian Oesch and Kenneth Wayne.”
Like Aschlea and Hall, Oesch has a business tie to Leaming. A Leaming company known as AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW INC. is listed as the registered agent for an Oesch-controlled company in Washington state known as HUMAN ECONOMIC RESOURCE SOLUTIONS LTD.
Records list Hall as vice president of AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL, with Leaming as its president.
Records suggest that within days of the July 2 docket entry in which Collyer blocked “Kenneth Wayne” and Oesch from filing the document styled “Notice of Final Determination and Judgment,” Leaming set the stage for ads positioning him as an “attorney” or “lawyer” to appear online. Those ads were removed by Justia.com, Oyez.org and Cornell University Law school earlier this month, after questions were raised about whether Leaming was a licensed attorney.
Records show there have been multiple complaints about Leaming engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in Washington state. At least one of the complaints came from a woman who lost her notary’s license in 2005 as a result of notarizing documents on Leaming’s behalf, according to records.
The woman also filed for a protection-from-abuse order against Leaming, according to records maintained by the Washington State Bar Association, which redacted the woman’s name in a 2005 letter to Leaming that accused him of the unauthorized practice of law.
Records at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims show that “Kenneth Wayne” and Christian Oesch filed a complaint against the United States on July 23, 2010, about three weeks after Collyer rejected their bids to file a document on the ASD docket in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
A public link to the complaint is not available. The docket, however, shows that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. Whether Leaming and Oesch even can establish that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC), which typically hears contract disputes in a limited number cases in which the government waives sovereign immunity, has jurisdiction to hear an ASD-related dispute is far from clear.
Leaming is listed as an “agent” for “MYHUB GROUP LLC” on the COFC docket. A company by that name is listed in Nevada records as in “default,” with Christian Oesch as its manager.
Earlier this month, some ASD members received an email that referenced “MYHUB.” The email appeared to be a compendium assembled by ASD member Sara Mattoon. The same email referenced a purported “legal opinion” by “Keny.”
“Keny” is a nickname used by Leaming.
The email asserted that ASD members who filed a restitution claim through Rust Consulting, the government-approved claims administrator, might face a lawsuit from a group of ASD members.
“Again, we are asking that our Claimants do not engage in the DOJ’s Remission Process, as long you want to maintain being part of our Group Claims whatsoever,” the portion of the email attributed to MYHUB read in part. “If you are indeed wanting to eat on the other side of the fence, you must let us know before you submit anything to the DOJ, without causing us potential harm and further damages. In case you were to fail to notify us, we would have a possible claim against you, and that’s not what you want us to do in the first place.”
