BULLETIN:’3 Hebrew Boys’ Sentenced To Prison Terms Totaling 84 Years; Case Has Bizarre Elements In Common With AdSurfDaily Litigation
In a case that features elements remarkably similar to the AdSurfDaily litigation, a federal judge in South Carolina has sentenced three defendants in the “3 Hebrew Boys” fraud case to a combined total of 84 years in prison.
Joseph Brunson, Tim McQueen and Tony Pough were jailed immediately after their convictions a year ago in an $82 million, foreign-currency fraud and Ponzi scheme case that traded on religion. The men, who called their business a debt-relief ministry, accused former U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkens of “treason” last year and of committing acts of war against them.
The sentencing occurred today, with U.S. District Judge Margaret Seymour giving Pough 30 years and Brunson and McQueen 27 years each. The office of U.S. Attorney William N. Nettles of the District of South Carolina did not immediately return a call from the PP Blog for comment. The Associated Press first reported on the lengths of the sentences tonight, noting that the terms were “so harsh in part because the judge found they tried to obstruct justice at every turn.”
Brunson, McQueen and Pough became known as “3 Hebrew Boys” after operating a website with the same name, which is based on a biblical story of believers who escaped a furnace by relying on their faith. The Ponzi scheme operated under the name Capital Consortium Group LLC.
In 2007, the men filed a court document that described their investment program as an effort to free people from government “bondage” and referred to the investigation as “Satan’s handiwork.”
A year later, in 2008, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin described the case against his purported Florida “advertising” firm as the work of “Satan,” comparing it to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Bowdoin, 76, was indicted earlier this month on Ponzi scheme charges.
The 3 Hebrew Boys’ operation sought to chill law enforcement, regulators and members of the media from scrutinizing operations, prosecutors said.
In an approach similar to one used by the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, members were forced to agree to a confidentially clause that purportedly prohibited them from discussing the company outside the confines of meeting places. Participants were threatened with a $1 million penalty for sharing information.
A court-appointed receiver published documents that listed an astonishing array of luxury purchases made by the 3 Hebrew Boys schemers with investors’ money. Among the items were a Gulf Stream jet, a Prevost Motorcoach and automobiles with famous names such as Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, Saab, Cadillac and Lincoln.
In the “3 Hebrew Boys” case, Brunson filed documents that appear to have asserted immunity from prosecution on the grounds of purported sovereignty. The documents appear to have been designed to force Wilkens, then the U.S. Attorney, to default on a contact to which he never had agreed. The approach sometimes is referred to as “paper terrorism” or “mailbox arbitration.”
A similar approach has been used by litigants in the ASD case.
Screen shot: Joseph Brunson declared last year that then-U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkens was guilty of treason, insurrection and conspiracy to overthow the U.S. government in his efforts to prosecute Brunson.
Brunson wrote in a court filing he described as a “Bill of Peace” that Wilkens had a duty to appear before a notary public and acknowledge Brunson’s assertion of sovereignty in “red ink.” The document demanded that Wilkens use his “Christian name” in his response to Brunson.
A refusal by Wilkens to carry out the demands within three days, Brunson said, would result in a contractual agreement that Wilkens was “an enemy of One and the [U]nited States of America and the people, Constitution, and Government thereof.”
Read Joseph Brunson’s purported “writ” in the “3 Hebrew Boys” case.
As an observer from about as far away from South Carolina as it’s possible to be, could
Don’t know what happened here and why your comment appears to have been cut off, LRM. Please try again, when you have a chance.
Thanks,
Patrick
OK. I tested the Comments function, and it appears to be working. Still having trouble with the “Quote” function, owing to a WordPress upgrade.
Patrick
Actually, the screen shot does not look all that much different than the TOS I acknowledge every time I install software or open a bank account. I’m evil, their perfect, I have no rights, they have all the right, etc. If their bank collapses, I will bail them out and they get to keep their bonuses.
I’d be more impressed if the document had the “red seal of truth” which is popular with Nigerian 419 scammers.
http://www.scambaits.net/forum/showthread.php?t=64262
As an observer from about as far away from South Carolina as it’s possible to be, could I please ask Patrick or one of his US based readers to help me understand something which has fascinated me for years ???
As Patrick has pointed out, this case contains a variety of bizarre elements and justifications in common with an increasingly large amount of similar/same prosecutions.
My question is: have any of these defence/s ever been accepted by an American court ??
I can understand the usage of fake threats in an effort to scare the beejeesus out of naive “investors.
But, what on earth are these people hoping to achieve by using the same old tired defenses which appear from afar to have never worked at any time ????
Does there exist even the slightest chance of the “sovereign man” or “for the good on my fellow man” defense working, or is it, as I suspect just ANOTHER way to delay the inevitable ???
No need to apologize, the hiccup was my fault entirely.
Try as I might, I just can’t stop myself from attempting to defy nature by trying to multi task like a female does without having to think.
Are you sure it was not the C-Nile virus?
Yes, the ones that meet a Arby’s…they’re the only true Americans. The rest of us are all impostors.
On a serious note: No, it’s never been accepted. It never will be. But you are essentially applying logic to a doomsday cult or people who behave in a similar fashion.
Standard practice.
Not sure…but it’s entertaining on a certain level. Don’t you have any of these types? We don’t have cricket. And we don’t have soccer hooligans.
Seriously: No, it’s never worked. It never will. They will wind up in jail sooner or later. They are just racking up felonies and lessor crimes. It doesn’t seem to matter to them…but we’re applying logic to the circumstances, they are not.
No, no chance. It’s not delaying anything unless the authorities are just giving them more rope.
It makes no sense at any level from a rational standpoint but there are many groups in the world who’s world views are irrational. They’ve found a few clauses in the U.S. Constitution which they elect to interpret in a fashion which suits their purposes and they go on from there. Any attempt to talk sense into them just hardens their views and validates their conspiracy theories. Don’t you have any of these groups?
Oldtimers’ disease runs in the family, apparently
A “sovereign” citizen tries to get out of possession of marijuana and resisting arrest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl-inUK5n6I&hl
The incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So4_Bh4KQAU&NR=1
And to prove it’s not just daft Americans who have thses crackpot ideas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWb_89i6vmk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGK_Lb84WhA
All that seems to happen is court disruption.
Hi LRM,
The ASD forfeiture case (August 2008) is instructive in some ways. Unofficially, the docket shows about 75 such pleadings from dozens of pro se litigants. The judge denied all of them.
The pleadings came in waves to the courthouse, even after the judge had issued earlier denials. Some of the pro se filers used the language of treason. Virtually all of them used antigovernment rhetoric and sought to rewrite the history of the case.
ASD figures Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch then turned to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in an apparent bid to use the claims court as an appeals court for U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The claims court, too, said no.
There is a lot of what I’d describe as magical thinking in these filings and a considerable element of scorched earth. It’s as though the filers believe they can use words to bludgeon the courts and the prosecutors into getting their way.
You’ll recall, of course, that ASD figure Curtis Richmond used similar tactics in the “Arby’s Indians” case it Utah. It resulted in a successful RICO countersuit by the public officials the “tribe” had targeted. One of the officials was a Family Services worker against whom Richmond signed an “arbitration” award for more than $300,000.
Richmond and a co-defendant sought to have U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot removed from the case on the even of trial, claiming Friot owed Richmond $30 million. The $30 million figure also has been cited in the ASD case.
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/02/06/breaking-news-richmonds-utah-indian-appeal-dismissed-victims-say-he-sought-30-million-judgment-against-federal-judge-hearing-the-case-on-eve-of-trial/
Surf’s Up labeled Richmond a “hero” for his acts in the ASD case.
Scorched-earth litigation has emerged in a number of securities cases in the United States, including the ASD and Gold Quest International cases:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/09/04/silent-coup-regulators-confront-false-nation-states-in-burgeoning-battle-against-large-scale-ponzi-schemes/
One common thread in the securities cases is a purported tie to “sovereign” Indian tribes and/claims of individual sovereignty that purportedly immunizes defendants from prosecution.
There are some screen shots and links to documents here:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/02/08/picture-story-hailed-a-hero-by-surfs-up-and-adviewglobal-forums-will-curtis-richmond-save-the-day-for-adsurfdaily-inc-faithful/
Patrick
Quick note:
WCTV has a brief about the Andy Bowdoin indictment:
http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/Former_Perry_Mayor_Indicted_111900434.html
Longtime readers will recall that some of the ASD advocates claimed that WCTV should be charged with Deceptive Trade Practices for carrying news unflattering to ASD. They further speculated that Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum should be charged with the same thing — all while the advocates advanced a fantasy that AARP might intervene in the case on ASD’s side and that Bill O’Reilly of Fox News would become amenable to their position if they sent him packets of Kool-Aid in the mail.
Yes, really.
Patrick