ANOTHER FALSE LIENS CASE: Man Who Asserted ‘Diplomatic Immunity’ Claimed Utah Officials Owed Him $53 TRILLION, Feds Say; Harvey Douglas Goff Charged In 14-Count Indictment After Probe By Joint Terrorism Task Force, IRS

Harvey Douglas Goff. SOURCE: Weber County (Utah) Sheriff's Office.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Longtime readers will recall that some members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily engaged in a hectoring campaign against public officials after the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case in August 2008. Such actions can lead to serious criminal consequences, as the story below illustrates.

It has happened again — this time in Utah, this time involving claims for the spectacular sum of more than $53 TRILLION.

Harvey Douglas Goff, 53, of Ogden, was indicted last month on charges he placed fraudulent liens against Utah public officials after asserting “diplomatic immunity” during a traffic stop last year.

Goff filed bogus liens against 77 parcels in Weber County “[i]n an apparent effort to create an appearance of indebtedness” to him on the part of officials representing the state of Utah, Weber County, Ogden City and the Ogden Police Department, federal prosecutors said.

He has been charged in a 14-count indictment with obstruction of justice, impeding internal revenue laws, filing fictitious obligations, attempted mail fraud and using the mail in furtherance of a scheme and artifice to defraud.

In November 2010, prosecutors said, Goff “mailed” documents styled “Notice of International Commercial Claim Within the Admiralty ab initio Administrative Remedy of Harvey Douglas Goff, Jr., Creditor Secured Party,” prosecutors said. “The documents claimed the agencies contracted to pay more than $53 trillion in damages to Goff. The documents purported to be part of a ‘self-help administrative process’ and asserted that the recipients had 10 days to respond before a ‘default’ resulted.”

The case in part traces its roots to encounters Goff had with law enforcement during traffic stops, including one in which he asserted “diplomatic immunity,” prosecutors said, charging that Goff also impeded tax laws and filed “false and frivolous documents” involving a judge in an IRS case.

Goff challenged the jurisdiction of a state-court judge in pro se pleadings, but the court denied his arguments. When Goff failed to appear for a pretrial conference in December 2010, a bench warrant was issued, prosecutors said.

After Goff was arrested on May 12, he refused to stand before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judge Samuel Alba, which led to an “intervention” by the U.S. Marshals Service, prosecutors said.

Among other things, Goff refused the appointment of counsel, would not state his name or acknowledge his identity and “claimed he had been kidnapped from his home even though the Court made findings in his presence that federal agents had served a duly authorized search warrant,” prosecutors said.

Goff was ordered to undergo a mental-health examination, prosecutors said. He potentially faces decades in prison if convicted on all counts.

The two “fictitious obligation” counts alone carry penalties of up to 25 years in prison, prosecutors said.

An investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the IRS continues, prosecutors said.

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5 Responses to “ANOTHER FALSE LIENS CASE: Man Who Asserted ‘Diplomatic Immunity’ Claimed Utah Officials Owed Him $53 TRILLION, Feds Say; Harvey Douglas Goff Charged In 14-Count Indictment After Probe By Joint Terrorism Task Force, IRS”

  1. In August the same year his wife was having some fun with the tax man:
    http://www.ustaxcourt.gov/InOpHistoric/goff.TC.WPD.pdf
    He seems to have written his own, “private” bond for $5M then tried to pay his wife’s $36K tax bill with it. Perhaps he was expecting the change to be paid in cash? He was fined $15K for submitting the frivolous claims.

  2. Is this an Arby’s Indian. I have been talking with the lawyer for Uintah County where the Arby’s Indians filed similar liens. Judge Jenkins entered a long opinion about specious liens.

    Does anyone know this guys background history?

    These are the same group of nuts that threatened Judge Beistline in Alaska when he told them that they could not file any further pleadings unless they were in plain English. they claimed he knew nothing about the constitution because he would not agree with their bizarre theory of sovereign citizenship.

    These guys are dangerous when confronted with their nonsense.

  3. KL: Is this an Arby’s Indian.

    Haven’t seen any suggestions of that yet, KL.

    For readers: ASD mainstay Curtis Richmond was a member of the so-called Arby’s Indians, a sham tribe that got its derisive name because it once held a meeting in an Arby’s restaurant in Provo. Richmond claimed a federal judge owed him $30 million.

    Patrick

  4. […] Harvey Douglas Goff, the Utah man who engaged in a bizarre hectoring campaign against public officials at the local, state and federal levels, has been sentenced to 36 months in federal prison and ordered to stay away from “sovereign citizen” groups for three years after his release. […]

  5. […] citizen” who allegedly claimed he enjoyed “diplomatic immunity,” was charged in May 2011 with placing bogus liens seeking spectacular sums from public officials. He was sentenced in April […]