Purported Alabama ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Convicted Of Trying To Pay Off Mortgage With Bogus Note For $10 Million

A 64-year-old Alabama man who tried to pay off his mortgage by mailing a bogus “bonded promissory note” for $10 million to a mortgage-servicing company has been convicted of fraud, the office of U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance of the Northern District of Alabama said.

Donald Joe Barber of Pinson faces up to 25 years in federal prison when sentenced July 31 by U.S. District Judge Inge P. Johnson.

“Self-appointed ‘sovereign citizens’ preach an extremist, anti-government ideology to their followers and teach a myth about American history that is untrue,” Vance said. “They often use this mythical ideology to justify crime. Sovereign citizens may disavow the authority of the U.S. government, but it exists and my office will use it to prosecute those who break the law.”

Barber “presented the fraudulent $10 million note as if it were a valid financial instrument drawn on a secret U.S. government account,” prosecutors said.

His note, they said, constituted a “fictitious financial instrument.”

Some “sovereign citizens” cling to a bizarre theory known as “redemption,” which holds in part that the U.S. government created secret accounts for citizens decades ago and that the accounts can be accessed through the filing of precise paperwork to retire debts.

“All citizens should be wary of individuals or groups that claim they can inform you on secret bank accounts, and should report that activity to the FBI,” said Richard D. Schwein Jr., FBI special agent in charge.