BULLETIN: UPDATED 8:17 P.M. ET (DEC. 10 U.S.A.) A federal judge in Washington state has issued a final order of forfeiture that awards title to items seized from AdSurfDaily story figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming to the U.S. government.
Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington signed the order on Nov. 22, the two-year anniversary date of Leaming’s arrest by an FBI terrorism task force. Federal prosecutors later said the Leaming probe was part of a larger investigation into “sovereign citizens” nationwide.
Prosecutors asked for the order on Nov. 13, noting that Leaming had consented to the forfeiture.
Included in the order are six firearms possessed by Leaming, a convicted felon, at the time of his arrest. Also included is police equipment found with Leaming, including badges, credentials, law-enforcement identification documents, light bars, crime-scene tape, handcuffs, vests, nightsticks and similar items.
Leaming, 57, was a member of the purported “County Rangers,” the alleged armed-enforcement wing of a group of “sovereign citizens.”
The order also applies to computers, external hard drives, documents and “client” files linked to Leaming.
Some ASD members said Leaming was performing legal work for them after the ASD Ponzi scheme was exposed by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia in 2008. Leaming later was convicted on charges of filing false liens against government officials involved in the ASD Ponzi investigation and prosecution. In the same case, he was convicted of assisting another “sovereign citizen” in the filing of false liens against other government officials. Leaming also was convicted of being a felon in possession of firearms and harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a fraud scheme separate from ASD.
The government has not said what it intends to do with the seized “client” files and documents, some of which conceivably could be used to link Leaming to the ASD members who were using his services. Leaming’s history includes being accused in Washington state of engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme. ASD operator Andy Bowdoin, 79, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May 2012 and now is serving a 78-month sentence in federal prison.
BULLETIN: Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Washington have asked a federal judge to issue a final order of forfeiture against the property of AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming.
Leaming has agreed to forfeit the property, and a preliminary order of forfeiture already has been entered, according to prosecution filings.
The property includes six firearms, bogus law-enforcement badges and other false credentials, light bars, crime-scene tape, vests, handcuffs and nightsticks. It also includes documents related to Leaming’s “performance of legal services for third parties,” including “‘client’ files, counterfeit instruments, and similar materials,” prosecutors said.
At the same time, prosecutors are seeking the final forfeiture of “All digital devices, including computers, external hard drives, and other storage media” linked to Leaming
Leaming, 57, of Spanaway, Wash., is serving an eight-year prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind. He was sentenced in May 2013 on charges of filing false liens against government officials involved in the prosecution of the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, harboring federal fugitives from a separate scheme and being a felon in possession of firearms. His previous felony conviction was for piloting an aircraft without being licensed.
Leaming was arrested by an FBI Terrorism Task Force in November 2011, after he filed false liens against the officials. Agents also uncovered evidence that suggested Leaming intended to serve a writ on U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts by monitoring the school his children attended. Roberts presides over the U.S. Supreme Court and is America’s top judicial officer.
Precisely how many ASD clients Leaming had is unknown. In 2010, Leaming promoted himself as an attorney on the website of Cornell University Law School, advertising a fee structure and saying he practiced “Admiralty/Maritime, Business Law, Estate Planning and Native American Law.” Cornell removed the listing after the PP Blog reported that Leaming was accused in Washington state in 2005 of engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.
In 2009, Leaming filed involuntary bankruptcy petitions against the Washington State Bar Association and a Franciscan healthcare facility in the state. (Among Leaming’s assertions was that the bar association owed him $32 billion. Through a notary public in a different venue, Leaming earlier had asserted that the hospital owed him $9.24 billion. In short, Leaming sought to attach “all tangible and intangible property” of the hospital, including its fixtures, furnishings, motor vehicles, bank accounts, passbooks, saving certificates, stock certificates, lines of credit, inventories, promissory notes, office equipment, educational equipment — and even its mineral and water rights, according to records. The hospital serves several communities in Pierce County, including Lakewood, Spanaway, Steilacoom, DuPont, University Place and others.)
Judges tossed the preposterous claims, and a federal bankruptcy judge ordered sanctions against Leaming.
In October 2011, the PP Blog reported that a Leaming-associated company — American-International Business Law Inc. — was listed in records as the registered agent of at least 73 companies. One of the firms was known as “Presidential Detail.” Another was known as “Homeland Security Service.” Two others were known as “Federal Asset Management Service” and “Federal Fleet Management.”
At least two other Leaming-connected firms used the names of the famous JP Morgan banking concern.
“Sovereign citizens” are known to engage in what has been described as “paper terrorism” against the government and its officials, banks and litigation opponents. Earlier this year, Leaming asserted the judge presiding over his criminal charges in the liens, harboring and firearms case owed him 208,000 ounces of “fine silver.”
Three residents of Placerville, Calif. — Teresa Marie Marty, Charles Tingler and Victoria Tingler — have been charged in a superseding indictment with filing false liens against government officials performing their duties.
In what may be an emerging form of menacing aimed at government officials, one government worker was targeted with a fabricated $500,000 lien and two other bogus liens — and “Harris and Marty engaged a commercial collection agency” to collect on one of the fabricated debts, prosecutors said.
“Harris” refers to Pamela Harris, also of Placerville. She was described by prosecutors as an “office manager” at Advanced Financial Services (AFS), Marty’s company.
Marty has been charged with “filing liens against the property of three Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees,” prosecutors said.
She also “filed liens of at least $84 million against the property of two Justice Department attorneys involved in a lawsuit filed against her in 2009 to enjoin her” and AFS from preparing tax returns, prosecutors said.
From a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice (italics added):
According to the superseding indictment, the Tinglers were clients of Marty and AFS, who filed a false tax return in 2008 fraudulently claiming a refund of $358,415. The indictment charges the Tinglers, as well as Marty, with filing this tax return. When the IRS tried to collect the fraudulently obtained refund, both Mr. and Mrs. Tingler filed multiple liens against the IRS revenue officer who was handling their collection case.
According to the charging documents the liens disclosed the social security numbers of the respective government employees. Marty and the Tinglers are also charged with multiple counts of unlawfully using the social security numbers of the government employees in the liens they filed with the California Secretary of State.
Finally, the indictment charges Marty, Mr. Tingler and AFS office manager Pamela Harris, of Placerville with participating in a conspiracy to defraud the IRS. The indictment alleges that as part of the conspiracy, Harris and Marty engaged a commercial collection agency to collect one of the three false liens that Mr. Tingler had filed, one of which was in the amount of $500,000.
Marty, Harris, and Marty’s daughter, Rebecca Bandera-Marty, had previously been indicted in June 2013 for a large-scale tax-fraud scheme. Those charges are included in this superseding indictment. According to the superseding indictment, in 2008 and 2009 Marty, Bandera-Marty, and Harris conspired to file at least 250 false individual federal income tax returns on behalf of individuals who resided in twenty-six states, and which claimed more than $60 million in false federal income tax refunds.
Cases involving the alleged filing of false liens against government employees have surfaced across the United States. The tactic, which has been described as “paper terrorism,” may involve the filing of purported UCC Financing Statements and has been associated with tax fraudsters and members of the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement.
Records show that, in 2011, a federal magistrate judge in California ordered that eight “UCC Financing Statements” filed by Marty “be declared null, void, and of no legal effect.” At least three of the statements targeted IRS workers. A fourth targeted a former U.S. Attorney who became a judge in California. A fifth targeted a Justice Department attorney.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen” and a figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi-scheme story, was convicted in March of filing bogus liens against public officials involved in the ASD prosecution.
Back in February, U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington told AdSurfDaily story figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming that “all the fancy legal-sounding things” Leaming had “read on the internet are make-believe.”
Another way to put that is, “Garbage in, garbage out” — or, in shorthand, GIGO.
Leighton’s observations appeared in an eve-of-trial order exempting federal prosecutors from responding to certain “gobbledygook” Leaming had filed as part of his self-argued defense on charges of filing bogus liens, possessing weapons as a convicted felon and harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a home-business fraud scheme separate from the $119 million ASD Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008.
Leaming, 57, was convicted. In April, several weeks after his trial and conviction, Leaming sent Leighton a purported “Invoice” that claimed the judge owed him 208,000 ounces of “fine silver,” according to the docket of the case.
It is against this backdrop that purported “sovereign citizen” Cherron Marie Phillips is going on trial in Chicago on charges of filing bogus liens against Former U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald and other court officials, including federal judges.
Like Leighton in Tacoma to “sovereign” defendant Leaming, U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur in Chicago made some remarks to “sovereign” defendant Phillips on the eve of her trial.
“I hesitate to rank your statements in order of just how bizarre they are,” said veteran U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, who at one point attempted to explain to Phillips the meaning of the phrase, “garbage in, garbage out.” As Phillips continued to press him on his allegiance to the Constitution, Shadur finally cut her off.
Phillips earlier had rejected Shadur’s advice not to represent herself, according to the paper.
Leaming, who had a previous felony conviction for piloting an aircraft without a license, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Among the targets of his false liens were a federal judge, at least two federal prosecutors and the Secret Service agent who led the ASD Ponzi investigation.
Purported “sovereigns” in multiple states have engaged in acts that have been described as “paper terrorism” designed to hamstring judges, prosecutors and litigation opponents.
ASD operator Andy Bowdoin was sentenced last year to 78 months in federal prison. He is 78.
Raymond Leo Jarlik Bell, a 70-year-old purported “sovereign citizen” linked to AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, has been sentenced to 97 months in federal prison for a tax scam.
In July 2011, federal agents found records of bogus liens filed by Leaming against public officials while executing a search warrant at Jarlik Bell’s residence in Yelm, Wash., according to court records. Bell was under investigation for his tax scam at the time the records were found. Leaming, 57, later was charged with filing bogus liens, harboring federal fugitives from Arkansas in Washington state and being a felon in possession of firearms, including a “street sweeper” shotgun and an assault rife.
Leaming was sentenced in May to eight years in federal prison. David Carroll Stephenson, another Leaming associate and purported “sovereign citizen” from Washington state, was sentenced in May to 10 years for filing bogus liens against two U.S. prison officials. Stephenson, 57, already was serving time for a tax scam when those liens were filed.
Jarlik Bell’s scam centered on filing for false tax refunds “using a scheme known as OID fraud,” prosecutors said.
OID fraud may include claims that the U.S. government maintains secret accounts for citizens and that such accounts can be tapped to receive tax “refunds” in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time if paperwork is filed in a certain manner.
“No matter what the promoter calls it, a scheme to file bogus tax returns claiming outrageous tax ‘refunds’ that don’t belong to you, is just fraud,” said Kenneth J. Hines, special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Seattle.
“This defendant held himself out as a tax expert with contacts at the IRS – when both the IRS and a federal judge told him repeatedly that his conduct was criminal,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington. “Mr. Jarlik Bell believed he was above the law, and aggressively promoted and spread his scheme to others looking to duck their fair share and steal tax dollars through fraudulent refunds.”
From a statement by prosecutors (italics added):
In 2006, BELL obtained a tax refund in excess of $30,000 using the scheme. Numerous others who were advised by JARLIK BELL also filed for and received fraudulent refunds they did not deserve. One woman received a tax refund of more than $590,000. In 2005, JARLIK BELL was ordered by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan to stop promoting fraudulent tax schemes. Less than three years later, he was back promoting another massive tax fraud among friends, family and strangers.
Ute Christine Jarlik Bell, Jarlik Bell’s wife, also is a purported “sovereign citizen” and tax scammer, prosecutors said. She is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow on four counts of filing false, fictitious and fraudulent claims.
Jarlik Bell was convicted in March 2013 of five counts of filing false, fictitious and fraudulent claims, 15 counts of assisting in filing false tax returns, three counts of mail fraud, and one count of criminal contempt, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton described Jarlik Bell’s scheme as “fraud at its core,” prosecutors said.
“You are hurting people intentionally, regardless of your adherence to [your beliefs],” prosecutors quoted Leighton as saying.
Leaming filed bogus liens against a federal judge, federal prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent involved in the prosecution of the the ASD Ponzi scheme. The Secret Service has described ASD as a “criminal enterprise” that gathered about $119 million by duping people into believing that ASD’s purported payout of 1 percent a day came from legitimate means. ASD operator Andy Bowdoin, 78, is serving a 78-month prison term.
When Leaming was arrested in November 2011, investigators discovered he’d been harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas charged with mail fraud in a separate home-business scheme that allegedly had gathered millions of dollars.
Leaming, who previously had sued President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder on a theory that Obama was not born in the United States and was an unlawful President who’d appointed Holder unlawfully, went on to claim that Leighton owed him 208,000 ounces of silver.
The lawsuit against Obama and Holder was tossed out of court by a federal judge.
It has happened again — this time in Raleigh, N.C., officials said.
Sullivan Colin, 36, has been arrested on a charge of filing a false lien for $3 million against a court clerk who oversaw a foreclosure case, the Raleigh News Observer is reporting.
From the News Observer (italics added):
Court officials say the lien and a second one that . . . Sullivan Colin, 36, was trying to file Friday when he was arrested, are part of harassment of court officials by adherents of a “sovereign citizen” movement that denies government authority.
Colin was taken into custody at the Wake County Register of Deeds office Friday afternoon when he went there to file another lien, officials said, and was arrested Friday evening.
Purported “sovereign citizens” have been implicated in bizarre plots in various U.S. states to file false liens against the property of public officials. The practice has been described as “paper terrorism.”
AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming was convicted in March of multiple crimes, including filing bogus liens against federal officials involved in the prosecution of the $119 million ASD Ponzi scheme. In May, he was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.
Former Leaming business associate David Carroll Stephenson also was convicted of filing false liens. He was sentenced to 10 years. Stephenson already was in jail for a tax scam.
In March, two California scammers (Ronald Wesley Groves and Donald Charles Mann) who’d swindled investors in an “international bank trades” caper were sentenced to additional time for targeting a federal prosecutors and FBI agents with false liens.
Earlier — in January 2013 — Robert Clifton Tanner, a purported Louisiana “sovereign citizen” implicated in a cross-border plot to file bogus financial judgments against state-court judges and others in Utah, was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
In November 2012, Cherron Marie Phillips, a purported Illinois “sovereign citizen,” was charged with filing false liens that sought $100 billion each from former Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald and 11 other public officials, including a chief U.S. District Judge, a U.S. District Judge, two U.S. Magistrate Judges, an assistant U.S. Attorney, a federal court clerk, four federal Task Force officers and a federal agent.
Harvey Douglas Goff, a purported Utah “sovereign 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 2013 to 36 months in federal prison.
In 2011, California Ponzi schemer Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao pleaded gulity to federal charges in Nevada that he filed false liens against public officials. Meanwhile, Mark D. Leitner was indicted in Florida during the same year on charges of filing false liens for $48.489 billion against a number of federal employees.
Flash forward to 2013, and Donald Joe Barber, a purported Alabama “sovereign citizen,” was convicted of fraud for trying to pay off a mortgage with a bogus “bonded promissory note.” Purported “sovereigns” have been linked to multiple forms of fraud
Also see December 2010 story about a false-liens case against Andrew Isaac Chance in Maryland. Meanwhile, see a June 2010 story about a false-liens case against Ronald James Davenport in Washington state.
A “program” the PP Blog reported may have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement appears to have wiped out investors and perhaps zeroed out the purported earnings of many of them, according to posts at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi-scheme forum.
In fact, according to one post, the “ProfitClicking” program perhaps now can be best described as “Profitcrapping.”
ProfitClicking listed Liberty Reserve as one of its payment processors. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in New York described Liberty Reserve as a massive criminal enterprise involved in the laundering of more than $6 billion. The effect of the Liberty Reserve action on Profit Clicking was not immediately clear.
What is clear is that ProfitClicking was a fraud from the start. The “program” traces its roots to JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid, which promised a daily payout of 2 percent and purportedly was operated by Frederick Mann, a one-time pitchman for the collapsed, 1-percent-a-day AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. ProfitClicking surfaced after Mann purportedly retired suddenly in the days after the SEC took down Zeek Rewards in August 2012, amid allegations it had operated a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud that had duped investors into believing it provided a legitimate payout averaging about 1.5 percent a day.
Prior to the emergence of ProfitClicking, Mann speculated that his JSS/JBP “program” could come under attack by American cruise missiles. He also has described U.S. government employees as “part of a criminal gang of robbers, thieves, murderers, liars, imposters.”
Taking the time to ensure JSS/JBP was operating legally was a concession to slavery, Mann contended. Fellow AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported sovereign convicted in a plot to file false liens for billions of dollars against U.S. government employees, later contended that he was being held as a slave against his will.
But even as Mann was sliming the U.S. government and calling its employees slavemasters, one of his JSS/JBP pitchmen was operating a site known as Vatican Assassins that contended “Majority Savage Blacks were never taught to behave in civil White Protestant culture and thus have been released upon us Reformation Bible-believing Whites to further destroy our once White Protestant and Baptist American culture founded upon the Reformation’s AV1611 English Bible and a White Protestant Presbyterian Constitution with its attached White Baptist-Calvinist Bill of Rights.”
Some analysts have speculated that the name “Frederick Mann” (emphasis by PP Blog) is longhand code for “free man.” Purported “sovereign citizens” sometimes calls themselves “free men of the land.”
Among other things, both JSS/JBP and ProfitClicking made members affirm they were not with the “government.” Mann declined to say where his “program” was operating from, a development that drew comparisons to the infamous BCCI banking scheme of the 1990s. BCCI, shorthand for Bank of Credit and Commerce International, purportedly was designed to be “offshore everywhere,”
A Ponzi-board program known as “Profitable Sunrise” also experienced the same fate in Italy.
The U.S. SEC has described Profitable Sunrise as a murky “program” that may have collected tens of millions of dollars through offshore bank accounts. Profitable Sunrise had five HYIP plans, including one bizarrely dubbed the “Long Haul,” which purported to pay 2.7 percent a day — more than Zeek, more than ASD, more than JSS/JBP, more than ProfitClicking, more than ClickPaid.
A website linked to Mann once linked to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign” and “militia” man implicated in a murder plot against public officials in Alaska.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (UPDATED 10:55 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison. His former business associate and fellow purported “sovereign” David Carroll Stephenson has been sentenced to 10 years.
Stephenson already was serving prison time for a tax scam.
“These defendants tried to mask their crimes with the cloak of free speech and beliefs,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington. “They thought they were immune from the law or the justice system, but now their frauds aimed at taxpayers and public servants need to come to an end. A lengthy prison term is the best way to protect the public from their schemes.”
Stephenson, Durkan’s office said, received a sentence longer than the recommended guidelines.
U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton said that Stephenson “cannot, will not live his life without doing harm to others,” prosecutors said. “He is the master manipulator, the puppeteer . . . He is in my mind a very dangerous man.”
Leaming, the judge said, flaunts authority and “harasses law abiding people who have an obligation to the people to serve,” according to prosecutors.
Leaming, like Stephenson, is 57. Although it never was clear whether Leaming was a member of the $119 million ASD Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008, it became crystal clear that he was trying to derail the prosecution by filing bogus liens against public officials involved in the ASD case and had worked with Stephenson to file fraudulent liens against two U.S. prison officials.
Prosecutors had asked for Leaming to be sentenced to 10 years.
When the FBI executed search warrants at Leaming’s Spanaway home in November 2011, they found six firearms — this despite the fact Leaming was a convicted felon banned from possessing guns. Leaming previously has been convicted of piloting an aircraft without a license.
One of the weapons Leaming possessed was described by prosecutors as a “street sweeper” style shotgun. He also had an “assault rifle,” according to prosecutors.
Leaming also was found to be harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a home-business caper separate from ASD.
During his criminal trial, Leaming was channeling deceased cop-killer Christopher Dorner in a veiled bid to intimidate law enforcement, prosecutors said. Dorner is the former member of the Los Angeles Police Department who promised warfare against cops in February. The Dorner story stunned the nation.
Leaming, according to the FBI, also has a history that includes discussing a plot by which he’d serve U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts with a purported writ at a school attended by Roberts’ young children.
From a statement by Durkan’s office tonight (italics added):
The men (Stephenson and Leaming) identify themselves as members of the ‘Sovereign Citizen’ movement. ‘Sovereign Citizens’ profess a belief that both state and federal government entities are illegitimate. Members of this group often engaged in so-called “freedom driving,” i.e., driving about without state-required licenses, either for their vehicles or themselves. When contacted by local law enforcement, members of the group often bombard local officials (from the officer, to local judges, to mayors and other members of local government) with frivolous liens, false claims, and sometimes threats of violence. Many members of this same group had previously come to the attention of federal law enforcement for engaging in various fraudulent tax schemes, wire fraud schemes, and (occasionally) inappropriate communications with various members of federal law enforcement and the judiciary.
In asking for a ten year sentence for both men, prosecutors wrote to the court that only a long prison term would protect the public. About STEPHENSON they wrote, “This is not the case of a defendant who continues to run afoul of the law because of a substance abuse addiction or a history of childhood abuse. Rather, this is a defendant who simply chooses to remain defiant, despite court after court telling him that he must stop, and despite multiple stints in prison. At this point, removal from society is the only way in which the public can be kept safe from the defendant’s crimes.”
As for LEAMING, prosecutors provided information to the court about his repeatedly holding himself out to victims as a lawyer who could solve their problems, when in fact his actions may have damaged their case. About the crimes from the March 2013 conviction prosecutors wrote: “Defendant’s possession of firearms is particularly disturbing in light of several facts. First is obviously his disdain for government. Second is his possession of various items of police equipment, including numerous badges, light bars, and a Crown Victoria sedan modified to appear to be a police vehicle. Last but not least is Defendant’s repeated invocation of the shooting of government officials in Southern California by a disgruntled former police officer – which again appeared to be a veiled threat to engage in violence himself if he is prevented from pursuing his “‘petitions for redress,’” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.
The FBI has arrested Matthew Ryan Buquet, who appeared in federal court yesterday to face a charge he mailed a letter containing ricin toxin to a federal judge in Washington state.
Buquet is 37. The Associated Press, via Fox News, identified the intended recipient as U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle of the Eastern District of Washington. Van Sickle presides over cases in Spokane. He was appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and now serves as a senior judge. Prior to his appointment to the federal bench, Van Sickle was a state-court judge in Washington.
It was not immediately clear whether the FBI suspects a broader crime. Nor was it clear whether Van Sickle ever presided over a case in which Buquet had a role. Washington state is known to be the site of an investigation into the activities of purported “sovereign citizens.” The word “sovereign” does not appear in a statement by the FBI yesterday on the Buquet arrest, but purported “sovereigns” have been linked to cases of domestic terrorism and extremism in the United States.
“Our coordinated team acted swiftly to resolve a potentially dangerous situation and continues working tirelessly around-the-clock to investigate the origin of the letter and to address any remaining, potential risks,” said Laura M. Laughlin, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle Division.
“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service quickly deployed resources dedicated to find those responsible for this suspicious mailing to ensure the safety of U.S. Postal Service employees and the American public,” said Bradley J. Kleinknecht, inspector in charge of the Seattle Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The Spokane ricin investigation follows on the heels of an April incident in Mississippi allegedly involving ricin and the mails. President Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and a state judge in Mississippi allegedly were targets of the April letters.
News of Buquet’s arrest came during the same week federal prosecutors in the Western District of Washington alleged that AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming was channeling deceased cop-killer Christopher Dorner in the courtroom.
Leaming, 57, was convicted March 1 on charges of filing false liens against public officials involved in the ASD case, harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a separate multimillion-dollar fraud scheme and being a felon in possession of firearms. Based on their bizarre court pleadings, the Arkansas fugitives found with Leaming appear either to be “sovereigns” or people acting under the influence of “sovereigns.”
“Sovereign citizens,” known to network over the Internet, may have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them and may draft others into “sovereign” schemes, sometimes for a fee. Though typically linked to financial crimes, some individuals linked to the purported “sovereign citizen” movement also have been involved in sex crimes. In November 2011, a Florida man listed as a registered sex offender was jailed after the allegedly filed a bogus lien against a judge.
In a separate case involving a purported “sovereign,” Bruce Chalmers Hicks was jailed in Florida last week. The Tampa Bay Times reported that Hicks served seven years in prison after his 2004 conviction for molesting a child under the age of 12.
MailOnline reported yesterday that Buquet “was listed as a sex offender following an ‘indecent liberties’ charge in 1998.”
The office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington prosecuted Leaming, the ASD figure and purported “sovereign.” Leaming now claims a federal judge owes him 208,000 ounces of fine silver. Durkan’s office recently has prosecuted other purported “sovereigns,” including David Russell Myrland.
In 2011, Myrland was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for threatening the mayor of the Seattle suburb of Kirkland and other public officials. He later bizarrely claimed (apparently) that the government was engaging in a grammar conspiracy against him.
BULLETIN: Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Washington have asked Judge Ronald B. Leighton to sentence AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming to 10 years in federal prison, the maximum term under the law.
Leaming, 57, of Spanaway, Wash., was found guilty March 1 on charges of filing false liens against public officials involved in the ASD case and against federal prison officials, harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas in a home-business caper separate from ASD, and possessing firearms as a convicted felon.
In a chilling sentencing memo today, prosecutors said Leaming — during his criminal trial beginning the week of Feb. 25 — was channeling deceased cop-killer Christopher Dorner in the courtroom. Although the memo did not reference Dorner by name, it was clear prosecutors were talking about the former Los Angeles police officer who threatened “unconventional and asymmetrical” warfare against police and went on a killing spree earlier in February that targeted police officers and their family members.
Dorner’s rampage resulted in the deaths of two officers and the daughter of an officer, sparking other violent confrontations and what has been described as one of the largest manhunts in LAPD history. Dorner himself died violently on Feb. 12. Leaming’s trial began about two weeks later.
“During the trial, Leaming repeatedly made statements referring to the (then recent) incident in Southern California, where a former police officer had started hunting down and murdering government officials the former officer felt had wronged him,” prosecutors said today. “Leaming would generally say something to the effect that it was better that he engaged in ‘seeking redress’ from government officials by way of liens and other paperwork, as opposed to emulating the former officer and using violence.
“This formulation was repeated often enough that the government believes it was a thinly-veiled threat,” prosecutors continued. “Leaming, in essence, engaged in ‘paper terrorism’ against government officials. By these repeated statements, Leaming seemed to be saying that if he was not permitted to engage in that conduct, he may as well resort to violent acts of terror instead.”
And, prosecutors said today, Leaming has shown no remorse “for any of his actions, and fully intends to continue to pursue the same course of conduct . . .”
“[T]his is clear from the defense he presented at trial, and in his filings since trial,” prosecutors said.
As the PP Blog reported earlier this month, Leaming now says Leighton, the judge who presided over his trial, owes him 208,000 ounces of fine silver.
“Since his conviction, [Leaming] has continued to file numerous, typically incomprehensible and/or nonsensical filings in this and other courts,” prosecutors said in today’s sentencing memo. “These filings refer to various UCC instruments, typically claim the Court lacks jurisdiction over him based on a willful misunderstanding of the law, and claim that he is being held as a ‘slave.’ Leaming has attempted to sue at least one [Assistant U.S. Attorney] in the International Court of Justice, and filed numerous monetary claims (often claiming that he should be paid in silver) against [Bureau of Prisons] officials, agents, [Assistant U.S. Attorneys,] various judges, and the Ninth Circuit Clerk. He has also filed numerous pro se civil proceedings and appeals in the Circuit. Most recently, he filed complaints with the [Washington State Bar Association] against one of the [Assistant U.S. Attorneys], U.S. Attorney [Jenny A.] Durkan, and this Court.”
Leaming also sought to claim spectacular sums from the United States in an unsuccessful lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Prosecutors said today that Leaming “has exploited the ignorance of others for his personal gain for years, taking money from . . . people to ‘help’ them with their legal problems – but in reality he of course did no such thing.”
Leaming, they said, “has spent much of his adult life engaged in the unauthorized practice of law, in itself a felony offense under state law. In doing so, Defendant variously portrays himself as an expert in law enforcement and/or as some type of legal genius – a ‘lawyer’ but not an ‘attorney’ as he explained at some (rather bewildering) length during the trial. Both self-portrayals are complete and utter fictions.”
In 2010, Cornell University Law School, Justia.com and Oyez.org removed online profiles of Leaming after he advertised a fee structure of up to $250 an hour and encouraged prospects to “schedule a free introductory consultation.”
Investigators later identified Leaming as part of a “national” group of “sovereign citizens” operating in Washington state. At the time of his November 2011 arrest, Leaming was found with multiple firearms. Prosecutors said in October 2012 that he was “instrumental in founding the ‘County Rangers,’ the sovereign group’s armed enforcement wing. Members of the County Rangers were issued realistic-looking badges and credentials were required to possess firearms as part of their duties, and held themselves out as law enforcement agents.”
Prosecutors noted today that Leaming possessed “various items of police equipment, including numerous badges, light bars, and a Crown Victoria sedan modified to appear to be a police vehicle.”
With respect to his ASD-related actions, prosecutors said this today:
“[Leaming] took money from the victims of a massive ponzi scheme prosecuted in Washington DC to ‘fix’ their problems. Of course, as the case agent testified, there was nothing to fix – the government recovered almost all of the lost money, and most victims were made whole. Defendant nonetheless took money from these hapless individuals, essentially to interfere with the ongoing prosecution.”
Bruce C. Hicks: Source: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, via Twitter.
Purported Florida “sovereign citizen” Bruce Chalmers Hicks was arrested by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office after he was seen carrying a sidearm and stepped on the property of Turkey Creek Middle School near Plant City, authorities said. Plant City is situated in the Greater Tampa region.
Hicks, 46, was arrested Thursday and is being held by the Hillsborough Department of Detention Services. Bond was set at $9,750, according to his booking sheet. He is charged with possession of a firearm on school property, felon in possession of a firearm and the open carrying of a weapon. The sheriff’s office announced the arrest on Twitter.
The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Hicks served seven years in prison after his 2004 conviction for molesting a child under the age of 12.
“Upon initial contact with Hicks, he stated there was a $250 fine for every fifteen minutes of unlawful detention,” according to the report. “He stated that he is a sovereign citizen and is not subject to the laws of the United States or Hillsborough County. Deputy Diaz asked him if he was carrying a firearm and Hicks stated that he was and repeated that he was not subject to laws.”
“Sovereign citizens” may have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them and have been known to engage in “paper terrorism” — the filing of vexatious lawsuits against public officials and litigation opponents. Whether Hicks somehow believed he could make his felonious history go away and regain a right to possess firearms simply by declaring himself “sovereign” was not immediately clear.
In Washington state, AdSurfDaily story figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming — himself a convicted felon charged with possessing firearms — now is claiming a federal judge owes him 208,000 ounces of fine silver. Like other “sovereigns,” he is claiming unlawful detention.
Leaming, 57, was convicted earlier this year on the firearms charges. In the same case, he was convicted on charges of filing bogus liens for billions of dollars against public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. Leaming’s previous conviction was for holding no license when piloting an aircraft.
News of the arrest of Hicks came on the same day that the Pensacola News Journal reported that three officers had been cleared of the March shooting death of purported Florida “sovereign citizen” Jeffrey A. Wright.
