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Tag: ADL

  • Anti-Defamation League, One Of First Groups To Warn Public About AdSurfDaily Figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, Now Says ‘Sovereign Citizens’ Are Forming ‘Vigilante Grand Juries’ And Harassing Public Officials In New York, Florida And Elsewhere

    americaatrisk4Kenneth Wayne Leaming, the AdSurfDaily Ponzi story figure and purported “sovereign citizen” now serving eight years in federal prison in part for filing bogus liens against public officials involved in the 2008 ASD case, once claimed the federal judge in Washington state who presided over his criminal trial owed him 208,000 ounces of “99.9% fine silver.”

    Among Leaming’s bizarre claims was that the judge was “operating [a] SLAVERY SYSTEM, etc.” Leaming earlier tried unsuccessfully to sue President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Among his bizarre claims in that now-dismissed case was that he and a co-plaintiff — a man in prison on federal tax charges — were owed 12,000 ounces of gold.

    After Leaming’s conviction in a 2013 trial in which federal prosecutors said he was channeling deceased cop-killer Christopher Dorner in the courtroom, the judge ordered the forfeiture of items seized from Leaming during an FBI probe of his activities in 2011. Those items included six firearms and police equipment, including badges, credentials, law-enforcement identification documents, light bars, crime-scene tape, handcuffs, vests and nightsticks.

    Leaming “client” files also were ordered forfeited. (Some ASD members said Leaming was performing legal work for them, even though he is not an attorney.)

    The Anti-Defamation League, which warned the public about Leaming before his name even surfaced in the context of ASD in 2010, now says a different group of purported “sovereign citizens” on the other side of the country is harassing a judge and court clerk in rural Greene County, N.Y. Greene County, in the Catskills, has a population of fewer than 50,000, according to its Wikipedia entry.

    From the ADL (italics added):

     . . . common law grand juries claim to have signed a “true bill” charging the chief clerk in Greene County with numerous “crimes” related to her alleged failure to file paperwork for the “grand jury,” according to ADL. They also “fined” a Greene County judge the amount of “100 ounces of silver,” citing 23 separate “violations” for failing to provide demanded documents and refusing to speak to their “board of review,” and allegedly sent harassing documents to a number of judges.

    And there might be trouble elsewhere, ADL says.

    “[C]ommon law juries in Marion and St. Johns counties in Florida sent a ‘Writ of Mandamus’ to county officials demanding a budget of $1.5 million, office space and equipment and a meeting room with a conference table and chairs,” ADL reports.

    Marion County is in North Central Florida in the Ocala region and has a population of about 335,000. St. John’s County is in Northeast Florida in the Jacksonville region and has a population of about 190,000.

    There have been reports of violence and extremely menacing behavior involving “sovereign citizens” in Florida. In March 2013, purported “sovereign” Jeffrey Allen Wright was shot to death after pointing a pistol at a sheriff’s SWAT team in Navarre, situated in the Florida panhandle. Wright was wanted on a warrant for counterfeiting.

    In November 2013, Tampa-region “sovereign citizen” Eric Holtgard was arrested twice in less than 24 hours, amid allegations he was menacing people with guns. In May 2013, purported “sovereign citizen” Bruce Chalmers Hicks of the Tampa region was arrested on charges that he was carrying a sidearm on the property of Turkey Creek Middle School in Plant City.

    Larry M. Myers, a purported “sovereign citizen” and fugitive, was sentenced in 2012 to 78 months in federal prison. Authorities said he was was member of a bogus entity known as “The Constitutional Court of We The People In and For The United States of America” and the “Constitutional Common Law Court.”

    “Myers and his co-conspirators mailed a CLC arrest warrant to a Chief Judge of a Florida State court,” the office of the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration (TIGTA) said. “They also issued a CLC contempt of court order and ‘militia’ arrest warrant to a District Judge.”

    “Sovereign citizens” have been claiming judicial and jury authority for years. ADL suggests these elements of the purported “movement” might be gaining steam.

    “Adherents of the sovereign citizen movement are forming their own vigilante “grand juries” in counties across the United States in an attempt to exact pressure on local government officials to accede to their anti-government demands and whims,” ADL said yesterday.

    “The sovereign citizen group behind this attempt to form bogus grand juries is the National Liberty Alliance, formed in 2011 as the New York Liberty Alliance by sovereign citizen guru John Darash of Poughkeepsie, NY,” ADL says. “It recently launched a nationwide effort to recruit new members, and Darash and his followers have spent most of their time establishing ‘common law grand juries’ in counties across the country. The Liberty Alliance boasts of having 852 county organizers in 36 states and nearly 2,000 members from coast to coast.”

     

  • Government Sues Washington State Man Once Imprisoned For Possessing Explosive Device; John Lloyd Kirk Now Accused Of Pushing ‘Redemption’ Tax Scam; Anti-Defamation League’s Brief On Kirk Is On Same Webpage As Brief On AdSurfDaily Figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming

    A Washington state man sentenced in the 1990s to 46 months in federal prison for possessing a pipe bomb now has become the subject of a tax investigation.

    A civil case filed Thursday in Seattle against John Lloyd Kirk accuses him of pushing a “redemption” tax scheme. At least 31 of Kirk’s customers sought fraudulent tax refunds totaling about $8 million, the Justice Department said.

    Kirk, 70, of Des Moines, Wash., has been identified by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as a “sovereign citizen” and member of an extremist group known as the “Little Shell Pembina Band.”

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming, an emerging figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme story, also has been identified by ADL as a sovereign citizen and member of the Little Shell Pembina Band. Leaming lists an address in Spanaway, Wash. In 2010, he sought unsuccessfully to sue the United States for the apparent sum of more than $29 TRILLION for its actions in the ASD case. The sum sought in the lawsuit was more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted last year on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. ASD is known to have sovereign citizens and tax-deniers in its ranks, and Bowdoin was accused of operating a Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $110 million.

    Leaming’s history also includes the filing of bogus liens against government officials and a Franciscan hospital in Washington state, according to records. Like Kirk, he has purported to practice tribal law.

    An ADL website publishes brief profiles of both Leaming and Kirk on the same page.

    The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Kirk does not reference ASD. Kirk was accused of hatching a redemption scheme individually and through two entities: Indian Nations Advocate Law Office and The Kirk of Yahh Hava.

    “Kirk purports to be a member of good standing of the Tulalip Tribal Bar and allowed to
    practice law before its tribal court although he is not an attorney,” the Justice Department alleged.

    In a redemption scheme, customers typically are told that the government maintains “secret” accounts for U.S. citizens and that the accounts contain vast sums of money that can be accessed and used to retire debts. Another form of the redemption theory holds that individuals can “draw” on their secret accounts with the U.S. Treasury to pay their tax bills and qualify for spectacular refunds.

    “Kirk’s scheme is part of a ongoing trend amongst tax protestors to file frivolous tax returns and Forms 1099-OID (or to claim false OID income) with the IRS and courts in an attempt to escape their federal tax obligations and steal from the U.S. Treasury,” the Justice Department said.

    “At his 1099 OID seminars, Kirk advises his customers that they can draw on a secret account with the United States Treasury to pay their debts,” the Justice Department alleged. “He further advises his customers to file bogus tax returns with fraudulent Forms 1099-OID to draw on this secret account that the Treasury supposedly maintains for each person. Accordingly, he advises his customers to file false Forms 1099-OID and tax returns seeking tax refunds for amounts equal to the amounts of their mortgages, car loans, credit card debts, and other debts as well as any interest incurred on those obligations.”

    Kirk advised one of his customers to file fraudulent paperwork to receive a tax refund of more than $130,000. In another case, a customer of Kirk’s received a fraudulent refund of more than $700,000. At least 31 Kirk customers filed for fraudulent refunds totaling approximately $8 million, the Justice Department said.

    The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a terrorism research group based at the University of Maryland, identified Kirk as a member of the Washington state “Freemen.” ADL, meanwhile, reported that Kirk was a friend of infamous Montana Freeman LeRoy Schweitzer.

  • RECOMMENDED READING: Anti-Defamation League Outlines Activities Of ‘Sovereign Citizen Groups’; Report Notes Instances Of ‘Bogus Liens’ Filed Against Public Officials, Including Former President Bill Clinton

    EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’ve been following the odd developments and conspiracy theories associated with the AdSurfDaily and Gold Quest International cases, we recommend you read this August 2010 report (see link below) by the Anti-Defamation League. The report notes various threats made against law enforcement, along with frauds and scams linked to the so called “Sovereign Citizen Movement.”

    Both ASD and GQI are known to have so-called “sovereigns” among their membership ranks. Bizarre court pleadings have surfaced in both cases.

    The ADL report specifically references Michael Howard Reed, shown in records to have been a harassing presence in the GQI Ponzi case brought by the SEC in May 2008. On Friday, federal prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint that alleged ASD had a tie to E-Bullion, a shuttered digital-currency business. Other records show E-Bullion also had a tie to GQI.

    Friday’s filing marked the first time that E-Bullion’s name had surfaced in the ASD case. The reference is important because E-Bullion now has been linked to multiple alleged fraud schemes. E-Bullion founder James Fayed was charged in California in 2008 with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. He also was charged with murdering his estranged wife, who sought to cooperate with prosecutors in the E-Bullion investigation.

    Among the calling cards of the sovereign movement are bizarre court pleadings and vexatious litigation described as “paper terrorism.” The so-called sovereigns have sought to derail investigations and hamstring investigators and public officials by making them parties to lawsuits or subjecting them to threats of litigation or the filing of bogus liens against personal property, ADL reports.

    Bogus liens filed against public servants in the performance of their duties is a “major problem,” ADL says.

    One such lien even was filed against former President Bill Clinton, ADL reports.

    “Many sovereign citizens have engaged in a variety of scams and frauds, some of them raking in millions of dollars, while countless more sovereign citizens have engaged in acts of harassment, retaliation, and intimidation against public officials, law enforcement officers, and private citizens,” ADL says.

    “As it evolved, the sovereign citizen movement developed an ideology centered on a massive conspiracy theory,” ADL says. “Though different sovereign theorists all have their own varying versions of this conspiracy, including exactly when it started and how it manifested itself, the theories all share the belief that many years ago an insidious conspiracy infiltrated the U.S. government and subverted it, slowly replacing parts of the original, legitimate government (often referred to by sovereigns as the ‘de jure’ government) with an illegitimate, tyrannical government (the ‘de facto’ government).

    “As a result, sovereign citizens believe that today there are really two governments: the ‘illegitimate’ government that everyone else thinks is genuine and the original government that existed before the conspiracy allegedly infiltrated it.”

    Read the ADL report.

  • UPDATE: Cornell University Seeks To Determine If Man Referenced In Email Circulated By ASD Members’ Group Is Licensed Attorney; Website Listing For Kenneth Wayne Leaming Under Review

    UPDATED 11:04 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) Cornell University said Sunday that it will remove a listing on its Law School website for Kenneth Wayne Leaming of Spanaway, Wash., if Leaming proves not to be a licensed attorney. A review of the listing and the circumstances under which Leaming’s name was added to a database of attorneys’ names is under way.

    A person named Kenneth Wayne Leaming of Spanaway, Wash., was accused in 2005 of engaging in the unauthorized practice of law, according to a document that appears on the website of the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA.) Meanwhile, a person by the same name is referenced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as a “self-described ‘recognized international lawyer’ and a member of an “extremist group” known as “Little Shell Pembina Band of North America.”

    The group is known to have ties to Washington state, according to ADL.

    Leaming, according to ADL, once served as a deputy sheriff and member of the Civil Rights Task Force, a “sovereign citizen group that has used badges and raid jackets to resemble law enforcement officers.”

    Cornell noted that Leaming should “have provided us with documentary proof of his law license” before his name was published on a website the Law School runs in partnership with Justia.com.

    “[O]bviously that needs to be double-checked at this point for validity or alterations,” said Thomas R. Bruce, director of Cornell’s Legal Information Institute. “Of course we’ll remove him if he’s not what he claims to be.”

    As part of its partnership with Justia, Cornell publishes free listings for licensed attorneys across the United States. Leaming’s name appears in listings on both the Cornell Law School site and the Justia site.

    Leaming’s name also appears in a listing at Oyez.org, another Justia-affiliated site that publishes information on cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Whether Leaming, whose listings advertise a practice in Spanaway, is a licensed attorney is unclear.

    The listings, which advertise a fee structure and areas of practice such as Admiralty/Maritime, Business Law, Estate Planning and Native American Law, do not reference any law school attended by Leaming or law degree obtained. Bruce said the university would work with Justia to review “verification procedures used to make sure that those who claim to be attorneys actually are.”

    Whether Leaming has a law degree and is licensed to practice law in any state remains unclear. Bruce said the document published on the WSBA website “certainly paints an unfavorable picture.”

    Leaming goes by the nickname “Keny” and is associated with an entity known as “AMERICAN-INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW INC.,” according to the listings on the Justia-connected sites.

    Last week members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily received an email that referenced “Keny” and the same business entity referenced in the attorney listings published by Cornell and others.

    The email, which appears to be a compendium that cobbles together communications from members of a group within ASD and asks ASD members to pass along the information, implies that ASD members who file for restitution through a government-approved process may face legal action from the group, which has or will file claims against the “illicit UNITED STATED (sic) OF AMERICA INC. et al” for its prosecution of the ASD Ponzi scheme case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008.

    “The Secret Service does not comment on or discuss ongoing investigations,” an agency spokesman said this morning.

    A purported “legal opinion” by “Keny” was contained within the email received by ASD members, which was circulated by an ASD member referred to as “Sara.”

    ASD is known to have ties to the so-called “Patriot” and “sovereign” movements. The movements are known to engage in what has been described as “paper terrorism” designed to rattle the government and litigation opponents.

    The U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin in August 2008, alleging he was at the helm of a massive Ponzi scheme.

    An attorneys’ database at Martindale.com appears to have no listing for a lawyer named “Kenneth Leaming,” “Ken Leaming” or “Keny Leaming.”

    See earlier story.

  • DISTURBING: Email Received By Some ASD Members Suggests They Could Be Sued For Participating In Refund Program; Records Suggest ‘Legal Opinion’ Was Offered By Man Named In Complaints For ‘Unauthorized Practice Of Law’ And Linked To ‘Extremist Group’ By Anti-Defamation League

    In a bizarre and unsettling development, some members of AdSurfDaily who may be planning to file for restitution through the official claims administrator have received a confusing and threatening email from a “group” of ASD members.

    The email, which appears to be a compendium that cobbles together communications from the group and asks ASD members to pass along the information, implies that ASD members who file for restitution through the government-approved process may face legal action from the group, which has or will file claims against the “illicit UNITED STATED (sic) OF AMERICA INC. et al” for its prosecution of the ASD Ponzi scheme case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008.

    The lawsuit threat appears to be targeted at ASD members who are planning to file a restitution claim through Rust Consulting Inc. of Minneapolis. Rust Consulting is under contract with the government to administer the restitution program through a process known as remission in which ASD members must certify they are crime victims.

    Pasted into the email is a purported “legal opinion” by a person described as “Keny” of “AMERICAN-International Business Law inc. (sic).”

    “Keny” does not appear to be the source of the lawsuit threat. Rather, the email quotes a purported “legal opinion” by “Keny” — and then implies members who file through Rust Consulting may be sued by members of the group. The email asks members not to file for a refund through the official process.

    “Please send me your response(s) and I will manage the feedback timely,” says an email signed “MYHUB.” “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. 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.

    “We very much appreciate your understanding in this rather sensitive time of legal dealings,” the email continues. “No worries, we are just getting started to fight for and along with you. If you feel that this email could help some of your friends in ASD that are not part of our Group Claims, we are allowing you to share and forward this email as long it doesn’t end up in Blogs et al., but then again, people need to be informed since they can’t read and or understand the legal language or the meaning of words any longer.”

    Google search results include multiple references to “AMERICAN-INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW INC” and a person referenced as “Keny.”

    One of the references appears on a website operated by Cornell University Law School under a heading of “Legal Services & Lawyers.” The Cornell reference identifies a person named Kenneth Wayne Leaming of AMERICAN-INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW INC. of Spanaway, Wash. The Cornell site notes that correspondence should be sent to the attention of “Keny” and that Kenneth Wayne Leaming practices “Admiralty/Maritime, Business Law, Estate Planning and Native American Law.”

    Records at the Practice of Law Board at the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) say that Kenneth Wayne Leaming, also known as Kenneth Wayne, was accused of the unauthorized practice of law by clients in 2005.

    One client accused Leaming of “actively market[ing] legal services via seminars and the internet” and of providing “legal advice” and preparing “pleadings for many clients,” according to WSBA.

    Another client accused Leaming of contracting with him “to assist him in avoiding an IRS lien on his home” and failing to provide the services.

    On Dec. 20, 2005, WSBA said in a letter to Leaming that his “conduct constitutes the unauthorized practice of law.” The final disposition of the matter was not immediately clear. Also unclear is whether Leaming ever was a licensed attorney or authorized to practice law in any state.

    Separately, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) lists Leaming as a member of an “extremist group” known as “Little Shell Pembina Band of North America.”

    Leaming, according to ADL, is a “self-described ‘recognized international lawyer’ who once served as a deputy sheriff and member of the Civil Rights Task Force, a “sovereign citizen group that has used badges and raid jackets to resemble law enforcement officers.”

    “His CRTF partner, David Carroll Stephenson, was ordered by a federal court in March 2004 to stop promoting an alleged tax scam that allowed people to avoid an estimated $43 million in federal income taxes,” according to ADL.

    The identity of “MYHUB” was unclear in the email received by ASD members. Portions of the email were pieced together by a sender known as “Sara.” A person named Sara Mattoon once served as ASD’s official spokeswoman and is referenced in a court filing by the Secret Service in 2009.

    In the email, “Sara” referenced remarks attributed to “Keny” as a “legal opinion about why it may be unwise for you to fill out the [Rust Consulting] form, aside from it working against ASD.”

    The “Sara” email then reproduces the “MYHUB” email and the purported “legal opinion” by “Keny.”

    The purported legal opinion describes the Rust Consulting website, which is listed in court documents as the official site for ASD victims, as “almost exclusively a propaganda site to get the viewer to ‘believe’ the gov’t LIE that advertising via network marketing on the internet is somehow bad business and fraudulent, and solicit false testimony from the viewer based on the false information!”

    In yet-another email received by ASD members, a fellow member referenced as “Robert” also referred to the claims program administered by Rust Consulting. The email from “Robert” includes an unattributed opinion, meaning the identity of the person who offered the opinion is unclear.

    “If members feel it absolutely necessary to complete the remission form now instead of waiting a little longer for the legal process to be completed then they may want to write on a separate piece of paper and have it notarized saying that they were not an investor,” according to the opinion contained within the email from “Robert.”

    Members also should swear that “they purchased advertising for their website and that they were happy with their purchase,” according to the unattributed opinion circulated by “Robert.”

    “The govt is trying to trick people into saying it was an investment,” the opinion claimed.

    Separately, an apparent ASD member known as MMG7 who posts on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum left a scathing missive yesterday in an ASD thread at the forum.

    “The same people who abused their power, under the color of law, back in August of 2008 and basically *shut down* the company without due process are up to yet additional tactics to *CREATE VICTIMS* out of thin air,” the post read in part.

    “The general consensus is that once they can *create victims* they can then turn around and use it against ASD or even YOU.

    “It is VERY HEALTHY to question their motives. Remember, these are the same people that ruined the lives of 100,000+ people in the blink of an eye without so much as having to provide an explanation for their actions.

    “Could it be they thought ASD would roll over and play dead so they could put a feather in their cap and claim victory? Not to mention being able to keep a hefty sum of members monetary property.”

    The MoneyMakerGroup forum is referenced in a May filing by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as a place from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. The filing accused an entity known as Pathway To Prosperity of conducting an international Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 40,000 investors across the globe.

    MMG7 did not explain in his post how he arrived at the conclusion that ASD was denied due process in a court case that has featured more than 175 filings and a hearing called at ASD’s request to free seized money.

    ASD’s request was denied in November 2008 because it did not demonstrate at the hearing it requested to prove its legitimacy that it was operating lawfully and was not a Ponzi scheme, according to court records.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin later met with federal prosecutors over a period of at least four days. Bowdoin, according to court filings, signed a proffer letter and acknowledged the government’s material allegations in the case were all true.

    Although Bowdoin initially contested the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized in the case, he submitted to it in January 2009. By the end of February 2009, however, Bowdoin reentered the case, acting as his own attorney and seeking to reassert his claims to the money. Months of legal wrangling followed, and Bowdoin was forced to hire new attorneys. A federal judge ruled last fall that Bowdoin would not be permitted to reenter the case, and an order of forfeiture was signed in January 2010.

    Nor did MMG7 explain how he had arrived at his conclusion that the government “ruined the lives of 100,000+ people in the blink of an eye without so much as having to provide an explanation for their actions.”

    Court records plainly show that that the government explained in considerable detail to at least two federal judges why it sought the authority to seize tens of millions of dollars contained in the personal bank accounts of Bowdoin, who was accused of swindling investors in an Alabama securities caper in the 1990s. Moroever, the government has said all along that it intended to establish a restitution pool from the assets seized in the case.

    The implementation of both the pool and the restitution/remission process were delayed by appeals filed by Bowdoin.

    Bowdoin was sentenced to prison in the Alabama case, but avoided jail time by agreeing to make restitution, according to records.

    Clarence Busby, his business partner in the AdSurfDaily/Golden Panda Ad Builder venture, also swindled investors in a separate securities scheme in the 1990s, according to the SEC.

    At the same time, MMG7 did not explain how he arrived at his conclusion that the government “shut down” ASD. Records show that ASD was permitted to continue to display advertising after the seizure, but that Bowdoin chose not to do so.

    Prosecutors say that, despite ASD’s claims to a federal judge that it had no money to operate, the company had $1 million in an account under a “different name” on the island nation of Antigua.

    Records show that Bowdoin did not reveal the existence of the Antigua money to members until after ASD had asked the court for emergency cash to pay its rent and webhosting bill.

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, whom Bowdoin and another member later tried to have removed from hearing the case, refused to release funds to ASD.

  • SPECIAL REPORT: Convicted ‘3 Hebrew Boys’ Ponzi Figure Declares He Is ‘Sovereign’; Joseph Brunson Says Prosecutors Have No Authority Over Him

    Defining himself as “One,” a South Carolina man convicted Friday of operating an $82 million Ponzi scheme with two colleagues has filed a series of pleadings declaring himself “sovereign” and accusing a federal prosecutor of committing treason against the United States.

    The convicted schemer, Joseph B. Brunson of Hopkins, appears to trying to bolster his claim he is sovereign by constructing an argument that he is immune from prosecution because the United States is insolvent and has no jurisdiction over him. The pleadings were filed on the same day a jury found him guilty of mail fraud, money-laundering and transporting stolen goods and issued a special verdict for forfeiture of $82 million — the proceeds of the Ponzi scheme.

    Brunson is one of the so-called “3 Hebrew Boys” who operated a website with the same name. The name is taken from a biblical tale of believers who escaped a furnace by relying on their faith.

    Bond Revoked

    Upon the jury verdicts, prosecutors moved to revoke the bond of Brunson and co-defendants Tim McQueen and Tony Pough, asking a federal judge to jail them immediately, pending sentencing.

    Judge Margaret B. Seymour granted the request, pointing to a Brunson pleading that accused U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins of treason.

    Screen shot: Joseph Brunson declares that U.S. Attorney is guility of treason, insurrection and conspiracy to overthow the U.S. government in his efforts to prosecute Brunson.
    Screen shot: Joseph Brunson declares that U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkens is guilty of treason, insurrection and conspiracy to overthow the U.S. government in his efforts to prosecute Brunson.

    ‘Pembina’ Tie

    Web references connect Brunson to The Little Shell Pembina Band of North America, a reputed splinter group of a legitimate tribe of Native Americans in Montana. WIS News 10, the news arm of a TV station in South Carolina, reported in 2007 that Brunson was stopped by police for driving with illegal tribal license plates while out on bond after being charged by state authorities in the “3 Hewbrew Boys” case.

    The splinter group is listed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as an “active anti-government extremist group.”

    “Members of the group claim that they belong to a ‘sovereign’ Native American tribe and therefore are not subject to laws and regulations,” ADL reports.

    Activities of the splinter group range from “driving with bogus license plates to perpetrating insurance fraud schemes [and] tax evasion,” ADL reports.

    ADL notes that the Little Shell Band of Montana is a legitimate tribe, but is not recognized by the federal government. It has no connection to extremism or to the Little Shell Pembina Band of North America, according to ADL.

    Bizarre Filings In Securities Cases

    Brunson’s filings in the South Carolina case are similar to pro se pleadings in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case in the District of Columbia. Filings in both cases have included wild arguments, using words directed at prosecutors or judges such as “treason” and “conspiracy” in bids to short-circuit the government’s efforts to prosecute Ponzi and securities cases.

    Screen shot: Joseph Brunson asserts his purpurted sovereignty in the '3 Hebrew Boys' Ponzi scheme case.
    Screen shot: Joseph Brunson asserts his purpurted sovereignty in the '3 Hebrew Boys' Ponzi scheme case.

    Curtis Richmond, a mainstay pro se litigant in the ASD case, has been associated in court filings with a version of the Pembina tribal name and the name of a separate Utah tribe a federal judge ruled a “complete sham.” The purported Utah tribe filed enormous financial judgments against prosecutors and members of law-enforcement, and was successfully sued under federal racketeering and mail-fraud statutes.

    Richmond was among a group of litigants ordered to pay more than $108,000 in damages and costs for their roles in harassing members of the Utah law-enforcement community with vexatious legal filings. In a separate case, Richmond was found guilty in California of contempt of court for harassing federal judges.

    Despite the RICO ruling that went against him and his contempt conviction, members of the AdSurfDaily autosurf and a closely associated surf known as AdViewGlobal hailed Richmond a “hero.”

    ASD is implicated in an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme. Federal prosecutors are attempting to force the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in the case, which includes two other autosurfs: Golden Panda Ad Builder and LaFuenteDinero. “LaFuenteDinero” means the “fountain of money,” and the surf was the purported Spanish arm of ASD. Golden Panda was the purported Chinese arm.

    For more than a year — at least since May 2008 — various operators or participants in alleged Ponzi schemes have claimed to be immune from U.S. law because they were “sovereign” beings or members of a “sovereign” Indian tribe.

    Screen shot: Joseph Brunson he is 'One' and that U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins is engaged in acts of war against 'One.'
    Screen shot: Joseph Brunson he is 'One' and that U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins is engaged in acts of war against 'One.'

    The arguments have been both bizarre and implausible. Gold Quest International (GQI), an alleged multimillion Ponzi scheme operating out of Las Vegas, claimed Panamanian registration and immunity from U.S. law because it was associated with a North Dakota Indian tribe.

    Despite the claim GQI was immune from the law because of its purported tie to the Pembina tribe, one of the alleged operators the Ponzi scheme, John Jenkins, left a Nevada courtroom to go outside to plug a parking meter to avoid getting a ticket.

    GQI attempted unsuccessfully to sue the SEC for the spectacular sum of $1.7 trillion for bringing the prosecution. The company reportedly relied on the services of a nonattorney as its “attorney general” and a nonnotary as its notary public to certify documents.

    “You are in an imaginary world where you belong to an unrecognized Indian group,” a federal judge advised Robert Neilson Baker, the nonnotary notary.

    In the “3 Hewbrew Boys” case, Brunson filed documents that appear to have been designed to force Wilkens, 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 arbitation.”

    A similar approach was used by litigants in the ASD case.

    Brunson wrote in a court filing he described as a “Bill of Peace” last week 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.

    Read Joseph Brunson’s claim U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkens is committing treason against the United States.

    Read the jury’s special verdict ordering the forfeiture of $82 million in the “3 Hebrew Boys” case.

    Read a statement by acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman on Audie Watson, a Florida man found guilty of selling bogus memberships in a “Pembina” tribe for $1,500 to illegal aliens.

  • UPDATE: Pittsburgh Police Officers Killed On Saturday: Shooter Held Extremist Views, Believed FEMA Concentration Camp Conspiracy Theory

    Let’s begin with some Breaking News. An armed suspect who tried to shoot two Pittsburgh police officers early this morning underwent surgery after the officers shot him, police said.

    The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting the suspect was bleeding from the head and holding a gun as he approached a police car. An officer ordered him to drop the gun, and the man tried to shoot the officer.

    By this time, another police officer had arrived in a second patrol car. The man then charged both officers, and they shot him, police said.

    Three Pittsburgh police officers were shot and killed Saturday while responding to a domestic call. Richard “Pop” Poplawski, 22, was identified as the suspected shooter.

    The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors extremist groups, now says Poplawski had an account at Stormfront.org, and was pushing conspiracy theories and engaging in hate speech against Jews, nonwhites and the government.

    “This was a troubled young man who was deeply infected with anti-Semitism and racism and who bought into conspiracy theories about Jews and other racial minorities and the government,” said Shari Kochman, ADL Allegheny Regional Director, based in Cleveland. “He was able to obtain confirmation of his views by sharing them with like-minded white supremacist sites and joining their online community of haters.”

    One theory Poplawski shared was that the government — through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — was setting up concentration camps to imprison Americans.

    Some members of AdSurfDaily have advanced a FEMA conspiracy theory, citing talk-show host Glenn Beck as a source. ASD recently asked members to write to Beck to protest the government’s actions in the ASD case.

    ADL On Poplawski

    Here is some research on Poplawski by ADL:

    “Following the Super Bowl victory of the Pittsburgh Steelers in early February 2009, Poplawski used the celebrations that occurred in Pittsburgh as an opportunity to ‘survey police procedure in an unrestful environment,’ and reported the results of his reconnaissance to fellow Stormfronters. “It was just creepy seeing busses [sic] put into action by authorities, as if they were ready to transport busloads of Steeler fans to 645 FEMA drive if necessary,” ADL quoted Poplawski as saying.

    “This last comment was a reference to popular right-wing conspiracy theories about Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-constructed prisons and concentration camps for U.S. citizens. Such conspiracy theories had long been staples of the militia movement, but received a reinvigorating shot in the arm following the election of Barack Obama as president. Almost overnight, right-wing conspiracists across the country revived all of their 1990s militia conspiracy theories about the ‘New World Order,’ planned gun confiscations, and government plots against the citizenry. Once more, wild speculations about SHTF (“s–t hits the fan”) and TEOTWAKI (“the end of the world as we know it”) scenarios became rampant.

    “Poplawski bought into the SHTF/TEOTWAKI conspiracy theories hook, line and sinker, even posting a link to Stormfront of a YouTube video featuring talk show host Glenn Beck talking about FEMA camps with Congressman Ron Paul. When the city of Pittsburgh got a Homeland Security grant to add surveillance cameras to protect downtown bridges, Poplawski told Stormfronters that it was ‘ramping up the police state.’ He said, too, that he gave warnings to grocery store customers he encountered (but only if they were white) to stock up on canned goods and other long-lasting foods.”

    Read ADL’s information on Poplawsk here and here.

    Read the Post-Gazette story about the latest encounter by Pittsburgh police with a man with a gun.