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Tag: bogus liens

  • RALEIGH NEWS OBSERVER: Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Jailed In North Carolina, Amid Allegations He Filed Bogus Lien Against Wake County Court Clerk

    americaatrisk4It 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.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: AdSurfDaily Figure and Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Kenneth Wayne Leaming Facing New Federal Felony Charges

    Leaming

    UPDATED 1:33 P.M. ET WITH LINK TO INDICTMENT: AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming is facing new federal-felony charges.

    Leaming, 56, originally was arrested in November 2011 by an FBI terrorism task force on charges of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi scheme case.

    Prosecutors now say he faces charges in addition to the ones originally filed and will be arraigned on the charges tomorrow in Tacoma, Wash.

    Among the new charges are concealing a person from arrest, being a felon in possession of a firearm and using a false and fictitious instrument, the office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington said.

    Leaming is among at least six purported “sovereign citizens” recently charged or convicted of crimes in the western section of the state.

    Timothy Garrison, 60, of Mount Vernon, Wash., was sentenced yesterday to 42 months in federal prison for a tax scam that cost the U.S. government more than $2.5 million.

    Like Leaming, Garrison’s activities included filing false liens. He also made “threats to ‘arrest’ law enforcement officers,” prosecutors said.

    “No one is above the law,” Durkan said. “[Garrison’s] scheme now creates a hardship for those who put their trust in Mr. Garrison – they have big tax bills to pay. His further abuse of the legal system with fraudulent liens and so-called ‘arrest warrants,’ is a dangerous mix for our law enforcement officers who are trying to keep our communities safe.”

    A convicted felon prior to the charges for which he was sentenced yesterday, Garrison assisted in the filing of more than 50 returns with false or fraudulent information, prosecutors said.

    When Leaming was arrested in November, he was found with two federal fugitives from Arkansas, along with firearms, prosecutors said.

    UPDATE AT 1:33 P.M. ET. Here is a link to the indictment, which also names alleged Leaming associate David Carroll Stephenson in a count of retaliating against a federal judge or federal law-enforcement officer. Stephenson currently is serving time in an Arizona federal prison in an earlier case, and prosecutors said he’ll be brought to Washington state on the new retaliation charge against him.  He is referenced in this November 2010 PP Blog story on a Leaming email sent to ASD members. Stephenson also is referenced in this November 2011 Leaming story about certain communications allegedly directed at U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts at the behest of Stephenson.

    The indictment describes the weapons allegedly found with Leaming and describes the fugitives by their initials. The PP Blog previously confirmed that the fugitives were Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen, who were wanted in an alleged mail-fraud caper involving envelope stuffing in Arkansas.

  • Registered Sex Offender And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Jailed In Florida After Filing Lien Against Judge In Foreclosure Case

    Patricio E. Sanchez: Photo from Volusia County contempt-of-court case.

    Patricio E. Sanchez, a reputed “sovereign citizen” who is listed in state and national databases as a registered sex offender in a case involving a child under the age of 16, has been jailed in Florida for filing a bogus lien against a judge and litigation opponents in a foreclosure case.

    The story first was reported by the Daytona Beach News Journal. The PP Blog confirmed details about Sanchez through public database searches and court records in Florida.

    Sanchez is listed as an inmate at a Volusia County detention facility. He is being held after he was found in contempt of court for filing the lien against the judge and two attorneys. His path to jail began in January 2009, when a lender filed a foreclosure lawsuit. The lender ultimately prevailed, but Sanchez filed bogus liens and was found in contempt of court last month, according to court records.

    The sexual-offender registration for Sanchez shows a 1997 charge of “Lewd or Lascivious” conduct against a child under the age of 16.

    Separately, the docket in the foreclosure case features Sanchez-related pleadings that use phrases such as “oath of loyalty for Judges” and “Common Law” and “Uniform Commercial Code.”

    Such pleadings and case stylings have surfaced in various types of cases involving so-called “sovereign citizens.”

    Florida also has been confronting a situation involving so-called “wild deeds” that are filed to cloud property titles.

  • BULLETIN: Already Sentenced To 30 Years In California Ponzi Caper, Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Thanh-Viet ‘Jeremy’ Cao Gets More Time In Nevada False-Liens Case

    BULLETIN: Thanh-Viet “Jeremy” Cao, the California Ponzi schemer and purported “sovereign citizen” who was sentenced in May to 30 years in federal prison for the Ponzi caper, now has been sentenced to an additional 41 months for a Nevada crime in which he filed false liens for hundreds of millions of dollars against government officials.

    Under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service, the Justice Department, the SEC and the IRS, Cao reacted by filing 22 false liens against against “SEC attorneys, U.S. District Court Judges, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judges, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, USSS special agents and special agents of the IRS,” the Justice Department said.

    Cao pleaded guilty to six counts of filing false liens in which he listed the federal officials as “debtors,” prosecutors said.

    It was not immediately clear if Cao’s sentence in the liens case will run concurrently or consecutively to the 30-year sentence in the Ponzi case. In May, U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy of the Southern District of California described Cao as a “financial predator.”

    The Ponzi scheme sentence was among the longest in the history of Southern California, and investigators said Cao kept his victims in a state of terror by telling them he knew people who previously had “chopped up” a baby in front of the baby’s parents, and then killed the baby’s mother,” prosecutors said.

    As part of his liens fraud, Cao developed a “hit list” in which he promised to obtain certain personal information of government offcials “so he could ruin them financially,” prosecutors said.

  • FBI: ‘Sovereign Citizen Domestic Extremists Throughout The United States’ Are Perpetrating Mortgage Fraud And ‘Debt Elimination Schemes’ And ‘Coaching’ Others To Do So

    Is your purported debt coach or foreclosure-relief expert a “sovereign citizen” with an avowed contempt for the U.S. government and banking in general? Is he (or she) actually trying to recruit you into a criminal scheme that only will add to your stress? Is your last disposable dollar going into the pockets of a domestic extremist posing as a patriotic problem-solver and putting you in the position of having to explain incomprehensible legal filings to a judge?

    A new report by the FBI “indicates a continued effort by Sovereign Citizen domestic extremists throughout the United States to perpetrate and train others in the use of debt elimination schemes,” the agency said.

    “Victims pay advance fees to perpetrators espousing themselves as ‘sovereign citizens’ or ‘tax deniers’ who promise to train them in methods to reduce or eliminate their debts,” the agency said.

    “While they also target credit card debt, they are primarily targeting mortgages and commercial loans, unsecured debts, and automobile loans,” the FBI said. “They are involved in coaching people on how to file fraudulent liens, proof of claim, entitlement orders, and other documents to prevent foreclosure and forfeiture of property.”

    The finding is included in a 29-page report on mortgage fraud released this month. Sovereign citizens, though, are hardly the only force driving the fraud, according to the report.

    “Mortgage fraud enables perpetrators to earn high profits through illicit activity that poses a relative low risk for discovery,” the FBI said. “Mortgage fraud perpetrators include licensed/registered and non-licensed/registered mortgage brokers, lenders, appraisers, underwriters, accountants, real estate agents, settlement attorneys, land developers, investors, builders, bank account representatives, and trust account representatives.

    “There have been numerous instances in which various organized criminal groups were involved in mortgage fraud activity,” the FBI said. “Asian, Balkan, Armenian, La Cosa Nostra, Russian, and Eurasian organized crime groups have been linked to various mortgage fraud schemes, such as short sale fraud and loan origination schemes,” the FBI said.

    Read the full FBI report.

  • BULLETIN: Mark D. Leitner Faces Up To 13 More Years In Federal Prison After Pleading Guilty To Filing False Liens For Tens Of Billions Of Dollars Against Public Officials

    Already a federal prisoner in a tax case, Mark D. Leitner has pleaded guilty in federal court in Florida to charges he filed bogus “maritime” liens for tens of billions of dollars against a former U.S. Attorney, “numerous” Assistant U.S. Attorneys, a former court clerk and a criminal investigator for the IRS.

    Leitner sought $48.489 billion from each of the officials and exposed private information about five of them, federal prosecutors said.

    In addition to the guilty plea on the false-liens charges, he pleaded guilty to impeding the IRS, prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors said Leitner also “filed and mailed numerous harassing and frivolous documents to the courts and personnel involved in this case.”

    Leitner was sentenced to a five-year term last year in a tax case. He retaliated against officials both during and after the trial by filing bogus liens, prosecutors said.