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.