A purported “sovereign citizen” apparently unhappy that a bank wouldn’t fall for his “UCC” scamming bid to wipe out a $179,000 home-equity loan has been arrested by the FBI on charges he threatened to kill two bank employees: a loss-prevention specialist and an attorney.
Michael Chung, 52, of the New York Borough of Queens, somehow came to believe that a “Form UCC-3” sent to a Sovereign Bank office “automatically extinguished” the bank’s interest in a $179,000 home-equity loan “without the need for Chung to repay the loan,” the FBI said in an affidavit.
When the bank rejected Chung’s UCC argument, Chung sent a fax to the bank that claimed he had a right to kill the bank employees under the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, according to FBI court filings.
” . . . the Second Amendment to the National Constitution authorizes the use of deadly force to protect my interests as a national citizen,” the Chung fax read in part, the FBI said. “I believe I have a basis to act in that manner.”
The 2nd Amendment applies to the right to keep and bear arms. “UCC,” meanwhile, is an acronym that stands for “Uniform Commercial Code,” an effort that began in the 1940s to make the laws of commerce uniform in the 50 U.S. states. So-called “sovereign citizens” advance any number of fanciful theories on how the UCC can be used to eliminate debts.
Chung is being held without bail in New York. He was arrested yesterday.
Michael Lee Crane, a purported sovereign citizen accused of murder in Arizona, told the judge presiding over his February arraignment that “I would like to reserve my right to Uniform Commercial Code . . .”