EDITOR’S NOTE: A passage from a May 2011 email allegedly written by Kenneth Wayne Leaming appears in the story below. The passage, which appears to contain electronic clutter — specifically the string “#39;” — is reproduced verbatim, meaning the string also appears in the court document from which the passage was taken.
An FBI agent assigned to the Tacoma Resident Agency Joint Terrorism Task Force advised a judge last week that Kenneth Wayne Leaming — now jailed at a federal detention facility near Seattle on charges he filed bogus liens against public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case — referenced the young children of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and their “school.”
The reference appeared in a email that Leaming allegedly sent to David Carroll Stephenson on May 14, 2011. Stephenson, whom the agent described as Leaming’s former business partner in Washington state, is a convicted felon serving a 96-month sentence in federal prison for tax crimes.
“This week I will ‘flood’ the USSC with the habeas, one to each justice and resend the one to the Chief Justice, and maybe one to his kid#39;s school to be given to the parents,” Leaming allegedly wrote. “One way or another he is going to get it in his hands and I#39;ll start working on off duty locations for the remaining justices as well.”
Roberts and his wife have two preteen children.
The email clearly became a source of concern for the FBI.
“In this email,” the FBI agent who sought Leaming’s arrest wrote, “I believe that LEAMING is offering to file documents on Stephenson’s behalf, including sending them to the Chief Justice, via his minor children.”
But the alleged email to Stephenson was hardly the FBI’s only concern about Leaming, who appears to have no law degree but has been depicted in online ads as a practicing attorney. (The ads were removed last year.)
Investigators discovered a paperwork trail that linked Leaming and Stephenson to a purported $10 million lien against Harley Lappin, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and a purported lien for $20 million against Dennis R. Smith, the warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix.
As the probe that led to Leaming’s arrest proceeded, agents found bogus liens filed in Pierce County, Wash., against other public officials, including at least five officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. Liens against Mary Peters, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and Cutler Dawson, president and CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union, also were discovered.
At least some of the bogus papers linked to Leaming were found in July 2011 — during the execution of a search warrant at the Yelm, Wash., home of purported “sovereign citizen” Raymond Leo Jarlik-Bell, according to the FBI.
Whether Jarlik-Bell was a member of ASD is unclear.
The U.S. Secret Service has described ASD as a “criminal enterprise” led by Andy Bowdoin, a 77-year-old recidivist felon and securities huckster. Bowdoin, who was arrested in the Gulf Coast area of Englewood, Fla., in December 2010, operated ASD from the small town of Quincy in northern Florida, near Tallahassee. He has described himself as a “money magnet” and man of God.
The FBI said “one of the specific documents” recovered in the search of Jarlik-Bell’s home sought the staggering sum of $225.4 billion and listed “Kenneth Wayne, sovereign man” as “grantee,” and the public officials as “grantors.”
“Kenneth Wayne” is a name used by Leaming.
Navy Federal, which serves members of the military, is the largest credit union in the world.
So-called “sovereign citizens” have been known to file vexatious liens against public officials and courtroom opponents, including financial institutions. The practice has been described as “paper terrorism” and “mailbox arbitration.” Among other things, it can cause both the lien targets and the government to expend money and resources to defend against the nuisance claims, which can affect the credit histories of the individual targets and the efficiency of the court system.
Named in the liens in in addition to Peters and Dawson were U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer; former U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor; former assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden; current assistant U.S. Attorney Vasu B. Muthyala; and Roy Dotson, a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.
Collyer, Taylor, Cowden, Muthyala and Dotson have had roles in the ASD Ponzi case. Why Peters and Dawson were targeted with liens is unclear.
Jarlik-Bell, who has been linked with Leaming to “sovereign citizen” groups known as the “County Rangers” and the “Assemblies on the County,” was arrested in July on tax charges. He was jailed pending trial, according to the FBI complaint against Leaming.
More Alleged Leaming Correspondence
In June 2011, according to the FBI, Leaming sent an email to Stephenson that referenced a letter that had or would be sent to Roberts, America’s top judicial officer. The letter strangely described the chief justice as “FIDUCIARY.” The email followed on the heels of other Leaming emails that suggested Leaming had spent part of the month of May conducting financial research on Roberts and his wife and trying to find a street address through which he could cause Stephenson-related writs to be delivered to the couple’s home — instead of the Supreme Court.
Other Leaming email correspondence in May suggests he sent a “certified,” Stephenson-related letter to the residence of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and was trying to find a home address for Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer — instead of sending Stephenson-related correspondence to the Supreme Court address.
The letter that had or would be sent to Roberts asserted that Stephenson was being “restrained” and “concealed” in a federal prison under a under a “fictitious name.” It further asserted that the government had assigned Stephenson an “inventory control number,” according to the complaint against Leaming.
As the letter proceeded, it painted a picture that Roberts had been part of a conspiracy with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to “evade the habeas corpus process.”
Because Stephenson was in federal custody, his communications were being monitored, according to the complaint against Leaming. In a phone call between Stephenson and Leaming, Leaming spoke about “$10m” allegedly owed to Stephenson by a public official employed by the Bureau of Prisons and suggested that “$20 million” would be sought from a prison warden.
Leaming told Stephenson that the city of Puyallup, Wash., was in receivership because of Leaming’s paperwork maneuverings, according to the complaint against Leaming. (Records show that Leaming filed liens against affecting at least two communities in Washington state, including Puyallup. Records also show that he filed a lien for more than $9 billion against a Franciscan hospital in Lakewood, Wash., and tried to put the facility in involuntary bankruptcy. At the same time, records show that Leaming also sought to put the Washington State Bar Association in involuntary bankruptcy. See this story. See this story.)
During phone conversations with Stephenson, Leaming talked about escalating his paperwork maneuverings against the courts if “they don’t straighten up soon” and the potential need to “have a little liability correspondence with Eric Holder himself.”
Eric Holder is the Attorney General of the United States.
Leaming also told Stephenson that “someone has suggested we go after body odor in the White House,” an apparent veiled reference to President Obama.
Returning to the subject of the courts, Leaming told Stephenson that he would start “working” on the chief judge of U.S. federal courts in the Western District of Washington, according to the complaint against Leaming.
Leaming, according to the complaint, also ventured that “the Rothschilds” were hiding in a “bunker in India” while controlling the central bank of Iraq, according to the complaint against Leaming.
Banking conditions in Iraq are causing the Rothschilds to lose money, and the “inner circle” is “jumping ship,” Leaming allegedly told Stephenson, “just like body odor’s inner circle in the White House.”
Leaming has been under federal surveillance by both the Tacoma Resident Agency Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Seattle Division’s Mobile Surveillance unit since August 2011, according to the complaint. Agents have observed him driving a blue Ford Crown Victoria and visiting mailing spots in Spanaway, Wash., where he lives in an apartment, according to the complaint.
In October 2011, some ASD members received an email attributed to “Keny” — a Leaming nickname — that suggested they file “county recorder” papers against federal officials involved in the ASD case that would identify the officials as “DOJ thieves.”
The email encouraged the members to send a “notary certified copy” of the filings to the home address of Chief Justice Roberts.
At least two notaries public with ties to Leaming have lost their licenses in Washington state, according to records. One of the notaries — Kathryn E. Aschlea — was associated with an enterprise known as FAN NW LTD INC.
The name of FAN NW LTD INC. appears in the criminal complaint against Leaming, and the FBI says a telephone associated with the firm was used on calls between Leaming and Stephenson.
Federal court records in the ASD case in the District of Columbia reference a “Claim by Notary Presentment/Acceptance by Kathryn E. Aschlea.” Collyer denied Aschlea leave to file on June 11, 2010.
Kathryn Aschlea and “Kenneth Wayne” are listed in Washington state as officers of FAN NW LTD INC.
