It has happened again — this time in Utah: Maria Melody Fuentes Cecil, 42, of Spanish Fork, and Robert Clifton Tanner, 44, of Mansura, La., have been indicted on charges of mail fraud in an alleged bid “to assert false claims of indebtedness totaling billions of dollars against state court judges and others,” federal prosecutors in Utah said.
Tanner was arrested last week in Louisiana by “local, state and federal officers,” prosecutors said, adding that Cecil was arrested in Spanish Fork.
“Cecil and Tanner made it appear as though the victims of their conduct had incurred the multi-billion dollar debts by not responding to pseudo-legal documents mailed to them,” prosecutors said. “Then, acting in concert, Cecil and Tanner filed false and fictitious lien documents with the Utah County Recorder’s Office against the state court judges and others, using the previous fraudulent mailings as justification.”
Part of the scheme featured an attempt by Cecil to file a “Notice of Expatriation” with the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office on March 9, 2012, in an effort to declare herself a “sovereign” citizen,” prosecutors said. “In 2011 and 2012, Cecil was a party in various court proceedings in the Provo City Justice Court, Utah Fourth District Court, and Utah Fourth District Juvenile Court in Utah County.”
Utah also was part of the staging grounds of Curtis Richmond, a purported “sovereign” being and a figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi story. Richmond was sued successfully under the federal racketeering statue in a case that alleged he was part of a “sham” Indian tribe that targeted public officials with vexatious liens, including one for $250 million against a county attorney.
Richmond later became a figure in the ASD Ponzi case, accusing a federal judge of “TREASON” and federal prosecutors of theft.
Cecil and Tanner sought $3.2 billion each from targets of their false liens, prosecutors said.
ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming is jailed near Seattle on charges of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD case, including a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service. He was arrested by the FBI in November.
The FBI also is investigating the Cecil/Tanner case.
Robert Clifton Tanner, the purported Louisiana “sovereign citizen” implicated in a cross-border plot to file bogus financial judgments against state-court judges and others in Utah, has pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail fraud and has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.