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Tag: Mark D. Leitner

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • BULLETIN: Feds Say Man Filed False Liens For Tens Of Billions Of Dollars Against Federal Prosecutors, Investigators; Mark D. Leitner Indicted In Florida

    BULLETIN: It has happened again, this time in the Sunshine State.

    Mark D. Leitner has been indicted in Florida on charges of filing false liens against federal prosecutors, investigators and court personnel involved in his criminal trial last year on tax charges.

    Leitner, whose age and address were not provided in a Justice Department statement, was accused of filing liens for $48.489 billion against a number of federal employees. He was specifically accused of filing false liens, corruptly endeavoring to impede and impair the Internal Revenue Service and publicly disclosing Social Security numbers in the commission of illegal activity.

    In at least five instances, Leitner disclosed the Social Security numbers of federal officials, prosecutors said. Records at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, meanwhile, show that Leitner unsuccessfully tried to sue the United States last year.

    Records at the Federal Bureau of Prisons show that Mark Daniel Leitner is an inmate at the Lewisburg federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania. His age is listed as 39.

    Mark Daniel Leitner was convicted in Pensacola last year in a tax case, according to federal records.

    The new case against Leitner is reminiscent of events surrounding the AdSurfDaily autosurf, which federal prosecutors described as a $110 million Ponzi scheme.

    ASD figures Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch unsuccessfully sought to sue the United States last year, apparently for the staggering sum of $29 TRILLION, after key court rulings went against the Florida-based company operated by Andy Bowdoin.

    Leaming and Oesch also used the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. As was the case with Leitner, their lawsuit bid was rejected.

    ASD is known to have members who define themselves as “sovereign” beings who are not answerable to U.S. law.

    In the Leitner case, prosecutors said that he  “filed and mailed numerous harassing and frivolous documents to the court and personnel.”

    Some ASD members claimed a federal judge owed tens of millions of dollars for her role in the ASD case. The U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors also were targeted with mail that demanded them to take certain actions.

    See earlier story that references Leitner and the Pensacola tax case.

    See earlier story on Kenneth Wayne Leaming. See another one. Leaming, who claims to practice maritime law but appears never to have attended law school,  has been sanctioned in Washington state for filing bogus liens, according to records.

    See December 2010 story about a false-liens case against Andrew Isaac Chance in Maryland.

    See an August 2010 story about a false-liens case against Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao in California.

    See a June 2010 story about a false-liens case against Ronald James Davenport in Washington state.