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Tag: sovereign citizen

  • Andy Bowdoin Claims His ‘Army’ Is ‘Fighting Mad’; Bizarre Fundraising Effort By Accused Ponzi Schemer Whose Firm Has Ties To ‘Sovereign Citizens’ Continues

    Thomas A. “Andy” Bowdoin, the accused Florida Ponzi schemer whose firm has ties to “sovereign citizens,” now says his fundraising “Army” is “Fighting Mad and growing fast!”

    Bowdoin, 76, is accused of presiding over a massive Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million at Quincy-based AdSurfDaily. He has been using military and Biblical references for weeks in an online campaign to raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Formal fundraising for Bowdoin began on July 26, the date upon which he released a video that dissed a federal judge, federal prosecutors and his former defense counsel.

    An email some ASD members received yesterday used a subject line of, “Let’s Fight the Gov. Injustice & Get Your Money Back!” Bowdoin did not explain in the email that the government already has civil judgments totaling about $65.8 million against money he claimed in court affidavits belonged to him, not to members.

    Nor did Bowdoin explain that the government has another civil judgment against ASD-related assets totaling more than $14 million. Why Bowdoin is telling members the money belongs to them is unclear. Bowdoin made similar claims in September 2009, causing the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors to allege to U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer that Bowdoin was telling her one story and members another.

    Coinciding with Bowdoin’s email yesterday was an announcement by Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator for ASD victims, that the criminal prosecution against Bowdoin continues.

    Rust, which is managing a restitution pot the government formed from seized assets, pointed ASD members to a website maintained for victims by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia.

    “The federal criminal prosecution of Andy Bowdoin is ongoing,” Rust said on its website. “The next hearing is scheduled for October 21, 2011. For updates regarding the criminal case, please visit the United States Attorney’s website at http://www.justice.gov/usao/dc/programs/vw/adsurfdaily.html

    Bowdoin claimed an early victory this week, exclaiming in a separate email that “We Are Winning! Over $15,000 Raised So Far!” His purported email “blasts” are going out to the very people he is accused of scamming, and some ASD members have complained that Bowdoin is spamming them.

    The bid by Bowdoin to collect money from ASD members has been marked by delays, including the postponements of two launch dates for the main fundraising website in July and as many as three postponements of the launch of an associated site on Facebook.

    Bowdoin left ASD’s corporate registration lapse in September 2009, even as he was telling members he had exciting plans for the company’s future. ASD members complained prior to the August 2008 seizure that the firm’s website often was inaccessible for days if not offline altogether and that payments to the company were not posted in timely fashion.

    Bowdoin claimed in 2009 that his battle against the government — now entering its fourth year — was inspired by a former Miss America who did not give up despite repeated losing bids to wear the crown.

    Bizarre claims have marked the ASD case, including a claim by two ASD figures that the government owed them $29 TRILLION — more than double the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009 — for its actions against ASD.

    They’d take the money in “silver,” Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch explained.

    Curtis Richmond, another ASD mainstay, claimed Collyer was operating a “Kangaroo Court” and was guilty of “TREASON.”

    Like Bowdoin himself, Richmond sought unsuccessfully to have Collyer removed from the case.

    Leaming and Oesch filed a lawsuit against the government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, but a judge dismissed the case last year.

    There have been repeated efforts by some ASD members to dissuade fellow members from filing for restitution through Rust Consulting through a process known as remission. Some of the efforts had a threatening tone.

  • FBI: ‘Sovereign Citizen Domestic Extremists Throughout The United States’ Are Perpetrating Mortgage Fraud And ‘Debt Elimination Schemes’ And ‘Coaching’ Others To Do So

    Is your purported debt coach or foreclosure-relief expert a “sovereign citizen” with an avowed contempt for the U.S. government and banking in general? Is he (or she) actually trying to recruit you into a criminal scheme that only will add to your stress? Is your last disposable dollar going into the pockets of a domestic extremist posing as a patriotic problem-solver and putting you in the position of having to explain incomprehensible legal filings to a judge?

    A new report by the FBI “indicates a continued effort by Sovereign Citizen domestic extremists throughout the United States to perpetrate and train others in the use of debt elimination schemes,” the agency said.

    “Victims pay advance fees to perpetrators espousing themselves as ‘sovereign citizens’ or ‘tax deniers’ who promise to train them in methods to reduce or eliminate their debts,” the agency said.

    “While they also target credit card debt, they are primarily targeting mortgages and commercial loans, unsecured debts, and automobile loans,” the FBI said. “They are involved in coaching people on how to file fraudulent liens, proof of claim, entitlement orders, and other documents to prevent foreclosure and forfeiture of property.”

    The finding is included in a 29-page report on mortgage fraud released this month. Sovereign citizens, though, are hardly the only force driving the fraud, according to the report.

    “Mortgage fraud enables perpetrators to earn high profits through illicit activity that poses a relative low risk for discovery,” the FBI said. “Mortgage fraud perpetrators include licensed/registered and non-licensed/registered mortgage brokers, lenders, appraisers, underwriters, accountants, real estate agents, settlement attorneys, land developers, investors, builders, bank account representatives, and trust account representatives.

    “There have been numerous instances in which various organized criminal groups were involved in mortgage fraud activity,” the FBI said. “Asian, Balkan, Armenian, La Cosa Nostra, Russian, and Eurasian organized crime groups have been linked to various mortgage fraud schemes, such as short sale fraud and loan origination schemes,” the FBI said.

    Read the full FBI report.

  • ‘Sovereign Citizen,’ 81, Arrested In Arizona On Federal Charges Of Making False Claims; Marshall Home Hawked ‘Foreclosure Rescue’ Scheme And Sought To Place United States In Bankruptcy, Feds Say

    Marshall Home, 81, charged customers $500 as part of a purported Arizona-based service to halt mortgage-foreclosure proceedings through an entity known as “Individual Rights Party; Mortgage Rescue Service,” federal prosecutors said.

    But his service was a scam in which Home, a Tucson resident and self-described “sovereign citizen,” insisted he had a valid claim of more than $3 billion against the government, prosecutors said.

    Home was arrested Friday on charges of false claims in bankruptcy. Prosecutors said he “filed or caused to be filed 173 false claims” against the United States in bankruptcy court and filed a fraudulent petition on March 16 in Arizona that sought to put the United States itself into involuntary bankruptcy.

    All in all, prosecutors said, Home’s false claims totaled more than $2.5 trillion.

    “The anti-government paranoia of so-called ‘sovereign citizens’ becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when they use their false claims and fraudulent practices to rip-off others,” said U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke.

    Some “sovereign citizens” have been linked to credit-repair schemes and say they do not believe U.S. law applies to them.

    Home became involved in the bankruptcy of Giordano’s, a Chicago pizza chain and eatery. The Chicago Tribune reported last week that a judge tossed Home from the proceeding for being disruptive.

  • Government Sues Washington State Man Once Imprisoned For Possessing Explosive Device; John Lloyd Kirk Now Accused Of Pushing ‘Redemption’ Tax Scam; Anti-Defamation League’s Brief On Kirk Is On Same Webpage As Brief On AdSurfDaily Figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming

    A Washington state man sentenced in the 1990s to 46 months in federal prison for possessing a pipe bomb now has become the subject of a tax investigation.

    A civil case filed Thursday in Seattle against John Lloyd Kirk accuses him of pushing a “redemption” tax scheme. At least 31 of Kirk’s customers sought fraudulent tax refunds totaling about $8 million, the Justice Department said.

    Kirk, 70, of Des Moines, Wash., has been identified by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as a “sovereign citizen” and member of an extremist group known as the “Little Shell Pembina Band.”

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming, an emerging figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme story, also has been identified by ADL as a sovereign citizen and member of the Little Shell Pembina Band. Leaming lists an address in Spanaway, Wash. In 2010, he sought unsuccessfully to sue the United States for the apparent sum of more than $29 TRILLION for its actions in the ASD case. The sum sought in the lawsuit was more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted last year on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. ASD is known to have sovereign citizens and tax-deniers in its ranks, and Bowdoin was accused of operating a Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $110 million.

    Leaming’s history also includes the filing of bogus liens against government officials and a Franciscan hospital in Washington state, according to records. Like Kirk, he has purported to practice tribal law.

    An ADL website publishes brief profiles of both Leaming and Kirk on the same page.

    The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Kirk does not reference ASD. Kirk was accused of hatching a redemption scheme individually and through two entities: Indian Nations Advocate Law Office and The Kirk of Yahh Hava.

    “Kirk purports to be a member of good standing of the Tulalip Tribal Bar and allowed to
    practice law before its tribal court although he is not an attorney,” the Justice Department alleged.

    In a redemption scheme, customers typically are told that the government maintains “secret” accounts for U.S. citizens and that the accounts contain vast sums of money that can be accessed and used to retire debts. Another form of the redemption theory holds that individuals can “draw” on their secret accounts with the U.S. Treasury to pay their tax bills and qualify for spectacular refunds.

    “Kirk’s scheme is part of a ongoing trend amongst tax protestors to file frivolous tax returns and Forms 1099-OID (or to claim false OID income) with the IRS and courts in an attempt to escape their federal tax obligations and steal from the U.S. Treasury,” the Justice Department said.

    “At his 1099 OID seminars, Kirk advises his customers that they can draw on a secret account with the United States Treasury to pay their debts,” the Justice Department alleged. “He further advises his customers to file bogus tax returns with fraudulent Forms 1099-OID to draw on this secret account that the Treasury supposedly maintains for each person. Accordingly, he advises his customers to file false Forms 1099-OID and tax returns seeking tax refunds for amounts equal to the amounts of their mortgages, car loans, credit card debts, and other debts as well as any interest incurred on those obligations.”

    Kirk advised one of his customers to file fraudulent paperwork to receive a tax refund of more than $130,000. In another case, a customer of Kirk’s received a fraudulent refund of more than $700,000. At least 31 Kirk customers filed for fraudulent refunds totaling approximately $8 million, the Justice Department said.

    The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a terrorism research group based at the University of Maryland, identified Kirk as a member of the Washington state “Freemen.” ADL, meanwhile, reported that Kirk was a friend of infamous Montana Freeman LeRoy Schweitzer.

  • EDITORIAL: The AdSurfDaily Solution: Form ‘Andy’s Army,’ Target The Government With $50 ‘Rocks,’ Stone ‘Goliath’ With Cash From ASD Members And ‘Other Freedom Fighters Across America,’ Provide Bowdoin’s Lawyers ‘Massive Funds’ To Defeat ‘Giant Common Enemy’

    Andy Bowdoin

    Two weeks after a purported “sovereign citizen” allegedly opened fire with an AK-47 on a Pensacola seafood store because it was out of crawfish, Floridians may be confronting yet-another bizarre and disturbing drama.

    Indeed, members of Quincy-based AdSurfDaily appear to be circulating an email call to raise defense funds for ASD President Andy Bowdoin, accused criminally in December 2010 by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service of operating an international Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million.

    After earlier evoking the image of the President of the United States to sanitize the ASD scheme, Bowdoin’s apologists now are evoking the image of famed golfer Arnold Palmer and his famed “Arnie’s Army.”

    “So now we have a strong chance to build ‘Andy’s Army’ made up of many tens of thousands of caring ASD members and other Freedom Fighters across America who are all joining together in this extremely important fight for Truth and Justice,” the email read in part.

    It went on to describe the U.S. government as a “giant common enemy that destroyed Andy’s life and reputation.” The email further accused the Secret Service of seizing “all the ASD member’s advertising money from their accounts” and keeping it.

    Curiously, though, the email did not explain that Bowdoin — in 2008 — agreed with the government that money seized by the Secret Service belonged to him, not individual ASD members. Nor did the email explain how the government, which has described Bowdoin as a recidivist felon involved in at least five bids over the years to fleece investors,  had “destroyed” Bowdoin’s life and reputation.

    After not explaining those two things, the email went on not to explain that the government announced more than two years ago that it was establishing a restitution program through a remissions administrator appointed by the Justice Department and the Secret Service — and that scammed ASD investors would be compensated from cash seized from Bowdoin’s bank accounts.

    Three of Bowdoin’s bids to scam investors over the years occurred while he was operating ASD between 2006 and 2008, renaming the company to launch a new Ponzi scheme under a new brand — and coming up with two other autosurfs to scam investors, according to the government. Two previous Bowdoin efforts to defraud investors occurred more than a decade ago, according to court filings.

    Instead of telling investors about his true history, he falsely led them to believe he was a highly successful businessman who’d earned a nod for business achievement from the President of the United States. Donations Bowdoin provided the National Republican Congressional Committee were funded with Ponzi proceeds, according to the government.

    In September 2009, federal prosecutors described Bowdoin, now 76, as “delusional.” The assertion was made just days after Bowdoin — in a conference call with members — claimed his fight against the government was inspired by a former Miss America.

    Crucially, prosecutors alleged nearly two years ago, Bowdoin had told members the seized money belonged to them. But he had told a federal judge that the money belonged to him.

    “[T]his con man cannot manage to keep his stories straight,” prosecutors said.

    But what the government described as an autosurf  Ponzi scheme with at least two other autosurf Ponzi schemes feeding it now is being described by Bowdoin’s apologists as a “wonderful” opportunity.

    And the U.S. government, which stopped an alleged Ponzi scheme in its tracks before it could further mushroom, is being described as the “enemy.”

    “This same enemy destroyed and stopped the wonderful ASD business that Andy and his staff had continually created for 2 years that was making ASD member’s dreams of Financial Freedom come true,” the email continued.

    Although ASD has not been associated with acts of violence, the company is known to have within its membership ranks people who define themselves as “sovereign” beings. In 2008, after the Secret Service seized 10 of Bowdoin’s personal bank accounts amid allegations he disguised a securities business as an “advertising” business and was falsely trading on the name of President George W. Bush to sanitize his scheme, Bowdoin claimed the seizures were the work of “Satan.” For good measure, he said the government’s acts against his company were comparable to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. When reporters called ASD’s office, they were greeted by Bowdoin’s voice on an answering machine.

    Bowdoin assured callers that God was on the company’s side.

    Now, nearly three years later — with Bowdoin facing serious felony charges and having lost two federal appeals for more than $65.8 million seized through civil forfeiture while confronting at least one more civil-forfeiture case and a racketeering lawsuit filed by three of his members — Bowdoin says he is out of money, according to ASD members.

    The remedy for Bowdoin’s purported lack of funds, according to his apologists, is for ASD members to provide cash $20 and $50 at a time. The money will go into a legal war chest from which Bowdoin, positioned as “David,” can draw funds to stone his enemy in court, with the government positioned as “Goliath.”

    We presume the David-and-Goliath reference in the email is figurative, but the language employed by the apologists is disturbing even if no actual rocks will be thrown at the people who prosecute criminal cases and protect the life of the President of the United States while guarding the U.S. financial infrastructure.

    “In the Biblical Story of David & Goliath, little David, all alone, threw only one rock with a strong force and deadly aim and killed Goliath with a sharp powerful blow to the forehead,” the email read. “And now each member of Andy’s Army can throw one rock (one contribution of up to $50), and when combined all together will become tens of thousands of these financial ‘rocks’ that are each propelled by the powerful force of Truth, and these ‘rocks’ will strike the common enemy by giving Andy’s Legal Defense Team the massive funds they need to fight and win this giant case for Andy, for ASD and for each of you. Together the combined financial force of Andy’s Army can destroy this giant nightmare and make that wonderful dream described above come true for everyone.”

    The new bid to raise funds for Bowdoin follows on the heels of a bid by some Florida members of ASD to raise funds for themselves — reportedly $10,000 to sue the United States in Florida’s federal courts. Dozens of ASD members previously had failed in their pro se bids to derail the forfeiture cases against Bowdoin’s money in federal court in the District of Columbia.

    Prior to the failed bids in the District of Columbia, a federal judge was described as “brain dead” if she ruled against ASD. One ASD member called for other members to form a “militia” and storm Washington with guns. Another opined that a federal prosecutor should be placed in a torture rack — with ASD members drawing straws to see who got the honor of turning the wheel.

    ASD critics were described as “rats,” “maggots” and “cockroaches” — and these things happened after Bowdoin advised the troops that “Satan” was on the prowl and that God was on ASD’s side.

    This madness is hardly limited to Florida.

    About the only things for certain is that Andy Bowdoin is no Arnold Palmer, and ASD was no “wonderful” company.

    What is was was a criminal mirage that triggered a mass delusion.

  • BULLETIN: Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao Pleads Guilty In False Liens Case; Ponzi Schemer Admits He Filed 22 Bogus Claims For Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Against Public Officials

    BULLETIN: Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao, the California Ponzi schemer sentenced last month to 30 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $12.4 million in restitution, has pleaded guilty in a separate fraud case.

    Federal prosecutors in Nevada alleged last year that Cao filed nearly two dozen bogus liens against SEC attorneys, federal judges, federal magistrate judges, a U.S. Attorney, assistant U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Secret Service special agents and special agents of the IRS.

    In an agreement with prosecutors, Cao pleaded guilty today to six counts of filing false liens against public officials. He admitted he filed 22 false liens in all, the Justice Department, the IRS and the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said.

    The bizarre Cao saga began in 2007, when the SEC named him a defendant in a fraud lawsuit. At the time, Cao also was under criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and the Secret Service for the same fraud scheme — and by the IRS for a tax scheme.

    Cao went on a lien-filing spree in retaliation for the various investigations, claiming in Nevada that various public officials were “debtors” who owed him sums ranging from $25 million to $300 million, according to records.

    Sentencing in the false-liens case is scheduled for Sept. 21 in Las Vegas.

    Cao’s 30-year prison sentence in the Ponzi case was one of the longest sentences in the history of federal white-collar prosecutions in Southern California.

    To keep victims in a state of terror, Cao said he knew people who previously had “chopped up” a baby in front of the baby’s parents, and then killed the baby’s mother, prosecutors said.

    Those threats led to an extortion and firearms case brought by the state of California.

    And Cao dialed up the terror by referencing an “assassination” and “fatal car accident.” When he was arrested, “he possessed a loaded firearm, and body armor and other firearms were found at his residence,” prosecutors said.

  • UPDATE: Thanh-Viet ‘Jeremy’ Cao’s 30-Year Ponzi Sentence One Of Longest In Southern California History; Feds Say He Told Story About A ‘Chopped Up’ Infant And Threatened Victims With ‘Extreme Violence’

    Thanh-Viet “Jeremy” Cao, the California Ponzi schemer later accused in Nevada of filing fraudulent liens for enormous sums against public officials and identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a “sovereign citizen,” once threatened to torture and kill his business partner and the partner’s wife and family, federal prosecutors said.

    To keep victims in a state of terror, Cao said he knew people who previously had “chopped up” a baby in front of the baby’s parents, and then killed the baby’s mother,” prosecutors said.

    Those threats led to an extortion and firearms case brought by the state of California.

    And Cao dialed up the terror by referencing an “assassination” and “fatal car accident.” When he was arrested, “he possessed a loaded firearm, and body armor and other firearms were found at his residence,” prosecutors said.

    Cao, who was convicted in the state-level extortion case in 2009, was convicted Monday in the federal Ponzi case, which was brought after an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay victims $12.4 million in restitution. He is scheduled to stand trial in the false-liens case later this year.

    Victims in the liens case included four federal judges, staff members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and employees of the SEC, the Secret Service and the IRS, federal prosecutors in Nevada said year.

    The IRS Criminal Investigations unit brought the Nevada case, prosecutors said.

    Cao filed at least 22 fraudulent liens for astronomical sums, according to records. He turned to filing bogus financial claims after law enforcement, acting with the authority of a court order in the California Ponzi case, seized a $200,000 Bentley Cao had acquired with investor funds and sought to equip with armor.

    “Cao is a financial predator who will stop at nothing to cheat his victims out of their life savings,” said U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy of the Southern District of California.

    “He continues to show no remorse for his actions, which destroyed the finances of many innocent and hardworking people,” Duffy said. “When law enforcement and the federal judiciary stepped in to stop this fraud, Cao retaliated by trying to ruin their finances through the filing of false liens. The sentence in this [Ponzi] case demonstrates how dangerous predators like Cao can be.”

    A veteran Secret Service agent said bids to injure victims and the U.S. financial system would not be tolerated.

    “The U.S. Secret Service has more than 140 years of experience in investigating criminals like Cao, who target the stability of this country’s financial systems and prey on innocent victims,” said Gregory J. Meyer, special agent in charge.

    Cao faces a maximum sentence of 223 years if convicted of all counts in the false-liens case. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Las Vegas in July 2010.

    As part of his liens fraud, Cao developed a “hit list” in which he promised to obtain certain personal information of government offcials “so he could ruin them financially,” prosecutors said.

    He also filed for bogus tax refunds, according to records.

    Cao’s purported business career was one marked by “cheating” that got him fired from his job for “fraud and misconduct,” prosecutors said, describing him as a “career criminal.”

    “When victims asked Cao what happened to their investments, Cao taunted them with profanity,” prosecutors said. “Cao’s victims lost their life savings, retirement funds, and their homes.”

    About 190 victims were affected in the Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said, describing his 30-year sentence as one of the longest in a white-collar case in the history of Southern California.