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Tag: sovereign citizens

  • Purported ‘Sovereign’ Arrested In Phoenix After Traffic Stop; Booking Info Gives Hint Of Strange Tale — And ‘New Times’ Fills In The Blanks

    Steve A. Baker. (Source: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.)

    Steve A. Baker’s booking sheet at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office after his arrest Sunday by Phoenix police during a traffic stop provided a hint that officers had a strange encounter with the 36-year-old man.

    Here is how the sheet reads (italics/bolding added):

    MARIJ-TRANSPORT AND/OR SELL
    BRIBERY-TO INFLUENCE ACTION
    MARIJUANA-POSSESS FOR SALE
    RESISTING ARREST
    MARIJUANA-POSSESS/USE
    DRUG PARAPHERNALIA-POSSESS/USE

    Marijuana charges are not all that unusual. Neither is a charge of resisting arrest. But a bribery charge?

    Phoenix New Times did some digging and discovered that Baker allegedly tried to barter with the officer.

    Citing court documents, here is how New Times put it on its Blog:

    “. . . if the cop just let him go, Baker said he wouldn’t have to place a lien against the officer’s own home.”

    Yes, purported “sovereigns” now allegedly are seeking to put a chill on cops by announcing up front that they can avoid an unpleasant fate — the filing of a lien against their personal property — if they simply hop back in their patrol cars, ignore their sworn duties and let crime go unchecked.

    Read the story on the Phoenix New Times Blog.

    For additional background on “sovereign citizens” and liens, see this PP Blog story from Feb. 20, 2012: “BIRTH OF A ‘SOVEREIGN’ VERB . . .”

    For additional background on another purported Arizona “sovereign — Michael Lee Crane — see this Feb. 15, 2012, PP Blog story. The Blog reported on that date that Crane advised a judge that he “reserved” his “right” to the “Uniform Commercial Code” after he was charged in the brutal murders of Lawrence Shapiro, 79, and Glenna Shapiro, 78, and waiting to be charged in the brutal murder of Bruce Gaudet.

    On Aug. 29, the office of Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery announced it was seeking the death penalty against Crane, 32, for the Shapiro and Gaudet killings.

  • RECOMMENDED READING: Times-Picayune Details Louisiana Shootout Involving Purported ‘Sovereign Citizens’ That Left 2 Sheriff’s Deputies Dead

    Dep. Jeremy Triche (left), and Dep. Brandon Nielsen.

    On Aug. 16, Deps. Jeremy Triche and Brandon Nielsen were shot and killed in LaPlace, La. The shootings have been linked to purported “sovereign citizens.”

    Here is Dep. Triche’s “End of Watch” entry on the Officer Down Memorial Page. Here is Dep. Nielsen’s entry.

    The deputies were members of the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana.

    From today’s Times-Picayune, via NOLA.com (italics added):

    By dawn, two deputies were dead. Another two were injured. And the tangled tale of the seven people accused in connection with the shootings began to unspool.

    Two were on federal domestic terrorism watch lists, linked to the growing anti-government “sovereign citizens” movement. It is less a cult than a loose collection of pariahs, united only in their shared beliefs: that there is little authority higher than their own, that they are not subject to laws and taxes, that Americans have been enslaved by their nation.

    Their volatility frightens police who encounter them, for good reason . . .

    Read the story in the Times-Picayune.

  • BULLETIN: Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen,’ 71, Charged In Alleged Murder-For-Hire Plot Against Federal Judge In Texas

    BULLETIN: A federal judge in Texas was the target of a murder-for-hire plot by a purported “sovereign citizen,” the FBI said.

    Phillip Monroe Ballard, 71, already was jailed at the Fort Worth Federal Correctional Institution when he solicited the killing of U.S. District Judge John McBryde, the office of U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas said.

    Ballard was to go on trial today before McBryde, prosecutors said. He now has been charged with soliciting the judge’s murder.

    Last month, according to the FBI, the agency received information from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FCI Fort Worth) that Ballard was talking about having McBryde killed so a new judge would be assigned.

    On Sept. 9, according to the FBI, Ballard was in the prison’s “day room” with other inmates and “talking about his belief in being a sovereign citizen,” claiming that “he is immune from all the laws of the United States.”

    One of Ballard’s fellow inmates reported that Ballard had “approached him about killing McBryde,” federal prosecutors said.

    That inmate agreed to become a “cooperating source,” according to the FBI.

    Because Ballard feared McBryde would sentence him to 20 years, Ballard proposed a plan by which the judge would be murdered with a “high-powered rifle” outside the federal courthouse or with a car bomb.

    The informant told Ballard he could help arrange the judge’s murder and have “a guy on the outside” carry out the lethal crime, according to the FBI.

    Ballard offered $100,000 for the contract, provided the informant a “hand-written map” of the external courthouse and emailed his sister to send $5,000 to an address in Oklahoma, the FBI said.

    That address was the address set up by the FBI as part of its sting, and the $5,000 was the down payment on the judge’s murder, the FBI said.

    McBryde has recused himself from the tax trial, which has been postponed, federal prosecutors said.

     

     

  • FOR COURT PERSONNEL, ATTORNEYS, INVESTIGATORS: Alberta Judge Analyzes Bizarre Filings By ‘Sovereign Citizens,’ Others; Divorce Case Leads To Extraordinary Dissection Of Various Schemes And Introduces New Term: ‘Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Argument’ (OPCA)

    From time to time over the years, readers have commented that some of the stories published by the PP Blog read like fiction. Did AdSurfDaily Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin, for example, really compare the U.S. Secret Service to “Satan” and the 9/11 terrorists?

    The answer is yes. But if the answer weren’t disturbing enough, any number of Bowdoin’s apologists were more than pleased to help the recidivist con man spread his reality-distortion field on the Internet. By the time it was over, purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming was filing false liens against a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a Secret Service agent who’d had roles in the ASD case, according to the FBI.

    The Blog itself has pointed out that various “defenders” of various bizarre schemes have woven impossible tales — tales that wouldn’t sell as fiction because they require the suspension of too much disbelief.

    If you’re a reporter, you haven’t lived until you’ve been invited to a ribbon-cutting ceremony conducted by the nonexistent “prince” of a nonexistent undersea nation that purportedly sells driver’s licenses for $140.

    Never in human history has fractured thinking been packaged and sold at the scale provided by the Internet. Law enforcement and the courts are facing unprecedented challenges as various litigants and, in some cases, their customers, seek to undermine the authority of judges, prosecutors and police.

    In what the PP Blog believes to be one of the most important pieces of judicial reasoning published in 2012, an Alberta judge overseeing a divorce case and encountering bizarre posturing by one of the parties appears to have coined a new term: “Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Argument” or OPCA for short.

    Court of Queen’s Bench Associate Chief Justice John Rooke used the divorce case as a springboard to discuss some of the bizarre litigation now occurring in Canada and the United States — theories advanced by “sovereign citizens,” for instance. Highlighted below are snippets from the judge’s issuance of a “Reasons for the Decision.” (Bolding added by PP Blog.)

    “These Reasons in many instances identify reported caselaw that comments on OPCA litigants, OPCA gurus, and their misconduct. It should be understood that the reported caselaw is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The vast majority of encounters between this Court and OPCA litigants are not reported.

    These litigants and their schemes have been encountered in almost all areas of law. They appear in chambers, in criminal proceedings, initiate civil litigation based on illusionary OPCA rights, attempt to evade court and state authority with procedural and defencebased schemes, and interfere with unrelated matters.

    OPCA strategies as brought before this Court have proven disruptive, inflict unnecessary expenses on other parties, and are ultimately harmful to the persons who appear in court and attempt to invoke these vexatious strategies. Because of the nonsense they argue, OPCA litigants are invariably unsuccessful and their positions dismissed, typically without written reasons. Nevertheless, their litigation abuse continues. The growing volume of this kind of vexatious litigation is a reason why these Reasons suggest a strong response to curb this misconduct.”  — Queen’s Bench Associate Chief Justice John Rooke, Sept. 18, 2012

    Did you know that American Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) schemes advanced by vexatious litigants have made their way into Canada?

    And did you know that some individuals advancing such schemes do not seem to understand they are quoting codes and law to Canadian judges that apply only in America?

    Not only do the codes and law not only not apply under Canadian law, they misinterpret the meaning and application of American law.

    But it gets stranger than that: Dennis Larry Meads is a party to the divorce case filed in Alberta and referenced above. To say the case has served up a symphony of the bizzare would be an understatement.

    Meads, for instance, allegedly has instructed Rooke “and the Bank of Canada to use a secret bank account, with the same number as his social insurance number or birth certificate, to pay all his child and spousal support obligations, and provide him $100 billion in precious metals. Mr. Meads has also purported to create various contractual obligations for those who might interact with him, or who write or speak his name.”

    The case has prompted Rooke to dissect some very strange events taking place in Canadian and U.S. courts.

    Theses cases, according to the judge, “often fall into the following descriptions: Detaxers; Freemen or Freemen-on-the-Land; Sovereign Men or Sovereign Citizens; Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International (CERI); Moorish Law; and other labels.”

    At one point in the divorce proceeding, Meads attempted to give an envelope to the judge, but the judge refused, explaining “I refused the envelope, and noted that if the envelope was abandoned then I would put those materials in the garbage. I reassured Mr. Meads that I will apply the laws of Alberta and Canada, and that while he is in Court, he will follow the Court’s rules.

    Mr. Meads’ reply was that was “unacceptable,” and he claimed that the “UCC” is “universal law,” according to the judge.

    As the proceeding continued, according to the judge, Meads accused the court of “enticing me into slavery.”

    Meads went on to insist that “the Bible is the ‘Maximus of Law’” before leaving the courtroom.

    Read the judge’s reasoning and dissection of strange courtroom events in multiple cases.

  • BULLETIN: Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Tim Turner Of Purported ‘Republic for the united States of America’ Charged In Alleged ‘Seminar’ Scam In Which He Taught Attendees How To File Bogus Liens Against Public Officials; Tax Crimes Also Charged, Justice Department Says

    “Turner is alleged to have attempted to pay his own taxes with a fictitious $300 million bond and to have assisted others in attempting to pay their taxes with fictitious bonds purporting to be worth amounts ranging from $10 million to $100 billion.” — U.S. Department of Justice, Sept. 18, 2012

    BULLETIN: James Timothy Turner, a purported “sovereign citizen” who claims to be “President” of the “Republic for the united States of America,” has been indicted by an Alabama grand jury on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, attempting to pay taxes with fictitious financial instruments, attempting to obstruct and impede the Internal Revenue Service, failing to file a 2009 federal income tax return and falsely testifying under oath in a bankruptcy proceeding, the Justice Department announced.

    Among the allegations against Turner is that he “conducted seminars at which he taught attendees how to file retaliatory liens against government officials and to defraud the IRS by preparing and submitting fictitious bonds to the United States government in payment of federal taxes,” the Justice Department said.

    “Turner is alleged to have attempted to pay his own taxes with a fictitious $300 million bond and to have assisted others in attempting to pay their taxes with fictitious bonds purporting to be worth amounts ranging from $10 million to $100 billion,” the Justice Department said.

    The IRS and the FBI led the probe, the Justice Department said.

    So-called “sovereign citizens” may have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them.

    Purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming — a mainstay in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme story — was arrested by the FBI last year on charges he filed bogus 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 also is accused of uttering a bogus “bonded promissory note,” concealing fugitives wanted in a home-business caper and being a felon in possession of firearms.

    Leaming also has sought to sue President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on a theory they are imposters in office. In June, Leaming, 56, sought to sue a county sheriff in Arkansas, demanding purported damages be paid in gold and silver.

    In August, purported “sovereign citizen” Michael Chung, 52, was arrested in New York on charges that he threatened to kill two bank employees.

  • ANOTHER FALSE-LIENS CASE: Residents Of Utah, Louisiana Charged With Mail Fraud In Alleged ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Bid To Record Phony Debts Against Judges

    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.

  • JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Operator Frederick Mann Says He Can’t Appear At Prospective California Meeting For ‘Security Reasons’: ‘The [Government] People In Power — They Regard Citizens As Livestock’

    The purported operator of a “program” that claims to provide a return of 60 percent a month cannot meet with participants because of “security reasons,” according to a recording of the Aug. 9 conference call for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid.

    JSS/JBP’s Frederick Mann hinted to conference-call listeners that he could be arrested if he appeared at a prospective cheerleading session for JSS/JBP at a California hotel.

    “The [government] people in power — they regard citizens as livestock,” Mann said, in declining an invitation to speak to the JSS/JBP troops in person. “They farm the livestock. They want the eggs that the chicken[s] produce. And if they think somebody tries to interfere with their farming operation, they don’t like that.”

    Mann is a former pitchman for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. A “Frederick Mann” also is listed as an affiliate of the Zeek Rewards’ 1-percent-a-day scheme, but it is unclear if it is the same Frederick Mann who pitched ASD’s 1-percent-a-day scheme before the U.S. Secret Service raided ASD in 2008.

    What is clear is that some Zeek affiliates also are promoting JSS/JBP, which has acknowledged it has no registrations to sell securities and does not reveal it base of operations.

    Like JSS/JBP and ASD, Zeek has a presence on known Ponzi scheme forums.

    JSS/JBP may have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement.

    Mann has ranted against the government in previous JSS/JBP calls.

  • Lawsuit Against United States By AdSurfDaily Figures Todd Disner And Dwight Owen Schweitzer Now Officially Transferred From Florida To District Of Columbia; Case Assigned To Judge Collyer

    The lawsuit against the U.S. government filed by AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer now appears on the court docket in the District of Columbia, meaning the case formally has been transferred from U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer has been assigned the case, which was ordered transferred July 23 by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida. It will be at least the fifth ASD-related case Collyer has overseen. The judge has presided over at least three forfeiture cases, a racketeering lawsuit filed by some ASD members against ASD President Andy Bowdoin — and the criminal case against Bowdoin.

    Disner and Schweitzer — who went on to become affiliates of the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” that now is the subject of an examination by the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper — sued the United States in November 2011. The ASD duo alleged their Constitutional rights were violated when the government seized ASD’s database in 2008. The pair also alleged that undercover agents who joined ASD had a duty to inform ASD management and that the government had gone shopping for a friendly forum in the District of Columbia when bringing the civil forfeiture case against tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of Bowdoin.

    Meanwhile, Disner and Schweitzer — relying in part on a purported expert opinion by purported MLM expert Keith Laggos that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme — accused the government of presenting a “tissue of lies” when bringing the ASD Ponzi case. Disner and Schweitzer contended that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme and had been conducting business lawfully before the federal seizure.

    Only months after Disner and Schweitzer presented the Laggos’ opinion to Judge Altonaga in Florida, Bowdoin pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia before Collyer to a Ponzi-related charge of wire fraud.

    In a statement of offense, Bowdoin acknowledged ASD was a Ponzi scheme and had never operated lawfully from its 2006 inception.

    Laggos was hired as a “consultant” by Zeek, but the firm appears to have dumped him last month. Details surrounding Laggos’ departure from Zeek remain unclear.

    Litigation surrounding the ASD case has been marked by bizarre events. ASD is known to have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement. ASD figure Curtis Richmond, a purported “sovereign” being, once accused Collyer of “TREASON.” Meanwhile, ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming is jailed near Seattle on charges of filing bogus liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD case, including a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and the lead U.S. Secret Service agent on the ASD case.

    Leaming also is accused of being a felon in possession of firearms, harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas involved in a massive mail-fraud scam centered around a home-based business and uttering a false “Bonded Promissory” note. Leaming now is seeking to sue President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Earlier, Leaming and ASD figure Christian Oesch sought unsuccessfully to sue the United States, apparently for the staggering sum of more than $29 trillion.

  • NEW ‘SOVEREIGN’ THEORY? UCC Rejection + 2nd Amendment = License To Kill: New York Man Threatened To Kill Bank’s Fraud Examiner, Attorney, FBI Says

    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 . . .”

  • BULLETIN: In Bizarre Blog Post, Zeek Claims ‘All’ Of Its Critics Are Behaving ‘Unprofessionally By Acting On False Information’; MLM Firm Blasts ‘ North Carolina Credit Unions’ For Circulating Memo ‘Unfavorable To Zeek Rewards And False’

    BULLETIN: The Zeek Rewards MLM “program” that is married to a penny-auction site known as Zeekler and plants the seed that an annualized return in the hundreds of percent is possible has declared that “all” Zeek criticism has been “unprofessional” and based on “false information.”

    Some Zeek affiliates have said that Zeek provides a payout that averages about 1.4 percent a day, a figure higher than the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.

    Zeek has preemptively denied it is an investment program or “pyramid scheme.” Regardless, Zeek has a presence on HYIP forums referenced in federal court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. The company has used offshore payment processors linked to numerous fraud schemes and employs business model similar to the $110 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.

    Zeek, which has members in common with ASD, gathers sums of up to $10,000 from members. Like ASD, it claims it is not offering an investment program. But Zeek now is blasting unspecified “North Carolina Credit Unions” for circulating a purported “internal memo” that allegedly was “at once unfavorable to Zeek Rewards and false.”

    The Zeek Blog post was attributed to acting COO Gregory J. Caldwell, who replaced acting COO Dawn Wright-Olivares. While acting COO, Wright-Olivares once suggested that, if Zeek instructed members to change their preference in dispensing toilet paper in their private bathrooms (top-rolling vs. bottom rolling), they should do it.

    Wright-Olivares now is Zeek’s “Chief Marketing Officer,” with Caldwell holding her former job, according to the company.

    Caldwell, according to the Zeek Blog post, now is warning Zeek members to stick with the company line or face the consequences. The post did not spell out those consequences.

    “It’s counter-productive for Affiliates to fan the flames of issues that are the proper responsibility of Zeek Corporate…and it’s a violation of the Zeek Policies and Procedures for which violators will be held responsible,” the post attributed to Caldwell and dated today read in part.

    A North Carolina credit union had slandered Zeek, according to the post attributed to Caldwell on the Zeek Blog (italics/bolding added).

    Zeek Rewards policy is to act quickly to support the Zeek reputation and the future of your business. Upon learning of the memo slandering Zeek,  I called the head of Risk Management to track down the origin of the memo. Upon being discovered, the person responsible admitted he really didn’t know anything about the laws regarding direct selling or how to identify a legitimate network marketing company or opportunity.  Like all our critics, he was behaving unprofessionally by acting on false information.

    We intervened, shut down the misinformation at its source, and that would have been that…were it not for the inappropriate action of one of our own Affiliates who posted the memo online where it has been picked up and is now being used by our critics.

    Prior to being arrested on Dec. 1, 2010, by the U.S. Secret Service amid allegations he was at the helm of an Internet Ponzi scheme that planted the seed affiliates received a return of 1 percent a day but were not making an investment, ASD President Andy Bowdoin also complained about slanderous critics. Bowdoin pleaded guilty in May 2012 to a Ponzi-related charge of wire fraud.

    Although Bowdoin posted bond and remained free after the Secret Service brought its case, he is now jailed in the District of Columbia, amid allegations he continued to promote fraud schemes after the Secret Service seized more than $80 million in the ASD Ponzi case in August 2008 and after Bowdoin was arrested on Ponzi charges in December 2010. Federal prosecutors identified those schemes as AdViewGlobal and OneX.

    Bowdoin, 77, is scheduled to be formally sentenced in the ASD case on Aug. 29.

    Some Zeek members also have promoted OneX, which reportedly used at least one of the same offshore processors as Zeek (SolidTrustPay).

    Zeek members also have been linked to a “program” known as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid and purportedly operated by Frederick Mann, a former ASD pitchman who may have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement. ASD also had ties to “sovereign citizens,” including the now-jailed Kenneth Wayne Leaming (false liens/harboring fugitives/possessing firearms illegally after prior felony conviction/false uttering) and Curtis Richmond, who once accused the federal judge overseeing the ASD case of “TREASON” and as many as 60 felonies.

    JSS/JBP purports to provide a return of 730 percent a year. JSS/JBP uses at least two of the same offshore processors used by Zeek (SolidTrustPay and AlertPay, now Payza).

    Meanwhile, Zeek promoters also have been linked to a “program” known as Regenesis 2×2, which came under Secret Service scrutiny in 2009 and also had a presence on the Ponzi boards.

    Before the ASD Ponzi raid by the Secret Service in 2008, ASD had moved “several million” dollars into SolidTrustPay, according to court records. AlertPay also is referenced in filings in the ASD Ponzi case. Both firms are referenced in filings in the Pathway to Prosperity HYIP Ponzi case brought in 2010 by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

    Filings in the Pathway to Prosperity case also reference the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums — forums on which Zeek, JSS/JBP, ASD and the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme had a common presence. SolidTrustPay, meanwhile, was mentioned in filings in the Eagle Trades LTD fraud case. Terrance Osberger of Eagle Trades was indicted last month by a federal grand jury in Ohio on one count of wire fraud and 48 counts of money-laundering.

    Eagle Trades also had a presence on the Ponzi boards.

    The Blog post attributed to Caldwell came on the heels of a report yesterday by BehindMLM.com that the North Carolina State Employee’s Credit Union (NCSECU) had concerns about Zeek. (Link to BehindMLM story below.)

    In June, the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said it had concerns about Zeek. Cooper’s office expressed those concerns after a North Carolina television station suggested Cooper’s office had determined Zeek to be operating legally. Zeek’s Blog linked to the TV station’s report, but the TV station later removed the report. Cooper’s office said that no determination that Zeek was operating lawfully had been made.

    Read story on BehindMLM.com.

    Read Zeek’s Blog post.

  • Jailed AdSurfDaily Figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming Sues Obama, Holder; Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Claims President Not A U.S. Citizen And Demands Compensation In ‘Silver’ And ‘Gold’ For Alleged Unlawful Imprisonment

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Just when you thought AdSurfDaily-related events could not get any stranger . . .

    ** _____________________________ **

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming

    Jailed near Seattle and awaiting trial in September on charges he filed false liens against at least five public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming has sued “Barrack Hussein Obama” and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in federal court in the Western District of Washington.

    The complaint was written in longhand and names Leaming business associate and fellow federal prisoner David Carroll Stephenson a co-plaintiff. In addition to Obama and Holder, the complaint names as defendants “J. Doe #1 (U.S. Atty)” and “John Does 2-10.”

    It is believed that “J. Doe” refers to U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington. Durkan’s office has been involved in the prosecution of a number of purported “sovereign citizens,” including David Russell Myrland. Myrland was convicted last year on charges of threatening the mayor and officials of the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.

    After his conviction, Myrland sued federal prosecutors in Washington state, apparently alleging a grammar conspiracy.

    Obama, according to the Leaming/Stephenson complaint, is not a U.S. citizen and therefore is ineligible to be President. And because an ineligible President appointed Holder, it follows that Holder is “Personating [sic] the Attorney General of the United States” and therefore “cannot lawfully appoint or delegate authority to “Any United States Attorney.”

    It further follows, according to the complaint, that the charges against Leaming and Stephenson brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington should be declared “VOID For FRAUD” because the U.S. Attorney also is “personating” [sic] a federal officer.

    In court filings after Leaming’s arrest, the FBI cited a passage from an alleged Leaming email that referenced the children of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and their “school.”

    “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.”

    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.

    Leaming and Stephenson are demanding 100 “ounces of .999 fine silver” from each defendant as “compensatory damages ” for each day the government allegedly holds them unlawfully. In addition, they are demanding 1,000 “ounces of .9999 fine gold” from “each defendant” for “Punitive and Exemplary damages.”

    Screen shot: From the Stephenson/Leaming complaint.

    With two defendants formally named and 10 “Does,” it appears as if Leaming and Stephenson are demanding 12,000 ounces of gold. Gold is trading at roughly $1,600 an ounce, meaning the duo is asking for about $19.2 million at today’s approximate rate.

    Leaming was arrested in November 2011, after an investigation by an FBI Terrorism Task Force. Stephenson — already a federal prisoner at the time of Leaming’s arrest — later was indicted with Leaming on a charge of retaliating against a federal judge or federal law enforcement officer.

    In addition to the charges of filing false liens, Leaming also faces charges of harboring two federal fugitives, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a bogus “Bonded Promissory Note” with a purported face value of $1 million.

    The U.S. Secret Service has described AdSurfDaily as a $110 million Ponzi scheme and a “criminal enterprise.” ASD President Andy Bowdoin is jailed in the District of Columbia, pending formal sentencing Aug. 29 in the ASD Ponzi case.

    One of the individuals against whom Leaming allegedly filed false liens is the Secret Service agent who led the ASD investigation. False liens also allegedly were filed against three federal prosecutors who worked on the ASD case and the federal judge who presided over it.

    Leaming has a prior federal felony conviction for piloting an aircraft without a license.