Screen shot from Newseum. Red highlight by PP Blog.
UPDATED 2:31 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A story on bogus liens filed against a Minnesota sheriff and others received prominent treatment in the New York Times today, appearing on Page A1 (the cover page) — and above the fold in the New York edition.
The story touches on the cases of Thomas and Lisa Eilertson, both of whom are jailed in Minnesota in part because they filed bogus liens totaling at least $25 million against Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek. Over time, the Times reports, the Eilertsons filed “more than $250 billion in liens, demands for compensatory damages and other claims against more than a dozen people, including the sheriff, county attorneys, the Hennepin County registrar of titles and other court officials.”
The Eilertsons paid attention to a “sovereign citizen guru” who pitched a lien-filing strategy described as “death by a thousand paper cuts,” the Times reports.
This is a video of Lt. Jim Seebok Seebock (updated Aug. 23, 2013) of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announcing the arrests of David Allen Brutsche, 42, and Devon Campbell Newman, 67. They are accused of hatching a plot to kidnap and kill at least one police officer in Nevada.
Three residents of Placerville, Calif. — Teresa Marie Marty, Charles Tingler and Victoria Tingler — have been charged in a superseding indictment with filing false liens against government officials performing their duties.
In what may be an emerging form of menacing aimed at government officials, one government worker was targeted with a fabricated $500,000 lien and two other bogus liens — and “Harris and Marty engaged a commercial collection agency” to collect on one of the fabricated debts, prosecutors said.
“Harris” refers to Pamela Harris, also of Placerville. She was described by prosecutors as an “office manager” at Advanced Financial Services (AFS), Marty’s company.
Marty has been charged with “filing liens against the property of three Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees,” prosecutors said.
She also “filed liens of at least $84 million against the property of two Justice Department attorneys involved in a lawsuit filed against her in 2009 to enjoin her” and AFS from preparing tax returns, prosecutors said.
From a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice (italics added):
According to the superseding indictment, the Tinglers were clients of Marty and AFS, who filed a false tax return in 2008 fraudulently claiming a refund of $358,415. The indictment charges the Tinglers, as well as Marty, with filing this tax return. When the IRS tried to collect the fraudulently obtained refund, both Mr. and Mrs. Tingler filed multiple liens against the IRS revenue officer who was handling their collection case.
According to the charging documents the liens disclosed the social security numbers of the respective government employees. Marty and the Tinglers are also charged with multiple counts of unlawfully using the social security numbers of the government employees in the liens they filed with the California Secretary of State.
Finally, the indictment charges Marty, Mr. Tingler and AFS office manager Pamela Harris, of Placerville with participating in a conspiracy to defraud the IRS. The indictment alleges that as part of the conspiracy, Harris and Marty engaged a commercial collection agency to collect one of the three false liens that Mr. Tingler had filed, one of which was in the amount of $500,000.
Marty, Harris, and Marty’s daughter, Rebecca Bandera-Marty, had previously been indicted in June 2013 for a large-scale tax-fraud scheme. Those charges are included in this superseding indictment. According to the superseding indictment, in 2008 and 2009 Marty, Bandera-Marty, and Harris conspired to file at least 250 false individual federal income tax returns on behalf of individuals who resided in twenty-six states, and which claimed more than $60 million in false federal income tax refunds.
Cases involving the alleged filing of false liens against government employees have surfaced across the United States. The tactic, which has been described as “paper terrorism,” may involve the filing of purported UCC Financing Statements and has been associated with tax fraudsters and members of the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement.
Records show that, in 2011, a federal magistrate judge in California ordered that eight “UCC Financing Statements” filed by Marty “be declared null, void, and of no legal effect.” At least three of the statements targeted IRS workers. A fourth targeted a former U.S. Attorney who became a judge in California. A fifth targeted a Justice Department attorney.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen” and a figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi-scheme story, was convicted in March of filing bogus liens against public officials involved in the ASD prosecution.
The Hawaii Reporter and other media outlets are reporting that Curtis Wayne Ross of Honolulu has been indicted on wire-fraud charges in an investment scheme in which he allegedly claimed to be a well-connected multimillionaire and a “United Nations ambassador” with special tax privileges.
“Ross was neither a UN ambassador with special tax privileges nor a multimillionaire investor with international trade connections, according to federal court records.”
Four investors allegedly got scammed for a total of $167,000, amid claims that Ross lured them in with claims he could provide “high yielding returns of between 17 percent and 400 percent,” the publication reported.
Claims about special tax privileges and diplomatic connections sometimes have been associated with the “sovereign citizens movement.” Whether Ross is an adherent to “sovereign” poppycock is unclear.
Some “sovereign citizens” have declared themselves office-holders or diplomats immune to arrest.
In 2012, purported “sovereign citizen” Monty Ervin was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in a scheme involving bogus trusts. Ervin earlier had declared himself “governor” of Alabama in its “original jurisdiction” and a “Most Christian Prince.”
Earlier this week, purported “sovereign citizen” James Timothy “Tim” Turner — the purported “President” of a purported government known as the “Republic for the united States of America” (RuSA), was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison in a bizarre tax scam.
Ross has been issued a summons to appear in court. The AP is reporting that the FBI says he “moved away from Hawaii and is believed to be living in Atlanta.”
James Timothy “Tim” Turner, a purported “sovereign citizen” and the purported “President” of a shadow government known as the “Republic for the united States of America” (RuSA), has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison in a bizarre tax scam in which he was convicted of conspiring to defraud the IRS and teaching others to do so.
In a particularly bizarre display of magical thinking, Turner and three other purported “Guardian Elders” sent “demands to all 50 governors in the United States in March 2010 ordering each governor to resign within three days to be replaced by a ‘sovereign’ leader or be ‘removed,’” the Justice Department said.
Investigations by the FBI and IRS soon began, the agency said.
“This lengthy prison sentence shows that tax defiers like Turner who use bogus tax schemes and file retaliatory liens against government officials will be punished,” said Kathryn Keneally, assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division.
Added Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Stewart of the Middle District of Alabama: “This sentence should send a message that if you attempt to use retaliatory tax liens and fraudulent tax schemes as weapons against the United States and its citizens you will be punished.”
A top IRS official, meanwhile, said Turner espoused a “false ideology.”
“Turner influenced others with his false ideology by aggressively promoting obstruction of the IRS,” said Richard Weber, chief of IRS-Criminal Investigation. “In truth, Turner’s own defiance of IRS and his attempts to lead others through the same labyrinth of lies and distortions led to his downfall as shown by the significant sentence he must now serve.”
In March 2013, following a five-day jury trial, Turner was convicted on 10 counts in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. Based on the evidence introduced at trial and in court filings, Turner, the self-proclaimed “president” of the sovereign citizen group Republic for the united States of America (RuSA), traveled the country in 2008 and 2009 conducting seminars teaching attendees how to defraud the IRS by preparing and submitting fictitious bonds to the U.S. government in payment of federal taxes, mortgages, and other debt. The evidence at trial revealed the bonds are fictitious and worthless but witnesses testified that Turner used special paper, financial terminology and elaborate borders in an effort to make them look authentic and more likely to succeed in defrauding the recipient. Turner was convicted of sending a $300 million fictitious bond in his own name and of aiding and abetting others in sending fifteen other fictitious bonds to the Treasury Department to pay taxes and other debts.
The evidence at trial also established that Turner taught people how to file retaliatory liens against government officials who interfered with the processing of fictitious bonds. Turner filed a purported $17.6 billion maritime lien in Montgomery County, Ala., Probate Court against another individual. This investigation began after Turner and three other self-proclaimed “Guardian Elders” sent demands to all 50 governors in the United States in March 2010 ordering each governor to resign within three days to be replaced by a “sovereign” leader or be “removed.” The FBI immediately began investigating Turner and IRS- Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) joined the investigation soon thereafter.
A man having a phone conversation with a jailed Tennessee “sovereign citizen” and frustrated she could not make bond had “a plan,” the U.S. Secret Service said in a July 25 affidavit for an arrest warrant.
That plan, according to the affidavit, was to “burn” President Obama, “kill” him and “murk” the President and the “Justice Department.”
“Murk” is “street slang for murder,” the Secret Service advised a U.S. Magistrate Judge.
“We gonna [***k] his [**s] up,” the man said, according to the affidavit.
Precisely who constituted “we” remains unclear.
What is clear is that Darrin Young, also known as Darrin Fleming, has been arrested on a charge of threatening the President’s life.
The purported “sovereign” with whom allegedly Young was conversing on July 11 was identified as Tabitha Gentry, a prisoner at the Shelby County Jail. She was charged earlier this year with aggravated assault against two police officers, evading arrest and theft of property over $250,000, amid allegations she illegally had taken over a Memphis mansion and began “squatting” there.
Young, 39, used the identity of Unas Sebhet Re El in an earlier interaction with Memphis police, according to the affidavit. That interaction also involved Gentry and played out after a traffic stop, according to the affidavit.
Gentry used the name Al Cora Bay during the stop and claimed to be “indigenous,” according to the affidavit.
Gentry is a purported “Moorish” national, a group of “sovereigns” that may consist largely of African-Americans. (See some background on the purported “Moorish” movement at the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center.)
Earlier this month, the FBI cautioned law-enforcement agencies statewide in Tennessee to be prepared for encounters with “sovereign citizens.”
Investigators in Shelby County reported the July 11 conversation and forwarded a recording to the Secret Service, which opened a probe that led to Young’s arrest.
Mary Whiteside Quillen is jailed in Alabama, amid allegations she filed bogus instruments against public officials, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
It appears to have taken less than five months for a purported “sovereign citizen” to begin a harassment campaign against Jacob J. Lew, who became U.S. Treasury Secretary after being confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 27, 2013.
Alabama authorities say they’ve arrested Mary Whiteside Quillen, 65, of Weaver. She is accused of recording “several frivolous documents, on July 23, against government officials in a lien.”
Lew was “specifically named in one document,” the office of Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin said.
The crime is a felony, the sheriff’s office said.
“These types of false recordings have the potential to ruin public officials’ lives,” said Entrekin. “We will not allow this to happen in Etowah County and will prosecute these individuals to the fullest extent of the law.”
Bond for Quillen was set at $100,000 cash, officials said.
A similar incident took place in June with the arrests of Everett Leon Stout, 71, of St. Clair County, and Miriam Clare Shultz, 66, of Marshall County. Stout and Shultz were each charged with two counts of offering a false instrument for record. Stout and Shultz recorded false documents against a circuit clerk, municipal prosecutor, federal judge and federal probation officer.
“These individuals’ actions align with the ideology and beliefs of sovereign citizens,” says Sheriff Entrekin. “Sovereign citizens believe that both state and federal government entities are unlawful.”
When these individuals, who claim to be sovereign citizens, come into contact with local law enforcement they often are driving without state-required licenses, either for their vehicles or themselves. Members of the group also inundate public officials, including local law enforcement officers, with frivolous liens, false claims and sometimes threats of violence.”
Assisting in the Etowah County probe were the U.S. Marshal’s Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, the sheriff’s office said.
UPDATED 8:25 A.M. EDT (JULY 16, U.S.A.) Just days after the FBI warned police across Tennessee to be aware of “sovereign citizens” carrying fake law-enforcement credentials and engaging in other scams, two purported “sovereigns” have been arrested in an alleged parking scam.
Yes, a parking scam — one that involves motorists being duped into paying parking fees to purported “Moorish American nationals” instead of the rightful owners of downtown Memphis parking lots, a local television station is reporting.
WMC-TV says that Eddie Medlock and Noble Atum Re El-Bey were arrested on charges of ripping off parkers.
One parking-lot owner “spends seven days a week chasing off scammers pretending to work at the lots, collecting money from unsuspecting drivers trying to park,” the station reported.
The alleged parking scam follows on the heels of other recent scams involving purported Moorish Americans, some of whom have been involved in alleged real-estate swindles and the filing of false liens against public officials.
WSMV (NBC Nashville) is reporting that the FBI has issued an alert to Tennessee law-enforcement agencies statewide. The alert followed on the heels of a recent incident at a Nashville strip club involving purported “sovereign citizen” Eric Stanberry Jr., who was tased by police after he allegedly pulled a gun on an unarmed security guard.
Stanberry allegedly possessed a badge that read “Special Police,” according to the station.
Separately, another purported “sovereign citizen” (Anthony Williams) declared himself a “sovereign peace officer out in Nashville” and possessed a badge, handcuffs and a “fake law-enforcement [license plate] tag with the state seal,” the station reported.
Three other purported “sovereigns” allegedly were involved in a Ponzi scheme that traded on religion, WSMV reports. They were identified in a 2010 WSMV report as brothers Greg, Mark and Mike Manuel.
UPDATED 11:28 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Scammers have used the names of government agencies and famous businesses in bids to dupe the public. Now, the name of a well-known MLM law firm appears to have been used for the same purpose.
Attorney Kevin Thompson published a Blog post today that warns of a bogus Banners Broker/Profit Clicking “Claim Form” on the Web. Thompson is with Thompson Burton PLLC in Tennessee.
“DO NOT FILL OUT THIS FORM,” Thompson warned in the post. “It’s fraudulent. We did not create this form, or anything like it. We are not representing Banners Brokers or Profit Clicking participants.”
And, Thompson noted, “The form is requiring highly sensitive information, such as your usernames and passwords for Payza and Solid Trust Pay accounts. It’s also asking for credit card information. If you filled out the form, we strongly suggest you change your passwords and cancel your credit cards immediately.”
Such events have been associated with phishing schemes and identity-theft schemes.
Banners Broker is a bizarre “program” that, like many HYIPs, purports to be in the “advertising” business. Promoters have claimed that sending money to Banners Broker results in a doubling of the cash.
ProfitClicking is a scam that rose up to replace the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scam purportedly operated by Frederick Mann. Mann, a former pitchman for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, may have links to the “sovereign citizens movement.” “Sovereign citizens” may express an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them.
Among other things, ProfitClicking became known — like JSS/JBP before it — for publishing Terms that read like an invitation to join an international financial conspiracy. Here is Item 6 from the ProfitClicking Terms, as published on Sept. 3, 2012 (italics added):
6. I affirm that I am not an employee or official of any government agency, nor am I acting on behalf of or collecting information for or on behalf of any government agency.
Regulators in Italy and the Philippines have issued warnings about JSS/JBP or ProfitClicking, both of which featured Terms similar to those of Legisi, a $72 million HYIP fraud scheme broken up by the SEC and the U.S. Secret Service in May 2008, about three months before the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme ($119 million) was exposed.
The PP Blog has been subjected to various bids to chill its reporting on the JSS/JPB/ProfitClicking scams, including one from an individual who claimed he’d defend Mann “so help me God.”
Meanwhile, the PP Blog has received bizarre and menacing spam apparently in support of Banners Broker. (Like JSS/JBP/ProfitClicking, AdSurfDaily, Legisi and Zeek Rewards, Banners Broker has a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.)
WARNING: The next paragraph includes quoted material from one of the Jan. 18, 2013, spams, and the PP Blog is reproducing it to illustrate the bizarre and often menacing nature of the HYIP sphere. Indeed, the apparent Banner’s Broker supporter wrote (italics added):
” . . . I am Big Bob’s cock meat sandwich. Your mom ate me and made me do press ups until I threw up . . . I am gonna report you. When you make false accusations, you can get done. Maybe you will be seen in court soon . . .”
In August 2012, the SEC described Zeek Rewards as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme. A number of reload scams have surfaced in its wake. At least one appears to have been a bid to dupe people into sending money to an entity that was posing as a U.S. government agency while claiming to be a recovery vessel for Zeek members who lost money.
Thompson is encouraging people who may have information about the purported Banners Broker/Profit Clicking “Claim Form” to contact him here.
