Though not using the phrase “sovereign citizen” when describing the courtroom actions of Roger Charles Day Jr., the Department of Justice said yesterday that Day “filed hundreds of billions of dollars of fraudulent default judgments against more than 100 people who Day claimed had prosecuted him unfairly.”
Included among Day’s targets were “investigating agents, the prosecuting attorneys, Day’s former defense counsel and the U.S. district judge who sentenced him” in a New Jersey fraud case in federal court in the late 1990s, the Justice Department said.
But not even a 97-month prison term handed down from the New Jersey caper deterred Day from a life of crime, the Justice Department said.
Day, 47, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge John Gibney of the Eastern District of Virgina to 105 years in federal prison for a parts scam top U.S. officials said endangered the U.S. military.
“Mr. Day’s greed put the men and women in the U.S. military in harm’s way,” said U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia.
In August 2011 — after Day was found guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to engage in international money laundering and conspiracy to smuggle gold out of the United States — Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny Breuer said this:
“Mr. Day masterminded a sophisticated and dangerous conspiracy to profit from the sale of defective parts to the U.S. military. He foolishly put our nation’s security at risk for the sake of personal riches.”
Day, a fugitive, was captured in Mexico after “America’s Most Wanted” broadcast a story on him. He was extradited from Mexico in December 2010, the Justice Department said.
Gibney yesterday ordered Day to forfeit 3,496 ounces of gold bars and coins, two sport utility vehicles and $2.1 million, the proceeds from the scheme targeted at the Defense Department.
Meanwhile, Gibney ordered a $3 million fine and $6.2 million in restitution to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).
“It is unpardonable that individuals endeavor to enrich themselves by stealing from the U.S. taxpayer through fraud, especially by denying critical goods to our warfighters combating terrorism in a hostile overseas environment,” said Robert E. Craig and Edward T. Bradley of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), in a joint statement.
Day and coconspirators in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Belize, “formed at least 18 separate companies that posed as legitimate contractors and collectively used a computer program to win nearly 1,000 lucrative contract awards for the various companies.
“Day and his conspirators then shipped defective parts to the [Department of Defense] on more than 300 of those contracts, receiving more than $4.4 million in payment on parts that Day purchased for less than $200,000,” the Justice Department said.
The New Jersey case against Day in the 1990s also involved a bid to scam the Defense Department, the Justice Department said.
And Day also was sentenced to 84 months in New Jersey state prison in the 1990s for a scam aimed at the city of Newark the Newark Board of Education, the Justice Department said.
In his most recent scheme aimed at the Defense Department, “Day and his co-conspirators compounded the fraud by concealing their identities through the use of multiple nominee companies and by assuming others’ identities to operate the companies,” the Justice Department said.
“When [the Department of Defense] requested proof that the companies had purchased and intended to supply the correct parts from approved manufacturers, Day and others submitted fabricated documents that falsely represented that the correct parts had been purchased,” the Justice Department said.
After detecting the fraud, the Defense Department “debarred several of the companies from doing further business with the military, the Justice Department said.
But not even that caused Day to end his dangerous scheming, which had put the military and the American people at risk.
Day simply “directed his conspirators to discontinue bidding through those companies and instead form and use new companies,” the Justice Department said.
