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Tag: U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian

  • DIALING UP THE BIZARRE: Prisoner Who Reportedly Once Stole Tractor-Trailer Full Of ‘Canned Beans’ And Later Followed ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Bleatings Convicted Of Running Tax Scam From Jail

    This one is almost indescribably bizarre . . .

    Ronald Williams, 48, was an inmate in various prisons in New York state between 2006 and 2010, federal prosecutors said.

    His mother told the Syracuse Post-Standard that her son was jailed in 2006 on charges of stealing a tractor-trailer full of “canned beans” off a street in Buffalo.

    While incarcerated, Williams got the not-so-bright idea of filing false tax returns from prison, apparently after being influenced by a purported “sovereign citizen” website article attributed in part to “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” the newspaper reported.

    Obi-Wan Kenobi, of course, is a fictional character from the Star Wars franchise.

    Federal prosecutors now say Williams filed 11 false returns from prison, and assisted another prisoner in filing a bogus return.

    In one instance, prosecutors said, Williams managed to dupe the IRS into sending him a refund of $327,456.04 to his prison address. The check was intercepted by the prison and returned to the IRS.

    Williams, who “never actually received any monies,” also engaged in redemption scams in which he fabricated “withholdings on numerous Forms 1099-OID by claiming false withholding credits,” prosecutors said. “The eleven returns were for payment of refunds of taxes totaling $890,000,000.”

    (See a PP Blog story about a different redemption scam, this one operating from Washington state and allegedly involving purported “sovereign citizen” John Lloyd Kirk, who once was imprisoned for possessing a pipe bomb.)

    A jury convicted Williams last week on all 12 counts filed against him, the office of U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian of the Northern District of New York said.

    “The object of these schemes is to defraud the government and the taxpaying public,” said Victor W. Lessoff, acting special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit.  “Although a check was computer generated in this case, immediate action was taken as soon as it was identified by IRS Criminal Investigation and those involved in this scheme were vigorously prosecuted.”

  • New York State ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Who Filed False Liens Against Government Officials And Banks Sentenced To 5 Years In Federal Prison

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story concludes with a link to an April 27, 2010, story by CourthouseNews.com. At the bottom-left of the CourthouseNews story, readers will find a link to the RICO lawsuit filed by public officials last year against Richard Enrique Ulloa. The document is worth the time to read because it shows how public servants can become targets of spectacularly vexatious litigation that forces them or their employers to hire attorneys, thus burdening judicial resources and potentially driving up costs for taxpayers.

    At least part of the bizarre saga of Richard Enrique Ulloa has come to a close: Ulloa, a 52-year-old purported “sovereign citizen” who resided in Stone Ridge, N.Y., was sentenced yesterday to five years in federal prison for mailing  “fraudulent liens and judgments to a variety of individuals and financial institutions who had displeased” him,  the office of U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian of the Northren District of New York said.

    The FBI joined Hartunian’s office in announcing the sentence, which was ordered by U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy after Ulloa asserted various individuals and entities owed him billions of dollars. McAvoy also ordered Ulloa placed on supervised probation for three years after his prison release and to pay $63,401 in restitution.

    Ulloa’s bizarre tale touched on multiple courtrooms in multiple jurisdictions. It also involved public officials fighting back against Ulloa by suing him under the federal racketeering statute.

    In April 2010, the County of Ulster, N.Y., and the towns of Lloyd, Rosendale and Ulster asserted that Ulloa and others “sent or caused to be sent mailings and/or wires consisting of ‘criminal complaints,’ ‘invoices,’ ‘demands for payment,’ and ‘judgments’  that contained materially false statements,” according to federal records.

    Owing to sovereign-inspired hectoring, public officials began to fear for their safety and the town of Rosendale ordered body armor for court officials, according to the Times Herald-Record.

    Read an April 2010 story (and see the accompanying court document) on CourthouseNews.com.