BULLETIN: UPDATED 8:17 P.M. ET (DEC. 10 U.S.A.) A federal judge in Washington state has issued a final order of forfeiture that awards title to items seized from AdSurfDaily story figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming to the U.S. government.
Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington signed the order on Nov. 22, the two-year anniversary date of Leaming’s arrest by an FBI terrorism task force. Federal prosecutors later said the Leaming probe was part of a larger investigation into “sovereign citizens” nationwide.
Prosecutors asked for the order on Nov. 13, noting that Leaming had consented to the forfeiture.
Included in the order are six firearms possessed by Leaming, a convicted felon, at the time of his arrest. Also included is police equipment found with Leaming, including badges, credentials, law-enforcement identification documents, light bars, crime-scene tape, handcuffs, vests, nightsticks and similar items.
Leaming, 57, was a member of the purported “County Rangers,” the alleged armed-enforcement wing of a group of “sovereign citizens.”
The order also applies to computers, external hard drives, documents and “client” files linked to Leaming.
Some ASD members said Leaming was performing legal work for them after the ASD Ponzi scheme was exposed by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia in 2008. Leaming later was convicted on charges of filing false liens against government officials involved in the ASD Ponzi investigation and prosecution. In the same case, he was convicted of assisting another “sovereign citizen” in the filing of false liens against other government officials. Leaming also was convicted of being a felon in possession of firearms and harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a fraud scheme separate from ASD.
The government has not said what it intends to do with the seized “client” files and documents, some of which conceivably could be used to link Leaming to the ASD members who were using his services. Leaming’s history includes being accused in Washington state of engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme. ASD operator Andy Bowdoin, 79, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May 2012 and now is serving a 78-month sentence in federal prison.
Back in February, U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington told AdSurfDaily story figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming that “all the fancy legal-sounding things” Leaming had “read on the internet are make-believe.”
Another way to put that is, “Garbage in, garbage out” — or, in shorthand, GIGO.
Leighton’s observations appeared in an eve-of-trial order exempting federal prosecutors from responding to certain “gobbledygook” Leaming had filed as part of his self-argued defense on charges of filing bogus liens, possessing weapons as a convicted felon and harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a home-business fraud scheme separate from the $119 million ASD Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008.
Leaming, 57, was convicted. In April, several weeks after his trial and conviction, Leaming sent Leighton a purported “Invoice” that claimed the judge owed him 208,000 ounces of “fine silver,” according to the docket of the case.
It is against this backdrop that purported “sovereign citizen” Cherron Marie Phillips is going on trial in Chicago on charges of filing bogus liens against Former U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald and other court officials, including federal judges.
Like Leighton in Tacoma to “sovereign” defendant Leaming, U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur in Chicago made some remarks to “sovereign” defendant Phillips on the eve of her trial.
“I hesitate to rank your statements in order of just how bizarre they are,” said veteran U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, who at one point attempted to explain to Phillips the meaning of the phrase, “garbage in, garbage out.” As Phillips continued to press him on his allegiance to the Constitution, Shadur finally cut her off.
Phillips earlier had rejected Shadur’s advice not to represent herself, according to the paper.
Leaming, who had a previous felony conviction for piloting an aircraft without a license, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Among the targets of his false liens were a federal judge, at least two federal prosecutors and the Secret Service agent who led the ASD Ponzi investigation.
Purported “sovereigns” in multiple states have engaged in acts that have been described as “paper terrorism” designed to hamstring judges, prosecutors and litigation opponents.
ASD operator Andy Bowdoin was sentenced last year to 78 months in federal prison. He is 78.
Raymond Leo Jarlik Bell, a 70-year-old purported “sovereign citizen” linked to AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, has been sentenced to 97 months in federal prison for a tax scam.
In July 2011, federal agents found records of bogus liens filed by Leaming against public officials while executing a search warrant at Jarlik Bell’s residence in Yelm, Wash., according to court records. Bell was under investigation for his tax scam at the time the records were found. Leaming, 57, later was charged with filing bogus liens, harboring federal fugitives from Arkansas in Washington state and being a felon in possession of firearms, including a “street sweeper” shotgun and an assault rife.
Leaming was sentenced in May to eight years in federal prison. David Carroll Stephenson, another Leaming associate and purported “sovereign citizen” from Washington state, was sentenced in May to 10 years for filing bogus liens against two U.S. prison officials. Stephenson, 57, already was serving time for a tax scam when those liens were filed.
Jarlik Bell’s scam centered on filing for false tax refunds “using a scheme known as OID fraud,” prosecutors said.
OID fraud may include claims that the U.S. government maintains secret accounts for citizens and that such accounts can be tapped to receive tax “refunds” in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time if paperwork is filed in a certain manner.
“No matter what the promoter calls it, a scheme to file bogus tax returns claiming outrageous tax ‘refunds’ that don’t belong to you, is just fraud,” said Kenneth J. Hines, special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Seattle.
“This defendant held himself out as a tax expert with contacts at the IRS – when both the IRS and a federal judge told him repeatedly that his conduct was criminal,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington. “Mr. Jarlik Bell believed he was above the law, and aggressively promoted and spread his scheme to others looking to duck their fair share and steal tax dollars through fraudulent refunds.”
From a statement by prosecutors (italics added):
In 2006, BELL obtained a tax refund in excess of $30,000 using the scheme. Numerous others who were advised by JARLIK BELL also filed for and received fraudulent refunds they did not deserve. One woman received a tax refund of more than $590,000. In 2005, JARLIK BELL was ordered by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan to stop promoting fraudulent tax schemes. Less than three years later, he was back promoting another massive tax fraud among friends, family and strangers.
Ute Christine Jarlik Bell, Jarlik Bell’s wife, also is a purported “sovereign citizen” and tax scammer, prosecutors said. She is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow on four counts of filing false, fictitious and fraudulent claims.
Jarlik Bell was convicted in March 2013 of five counts of filing false, fictitious and fraudulent claims, 15 counts of assisting in filing false tax returns, three counts of mail fraud, and one count of criminal contempt, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton described Jarlik Bell’s scheme as “fraud at its core,” prosecutors said.
“You are hurting people intentionally, regardless of your adherence to [your beliefs],” prosecutors quoted Leighton as saying.
Leaming filed bogus liens against a federal judge, federal prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent involved in the prosecution of the the ASD Ponzi scheme. The Secret Service has described ASD as a “criminal enterprise” that gathered about $119 million by duping people into believing that ASD’s purported payout of 1 percent a day came from legitimate means. ASD operator Andy Bowdoin, 78, is serving a 78-month prison term.
When Leaming was arrested in November 2011, investigators discovered he’d been harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas charged with mail fraud in a separate home-business scheme that allegedly had gathered millions of dollars.
Leaming, who previously had sued President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder on a theory that Obama was not born in the United States and was an unlawful President who’d appointed Holder unlawfully, went on to claim that Leighton owed him 208,000 ounces of silver.
The lawsuit against Obama and Holder was tossed out of court by a federal judge.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (UPDATED 10:55 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison. His former business associate and fellow purported “sovereign” David Carroll Stephenson has been sentenced to 10 years.
Stephenson already was serving prison time for a tax scam.
“These defendants tried to mask their crimes with the cloak of free speech and beliefs,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington. “They thought they were immune from the law or the justice system, but now their frauds aimed at taxpayers and public servants need to come to an end. A lengthy prison term is the best way to protect the public from their schemes.”
Stephenson, Durkan’s office said, received a sentence longer than the recommended guidelines.
U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton said that Stephenson “cannot, will not live his life without doing harm to others,” prosecutors said. “He is the master manipulator, the puppeteer . . . He is in my mind a very dangerous man.”
Leaming, the judge said, flaunts authority and “harasses law abiding people who have an obligation to the people to serve,” according to prosecutors.
Leaming, like Stephenson, is 57. Although it never was clear whether Leaming was a member of the $119 million ASD Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008, it became crystal clear that he was trying to derail the prosecution by filing bogus liens against public officials involved in the ASD case and had worked with Stephenson to file fraudulent liens against two U.S. prison officials.
Prosecutors had asked for Leaming to be sentenced to 10 years.
When the FBI executed search warrants at Leaming’s Spanaway home in November 2011, they found six firearms — this despite the fact Leaming was a convicted felon banned from possessing guns. Leaming previously has been convicted of piloting an aircraft without a license.
One of the weapons Leaming possessed was described by prosecutors as a “street sweeper” style shotgun. He also had an “assault rifle,” according to prosecutors.
Leaming also was found to be harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a home-business caper separate from ASD.
During his criminal trial, Leaming was channeling deceased cop-killer Christopher Dorner in a veiled bid to intimidate law enforcement, prosecutors said. Dorner is the former member of the Los Angeles Police Department who promised warfare against cops in February. The Dorner story stunned the nation.
Leaming, according to the FBI, also has a history that includes discussing a plot by which he’d serve U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts with a purported writ at a school attended by Roberts’ young children.
From a statement by Durkan’s office tonight (italics added):
The men (Stephenson and Leaming) identify themselves as members of the ‘Sovereign Citizen’ movement. ‘Sovereign Citizens’ profess a belief that both state and federal government entities are illegitimate. Members of this group often engaged in so-called “freedom driving,” i.e., driving about without state-required licenses, either for their vehicles or themselves. When contacted by local law enforcement, members of the group often bombard local officials (from the officer, to local judges, to mayors and other members of local government) with frivolous liens, false claims, and sometimes threats of violence. Many members of this same group had previously come to the attention of federal law enforcement for engaging in various fraudulent tax schemes, wire fraud schemes, and (occasionally) inappropriate communications with various members of federal law enforcement and the judiciary.
In asking for a ten year sentence for both men, prosecutors wrote to the court that only a long prison term would protect the public. About STEPHENSON they wrote, “This is not the case of a defendant who continues to run afoul of the law because of a substance abuse addiction or a history of childhood abuse. Rather, this is a defendant who simply chooses to remain defiant, despite court after court telling him that he must stop, and despite multiple stints in prison. At this point, removal from society is the only way in which the public can be kept safe from the defendant’s crimes.”
As for LEAMING, prosecutors provided information to the court about his repeatedly holding himself out to victims as a lawyer who could solve their problems, when in fact his actions may have damaged their case. About the crimes from the March 2013 conviction prosecutors wrote: “Defendant’s possession of firearms is particularly disturbing in light of several facts. First is obviously his disdain for government. Second is his possession of various items of police equipment, including numerous badges, light bars, and a Crown Victoria sedan modified to appear to be a police vehicle. Last but not least is Defendant’s repeated invocation of the shooting of government officials in Southern California by a disgruntled former police officer – which again appeared to be a veiled threat to engage in violence himself if he is prevented from pursuing his “‘petitions for redress,’” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.
BULLETIN: Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Washington have asked Judge Ronald B. Leighton to sentence AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming to 10 years in federal prison, the maximum term under the law.
Leaming, 57, of Spanaway, Wash., was found guilty March 1 on charges of filing false liens against public officials involved in the ASD case and against federal prison officials, harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas in a home-business caper separate from ASD, and possessing firearms as a convicted felon.
In a chilling sentencing memo today, prosecutors said Leaming — during his criminal trial beginning the week of Feb. 25 — was channeling deceased cop-killer Christopher Dorner in the courtroom. Although the memo did not reference Dorner by name, it was clear prosecutors were talking about the former Los Angeles police officer who threatened “unconventional and asymmetrical” warfare against police and went on a killing spree earlier in February that targeted police officers and their family members.
Dorner’s rampage resulted in the deaths of two officers and the daughter of an officer, sparking other violent confrontations and what has been described as one of the largest manhunts in LAPD history. Dorner himself died violently on Feb. 12. Leaming’s trial began about two weeks later.
“During the trial, Leaming repeatedly made statements referring to the (then recent) incident in Southern California, where a former police officer had started hunting down and murdering government officials the former officer felt had wronged him,” prosecutors said today. “Leaming would generally say something to the effect that it was better that he engaged in ‘seeking redress’ from government officials by way of liens and other paperwork, as opposed to emulating the former officer and using violence.
“This formulation was repeated often enough that the government believes it was a thinly-veiled threat,” prosecutors continued. “Leaming, in essence, engaged in ‘paper terrorism’ against government officials. By these repeated statements, Leaming seemed to be saying that if he was not permitted to engage in that conduct, he may as well resort to violent acts of terror instead.”
And, prosecutors said today, Leaming has shown no remorse “for any of his actions, and fully intends to continue to pursue the same course of conduct . . .”
“[T]his is clear from the defense he presented at trial, and in his filings since trial,” prosecutors said.
As the PP Blog reported earlier this month, Leaming now says Leighton, the judge who presided over his trial, owes him 208,000 ounces of fine silver.
“Since his conviction, [Leaming] has continued to file numerous, typically incomprehensible and/or nonsensical filings in this and other courts,” prosecutors said in today’s sentencing memo. “These filings refer to various UCC instruments, typically claim the Court lacks jurisdiction over him based on a willful misunderstanding of the law, and claim that he is being held as a ‘slave.’ Leaming has attempted to sue at least one [Assistant U.S. Attorney] in the International Court of Justice, and filed numerous monetary claims (often claiming that he should be paid in silver) against [Bureau of Prisons] officials, agents, [Assistant U.S. Attorneys,] various judges, and the Ninth Circuit Clerk. He has also filed numerous pro se civil proceedings and appeals in the Circuit. Most recently, he filed complaints with the [Washington State Bar Association] against one of the [Assistant U.S. Attorneys], U.S. Attorney [Jenny A.] Durkan, and this Court.”
Leaming also sought to claim spectacular sums from the United States in an unsuccessful lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Prosecutors said today that Leaming “has exploited the ignorance of others for his personal gain for years, taking money from . . . people to ‘help’ them with their legal problems – but in reality he of course did no such thing.”
Leaming, they said, “has spent much of his adult life engaged in the unauthorized practice of law, in itself a felony offense under state law. In doing so, Defendant variously portrays himself as an expert in law enforcement and/or as some type of legal genius – a ‘lawyer’ but not an ‘attorney’ as he explained at some (rather bewildering) length during the trial. Both self-portrayals are complete and utter fictions.”
In 2010, Cornell University Law School, Justia.com and Oyez.org removed online profiles of Leaming after he advertised a fee structure of up to $250 an hour and encouraged prospects to “schedule a free introductory consultation.”
Investigators later identified Leaming as part of a “national” group of “sovereign citizens” operating in Washington state. At the time of his November 2011 arrest, Leaming was found with multiple firearms. Prosecutors said in October 2012 that he was “instrumental in founding the ‘County Rangers,’ the sovereign group’s armed enforcement wing. Members of the County Rangers were issued realistic-looking badges and credentials were required to possess firearms as part of their duties, and held themselves out as law enforcement agents.”
Prosecutors noted today that Leaming possessed “various items of police equipment, including numerous badges, light bars, and a Crown Victoria sedan modified to appear to be a police vehicle.”
With respect to his ASD-related actions, prosecutors said this today:
“[Leaming] took money from the victims of a massive ponzi scheme prosecuted in Washington DC to ‘fix’ their problems. Of course, as the case agent testified, there was nothing to fix – the government recovered almost all of the lost money, and most victims were made whole. Defendant nonetheless took money from these hapless individuals, essentially to interfere with the ongoing prosecution.”
UPDATED 12:46 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The evidence against AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming was “overwhelming” and led to the purported “sovereign citizen’s” conviction on three counts of retaliating against a federal official by filing false claims, one count of concealing a person from arrest and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a federal judge wrote in court filings.
While making a veiled reference to the ASD Ponzi case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008 in the District of Columbia, U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington wrote in an order dated March 14 that evidence showed Leaming “admitted to filing liens against a group of federal officials for absurd sums, $225 billion in one case.”
“The only link any of these officials had to each other was their participation in the prosecution of a Ponzi scheme on the east coast,” Leighton wrote. “The evidence demonstrated that Defendant was ‘helping,’ as he put it, certain individuals who were aggrieved by the prosecution of the Ponzi scheme.”
Leighton’s order did not identify the individuals Leaming was said to he helping. The order was issued in response to a bid by Leaming, 57, to be acquitted post-verdict amid assertions the evidence against him was insufficient to sustain the convictions.
But Leaming, according to the order, “admitted on the stand that he knowingly possessed the firearms in question because he wanted to challenge the law at the Supreme Court.”
And, Leighton wrote, the evidence “overwhelmingly supported Defendant’s conviction of concealing a person from arrest. The Government established that Defendant knew certain individuals were sought in relation to a postal-scam, that Defendant allowed them to stay in his home, helped them trade cars, and otherwise supported them.”
Those individuals have been identified in court filings as onetime fugitives Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen of Arkansas. They were found with Leaming in Washington state in November 2011. Donavan and Henningsen later were convicted of mail fraud in a home-business caper that gathered more than $2 million, prosecutors said.
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme opearting from Florida over the Internet. ASD’s business model was similar to the model of the Zeek Rewards “program,” which the SEC described in August 2012 as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme operating from North Carolina.
ASD and Zeek are known to have had members in common. Some ASD members said that Leaming was providing them counsel, despite the fact he is not an attorney.
The PP Blog reported in November 2010 that Cornell University Law School, Justia.com and Oyez.org removed online profiles of Leaming. The sites previously had listed Leaming as an attorney who practiced law and advertised a fee structure of up to $250 an hour from Spanaway, Wash.
Leaming was arrested by an FBI terrorism task force a year later in Spanaway.
Also see Nov. 13, 2010, PP Blog report on a disturbing email some ASD members received that asserted they could be sued for filing a remissions claim in the ASD Ponzi case.
In October 2011, the PP Blog reported than some ASD members had received an email that encouraged them to file documents at the “county” level and “name” federal officials as “thieves.”
Court filings suggest that Leaming already was under investigation by the FBI when some ASD members were trumpeting him as the answer to their problems.
On Feb. 13, the PP Blog reported that a federal judge who was quoting from a pleading by AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming had referenced a domain styled peoplestrust1776.org.
U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton declared Leaming’s filing, which apparently cited the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), “undecipherable.” The judge exempted prosecutors from responding to a series of recent bizarre pleadings from Leaming, who is jailed near Seattle on charges of filing false liens against public officials in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case. Leaming, 57, also is accused of other crimes.
Like other purported “sovereigns,” the judge observed, Leaming is “fascinated” by capital letters.
Some “sovereign citizens” appear to believe that pleadings that include capital letters or make UCC claims provide defenses or remedies for everything from murder charges to charges of targeting public officials in harassment campaigns.
Less than two days after the PP Blog published its most recent story about Leaming’s strange defense efforts in the Western District of Washington, the Blog received a would-be comment it is treating as spam because it purported to be in response to a reader who left a comment on the PP Blog nearly two years ago on a different subject. Received at 2:55 a.m. ET today, the unpublished, would-be comment included a link to a post on a Blog whose URL was formed in part with the words “the-full-details-of-kidnapping-of.”
One had to visit the site to determine who allegedly was kidnapped.
The PP Blog visited the link and found a post about Patrick Cody Morgan, a purported Texas “sovereign” who was convicted last year of conspiracy and nine counts of bank fraud in a real-estate swindle involving repeated bids to scam residential mortgage lenders and FDIC-insured banks between 2004 and 2007. The scam involved “trust accounts” and “straw buyers,” prosecutors said. The PP Blog wrote about the Morgan convictions on Nov. 2, 2012. No readers left comments in the thread below the story.
In any event, the would-be commentator apparently wants to generate discussion about the Morgan case and to enlist support for Morgan. Notably, the spammed link received by the PP Blog includes references to the same peoplestrust1776.org domain Leaming cited in an apparent defense bid in his criminal case.
Content on the site whose post link was spammed to the PP Blog overnight appears to be designed to paint government officials or agencies involved in the Morgan case as “the Accused.” Apparently among the purported “Accused” are U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes of the Southern District of Texas and others. The site also published florid legalese attributed to Morgan that, like Leaming’s prose, made liberal use of capital letters.
Legalese attributed to Morgan asserts he is “Patrick-Cody: Family of Morgan”; Leaming’s legalese asserts he is “Kenneth Wayne, born free to the family Leaming.”
Some “sovereigns” appear to believe that using exceptionally formal prose, capital letters and/or specific forms of punctuation in court filings somehow provide for a winning defense.
Leighton characterized Leaming’s prose as “gobbledygook.”
Morgan — in his apparent defense — appears to claim he was the victim of criminals working for the government. Leaming has made similar arguments in Washington state.
Precisely what role, if any, peoplestrust1776.org is playing in the Morgan and Leaming cases is unclear.
“The Court therefore feels some measure of responsibility to inform [Kenneth Wayne Leaming] that all the fancy legal-sounding things he has read on the internet are make-believe. Defendant can call himself a ‘public minister’ and ‘private attorney general,’ he may file ‘mandatory judicial notices’ citing all his favorite websites, he can even address mail to the ‘Washington Republic.’ But at the end of the day, while sovereign citizens and Defendant cite things like ‘Universal Law Ordinances,’ they are subject to both state and federal laws, just like everyone else.” — U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton, Feb. 12, 2013
Kenneth Wayne Leaming
A federal judge in the Western District of Washington has issued an order exempting prosecutors from responding to wild assertions made by AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming.
Like other purported “sovereigns,” Leaming is “fascinated by capitalization,” Judge Ronald B. Leighton said in the Feb. 12 order.
In a recent filing, the judge said, Leaming used the word “REGISTRY” in all uppercase in a pleading that was “undecipherable.” On at least five occasions during the course of the case, Leaming has filed documents that used the phrase “Mandatory Judicial Notice,” including one in which Leaming asserts he “relies in good faith on the public/commercial REGISTRY entries as published at
www.peoplestrust1776.org, inclusive of Universal Law Ordinance, UCC #2012096074 . . . .” the judge said.
“For lack of a better term, this is gobbledygook,” the judge said.
Leaming also recently argued that “the REGISTERED FACTS appearing in the above Paragraph evidence the uncontroverted and uncontrovertible FACTS that the SLAVERY SYSTEMS operated in the names UNITED STATES, United States, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and United States of America . . . are terminated nunc pro tunc by public policy, U.C.C. 1-103 . . . .,” according to the judge.
“He appears to believe that by capitalizing ‘United States,’ he is referring to a different entity than the federal government,” the judge said. “For better or for worse, it’s the same country.”
And Leighton quoted again from Leaming’s filings:
“COMES NOW, Kenneth Wayne, born free to the family Leaming, 20 December 1955, constituent to The People of the State of Washington constituted 1878 and admitted to the union 22 February 1889 by Act of Congress, a Man, ‘State of Body’ competent to be a witness and having First Hand Knowledge of The FACTS . . . .”
Purported sovereign citizens, “like Mr. Leaming, love grandiose legalese,” the judge said, ordering that “no response is required by the Government.”
Leaming, 57, is detained near Seattle on charges of filing false liens against government officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. He also is accused of other crimes, including harboring fugitives, assisting others in the filing of false liens, being a felon in possession of firearms and attempting to pass a bogus “Bonded Promissory Note” for $1 million. He was arrested in November 2011 by an FBI Terrorism Task Force.
“Sovereigns” have been known to engage in what has been described as “paper terrorism” to try to hamstring law enforcement. Some “sovereigns” have been linked to various forms of securities fraud and tax fraud.
On Sept. 5, 2012, the PP Blog reported that an “opportunity” known as “Wealth Creation Alliance” was using a strange mix of capital letters in its communications with prospects. Whether WCA has any “sovereign” ties is unknown.
“The Government has provided over 2742 pages of discovery consisting of: liens, police reports, [Bureau of Prisons] records, pictures, surveillance photos, internet search records, audio subpoenas and over 1000 pages of documents seized.” — From March 5 court order in false-liens case involving accused AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming and former Leaming business associate David Carroll Stephenson
Kenneth Wayne Leaming
If the scheduling holds, accused AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming will go on trial in the Western District of Washington on Sept. 17 with his former business colleague David Carroll Stephenson, one week before ASD President Andy Bowdoin is set to go on trial in the District of Columbia in a Ponzi scheme case involving at least $110 million.
Leaming, 56, of Spanaway, Wash., is accused 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. In addition, he is charged with being a participant with 56-year-old Stephenson, a federal inmate in a fraud case, in a scheme to file false liens against at least two federal prison officials.
At the same time, Leaming is charged with concealing two federal fugitives involved in an Arkansas-based, home-business fraud scheme involving millions of dollars, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a false “Bonded Promissory Note” with a purported face value of $1 million.
The docket of U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington now shows a trial date of Sept. 17 for both Leaming and Stephenson.
Leaming, who has a 2005 felony conviction for piloting an aircraft without a valid pilot’s certificate, originally was scheduled to go on trial March 20. That trial date was rescheduled for April 2 after a superseding indictment was returned against Leaming after his initial arrest on a criminal complaint in November 2011 — and now has been moved to September to give Leaming and Stephenson more time to prepare, according to court filings.
Bowdoin, 77, was indicted in 2010 on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from 10 of his personal bank accounts, amid allegations that Bowdoin was presiding over an international Ponzi scheme operating over the Internet.
Both of the Arkansas fugitives allegedly found with Leaming in Washingston state also are purported “sovereign citizens.” They were identified as Timothy Shawn Donavan, 64, and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen, 67. Donavan currently is detained in Oklahoma, and Henningsen is detained in Texas, according to records.
Leaming and Stephenson both are detained near Seattle.
As was the case with the original court filings in the 2008 civil action that led to the criminal prosecution of Bowdoin, investigators have produced surveillance photos pertaining to the Leaming and Stephenson prosecutions.
Records suggest that Leaming came under surveillance in Washington state by an FBI Terrorism Task Force by at least August 2011.
In addition to the surveillance photos, the government also has produced, liens, police records, unspecified “pictures,” prison records, Internet search records, “audio subpoenas” and “over 1000 pages of documents seized,” according to court filings.
All in all, according to the filings, the government has produced at least 2,742 pages of discovery in the Leaming and Stephenson cases.
Leaming has asserted he is proceeding to trial under “duress.”
In March 2009 — while the ASD Ponzi case was still a civil matter — Bowdoin claimed a January 2009 decision he made to submit to the forfeiture and stop pressing claims for the money seized from his bank accounts was made under “severe duress.”
He made the claim while acting as his own attorney, and further claimed that his decision to relitigate the case after earlier abandoning his claims was “legally accomplished as a matter of law” simply because he had filed papers saying so.
A month later — in April 2009 — federal prosecutors made a bombshell announcement in court that, prior to submitting to the forfeiture and dropping his claims to the seized cash, Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter and acknowledged the government’s material allegations were all true.
In September 2009, prosecutors said Bowdoin was telling ASD members one story — while telling a federal judge another.
Final orders of forfeiture were entered in the ASD civil case in January 2010. Bowdoin appealed, but lost in March 2011.
In the earliest days and weeks after the August 2008 seizure, some ASD members — ignoring the lessons of history — began to promote other schemes that advertised preposterous payouts, claiming they were safe because they were “offshore.”
One current HYIP scheme is JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, whose advertised daily payout rate is 2 percent — twice that of ASD. Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, identified himself as an ASD pitchman in 2008 web promos three months before the Secret Service raid on ASD headquarters in Quincy, Fla.
In a Feb. 23, 2012, conference call, Mann declined to say precisely where JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid was operating from. On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a site linked to Mann featured videos of Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign citizen” implicated in an alleged murder plot against public officials in Alaska.
On Feb. 29, the PP Blog received threatening communications from an individual describing himself as “MoneyMakingBrain.” Among other things, “MoneyMakingBrain” claimed he’d defend Mann “so help me God.”
On March 12, the PP Blog reported that “MoneyMakingBrain” had asserted the Blog would “go down in flames.”
On Feb. 18 — at RealScam.com, a forum that educates the public about mass-marketing fraud — “MoneyMakingBrain” published a link to the Mann-associated site that beams the Cox videos. It is unclear if “MoneyMakingBrain” understood that Cox was under arrest on serious criminal charges and is identified with the “sovereign citizen movement.”
NOTE: The PP Blog believes it is ill-advised to click on any link left by “MoneyMakingBrain” at RealScam.com.
One of the surveillance photos in the ASD Ponzi case: Source: Court files.
