The Private Registered Bond For Investment Scam

Greg Allen King was concerned within the foreclosures of his actual property in Maine, and that litigation was going badly for him. So, King determined to strive one thing totally different. Actually totally different.

First, King filed a “Personal Registered Bond For Funding” with the Secretary of State of Puerto Rico within the quantity of $100 million, which was to be paid over 25 years and carried a 4 p.c rate of interest. The phrases of the bond acknowledged that the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury would have thirty days from receipt of the bond to dishonor it, and {that a} failure to well timed dishonor the bond would represent an honor and acceptance by the U.S. authorities. This bond was based mostly on one thing known as King’s Certificates of Reside Delivery, however extra about that later.

Second, King sought to attract the curiosity on the bond, which he then claimed to make use of to pay the debt underlying the foreclosures of his actual property. When, the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Maine refused to just accept this “fee” by King, King claimed that your entire United States of America was in breach of the bond.

Third, and eventually, King then sued the U.S. claiming the latter’s breach of the bond, and sought an injunction from the U.S. District Court docket till the U.S. may very well be made to cough up the $100 million, which King would then presumably use to pay the underlying debt.

All this resulted within the opinion in King v. U.S., 2022 WL 2374776 (U.S.Ct.Claims, June 30, 2022), which was heard by the U.S. Court docket of Claims.

What that courtroom heard from King was a bunch of authorized mumbo-jumbo, or juridical gibberish for those who favor. King began off claiming that his lawsuit was predicted on “widespread legislation”, not realizing that claims towards the U.S. must be introduced underneath an authorizing statute or else they’re barred by sovereign immunity, and King couldn’t fulfill any such authorizing statute. King then went down the rabbit gap into typical sovereign citizen conspirobabble, akin to alleging that the U.S. courts are “non-public overseas courts” (they aren’t, after all, however are particularly licensed by Article III of the U.S. Structure and different federal enabling legal guidelines).

King’s greatest level, such because it was, argued that the U.S. authorities had did not well timed dishonor his Personal Registered Bond For Funding as required by its phrases to be accomplished inside 30 days. The issue for King is that the U.S. authorities by no means agreed to those phrases within the first place, and thus was underneath no obligation ― contractual or in any other case ― to dishonor the bond, ever. Thus, King was not entitled to the $350,000 monthly that he claimed he was owed for curiosity by america, he couldn’t offset this fictitious quantity towards the debt underlying the foreclosures of his actual property, and his Grievance can be dismissed.

Lastly, King requested that the courtroom seal this matter, presumably in order that he wouldn’t be eternally memorialized within the courtroom data as a verified nutter. King’s request it itself outstanding:

“Claimant, being an American State Nationwide civilian non-public citizen hereby request[s] that this matter be sealed from the general public. Commingling enemy combatants, hostiles, rebels, belligerents, and volunteers within the public for all to see the proceedings is forbidden. As well as, non-public exemption accounts and personal registered bond numbers are offered on this case with the intention to show the claimant[‘]s case and subsequently claimant request that this movement be granted to protect the general public belief and to not commingle the non-public and public as a matter of nationwide safety.”

The courtroom denied this request as effectively, though it did enable King to redact the final 4 digits of his social safety quantity, as allowed by native courtroom rule, in order to take care of his privateness.

And thus did King’s $100 million Personal Registered Bond For Funding come to naught.

ANALYSIS

The concept one can use a Personal Registered Bond For Funding is a rip-off, after all, the place the rip-off artists promote the thought and accompanying paperwork to of us who, like King, are down on their luck and going through some wanting authorized motion. Lately, this rip-off has appeared in no fewer than seven instances earlier than the U.S. District Court docket or U.S. Court docket of Claims, and was described this fashion by one such courtroom:

“The language of this certificates suggests the ‘Redemptionist’ philosophy related to the sovereign citizen motion, which posits that residents of america have been positioned as collateral in bond for the safety of the U.S. Division of the Treasury. Redemptionists assign imaginary Treasury account numbers to people, and assert that these direct treasury accounts have a steadiness equal to the financial worth that the federal government locations on the lifetime of the person. Bogus monetary devices are then used to attract on the direct treasury accounts. See, typically, Ray v. Williams, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45513, at *12-16 (D. Ore. Mar. 24, 2005) (and instances cited therein). The courtroom notes additional that petitioner seems to have returned the FLU demand letter stamped ‘accepted for worth and consideration – exempt from levy,” and with comparable language referencing a ‘pay as you go account.’ ECF No. 294 at 4-7.”

United States v. Eddings, No. 209CR00074JAMACP, 2019 WL 3229618, at *2 (E.D. Cal. July 18, 2019), report and suggestion adopted, No. 209CR0074JAMACP, 2019 WL 4957906 (E.D. Cal. Oct. 8, 2019).

This redemption rip-off has been round for a very long time, final being widespread within the mid-Nineteen Nineties when rip-off artists crisscrossed the Midwest promoting their theories and their related kinds to distressed farmers who had been going through the foreclosures of the household farm (not too dissimilar to King’s scenario right here). People who purchased into this rip-off took the kinds and went on to file a mountain of gibberish with the courts, which the courts shortly reduce by means of to no impact aside from to waste all people’s time.

However outdated scams by no means die: They’re simply re-named, re-packaged and re-sold. That is what’s going on right here. The Personal Registered Bond For Funding is, because the Eddings courtroom famous, is nothing greater than the outdated redemption rip-off re-named, re-packaged and re-sold as one thing else.

What’s going to occur finally ― and I am form of shocked that it hasn’t occurred already ― is that folk who try to make use of the Personal Registered Bond For Funding will begin to get sanctioned by the courts for making frivolous filings, akin to lots of the redemptionists had been sanctioned, and thus turning what would in any other case by a debt dischargeable in chapter right into a debt that can not be discharged.

We’ve not seen the final of this rip-off, so keep tuned.