鈥楽overeign Citizens鈥� Guru Sentenced to Nearly Five Years in Scam
A Las Vegas federal judge yesterday sentenced influential 鈥渟overeign citizen鈥� of Idaho to 57 months in prison for his role in a $1.3 million money laundering scheme, the Las Vegas Review-Journal .
In 2009, following a three-year FBI investigation into activities by Las Vegas sovereigns, who generally believe they don鈥檛 have to obey most laws or pay taxes, Davis and co-defendant 鈥淩abbi鈥� Shawn Rice were indicted on 31 counts of bank fraud and money laundering. Taking about $96,000 in fees between them, they laundered $1.3 million for undercover FBI agents who told them the money came from stolen and forged bank checks.
Rice is currently a fugitive, but Davis 鈥� who previously claimed he did not have to pay taxes and considered U.S. currency invalid, and also used sovereign-style 鈥減aper terrorism鈥� against the officials attempting to bring him to justice 鈥� in March, one day before his trial to was to begin. Though he accepted responsibility for his crimes, he complained that the FBI targeted him for his beliefs 鈥� a contention that U.S. District Judge James Mahan dismissed as nonsense. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e charged with money laundering,鈥� Mahan told Davis. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why you鈥檙e here today.鈥�
In addition to his upcoming prison term, Davis has been ordered to pay $95,782 in restitution to the government, and will be subject to three years of supervised release when he gets out prison, the Review-Journal reports.
Davis is a major figure on the sovereign scene. He was an 鈥渆lder鈥� in the , a group that in 2010 fruitlessly demanded that all 50 governors step down. And under the nickname 鈥淚 am: Sam鈥� (whose odd punctuation follows conventions used by sovereigns who believe it exempts them from government authority), he hosted seminars promulgating the so-called scam, a bizarre technique that supposedly allows participants to tap into huge amounts of cash that the government is thought to keep in their name. Davis shared Web space with other key redemption gurus 鈥� including Jerry Kane, who with his 16-year-old son Joseph two West Memphis, Ark., police officers who had pulled them over in a routine traffic stop in May 2010.
