Comments on: Another ‘Sovereign’ Leader Indicted on Tax Crimes in Major Crackdown

By: Katherine

Katherine — Tue, 28 May 2013 15:11:12 +0000

Well-respected? What are you talking about Wanda Jean?
He was a crackpot dentist. He had to pay someone to take his practice (due to liabilities from work not performed for insurance already collected), and he scammed them in the process.
He destroyed my friend’s daughter’s mouth.
Allegedly his greatest success was selling prescriptions. Not having bought any from him myself, I have to use the term allegedly there.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.

By: michaelphelps

michaelphelps — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:47:37 +0000

Hi Keith,
Re: “They know people are frustrated and scared;….”
Why, in your opinion, are people frustrated and scared ? Scared of what? Frustated about what?

By: Kiwiwriter

Kiwiwriter — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 20:44:39 +0000

The irritating part of this story is that the leaders of these scams know damned well that they are con men, robbing their suckers, and don’t believe a word of the rubbish they spout.

The sad part of this story is that the suckers they fleece DO believe all this rubbish. In a way, they get ripped off twice. First, they feel robbed by the society they live in, which they see as conspiring to prevent them from living like the Kardashians, and they buy this “sovereign citizen” garbage as the explanation for their failures — not because they didn’t stay awake in high school economic class.

The second rip-off is when they give away their hopes and limited fortunes to these guys, hoping for that big payoff, and instead lose what little they have. I guess then they just double their hatred for the IRS.

By: Wanda Jean

Wanda Jean — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 01:37:32 +0000

Dr. Sam Kennedy was a well respected and popular orthodontist for many years with a state of the art practice in northern NY. He was a dynamic individual. However his real name was Glenn R. Unger. The alias came after he eventually sold his practice and moved away. It is difficult to believe that someone so intelligent and talented could fall under the spell of such extremism and become a leader in a movement which does not make sense and is full of scams.

By: A Walkaway

A Walkaway — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:36:44 +0000

While they weren’t going by that name (sovereign citizens) back in the late 70s and early 80s, they DID try to recruit me – the people (one of which was a dentist but referred to himself as a doctor in ways which seemed odd) were very active in the “tax protesters” movement and many – if not nearly all of the things I’ve read about the movement was in place already back then. They were also consummate con artists even then… but since I was dirt poor got nowhere with me – Thank God!

When I read this article, I wondered because I swear that the dentist went by the name Dr. Samuel Kennedy. (If he ever lived in Florida, I’d almost be sure I’d encountered him.) He and several others were trying their best to recruit out of the Assemblies of God (when I belonged to that cult), then changed over to some of the local mainstream churches (where I encountered him one more time).

The dentist was a leader even then, and had all sorts of questionable things going on (scams as I realize now).

They even tried to get me to throw away my driver’s license… and go without one. Even though I was a kid, I wasn’t that stupid.

By: keith

keith — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:18:04 +0000

You may be right about such ‘leaders’ being merely conspiracy conmen (they always rise in appeal during tough financial times – check the 70′s ) – but the scarier problem is that they attract not a few crackpots, but MANY. They use associations with other groups, or network like anyone else can via the web etc, to hide at the bottom of a highly layered ‘cake’ of hate. These people, much like Alex Jones, appeal to growing fears and panic ( well founded ) by so many jobless people. They know people are frustrated and scared; that people who did ‘everything right’ according to society’s dictates of x, y, and z to become a success are now facing terminal unemployment due to age (which might explain why groups are so post-middle aged OR very young adults since both groups experience ‘ageism’ in hiring); and they know that these groups want to DO something, anything, to altar their depressed situations. Toss some pseudo-facts at them and then send the down the rabbit hole till they can’t see between fact and fiction; normal anxiety and paranoia; unifying principles and divisive ones. I am so thankful for this site and the efforts of the SPLC and other groups such as themselves and the people who work in them. It helps to give every citizen the courage to say,”NO!” to divisive and hateful rhetoric.

By: Erika

Erika — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:33:06 +0000

i kind of get the impression that most of these sovereign citizens are more motivated by looking to make money (using some of the most foolish schemes imaginable) than ideology – and that many of the leaders are just con artists peddling “get rich quick schemes.” Anyone who takes tax advice from them deserves what they get – especially since they are not smart enough to resist using their “get rich quick” schemes themselves. The smarter anti-tax snake oil salesmen while still conartists who charge big money for completely bogus information are at least smart enough to not use their schemes themselves – which makes them very difficult to convict (even though their clients get nailed)

By: David Cary Hart

David Cary Hart — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:13:11 +0000

If you have some excess brain cells that you don’t mind losing, take a look at the “legal” papers filed by Turner this week: http://www.republicoftheunited.....documents/

Behold the crackpottery. Apparently, the claim is that the IRS is a foreign agency and that Title 18 (criminal procedure code) was never passed by Congress. Moreover, the Uniform Commercial Code somehow supersedes the criminal code (which doesn’t exist in the first place).

Little wonder why the judge did not permit a pro se defense – or get “papered” into the 22nd century. These crazy people are quite persistent. Oy veh.

By: Aron

Aron — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:31:45 +0000

Wah, wah, wah!!!

*sad trombone*