DelcoReviewSpring2017 - 25

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Prepare to be Astounded...

Criminal Aspects of the
Sovereign Citizen Movement
in the United States
What is a Sovereign Citizen?
The sovereign citizen movement in the United States is comprised of US
citizens who openly reject their citizenship status and claim to exist beyond
the realm of government authority. Affiliates may use this self-appointed
status to justify threats, violence, or crime, including theft and fraud.
Moreover, anyone can subscribe to the ideology as it transcends racial,
political, religious, and gender demographics.

Interacting with Sovereign Citizens
Sovereign citizens view contact with officials in government and the private
sector (particularly finance and real estate) as a negotiable commercial
transaction regulated by the common law and the Uniform Commercial
Code (UCC). Sovereign citizens record these transactions through
voluminous, legalistic documents (sometimes even prepared on legitimate
forms) that are easily identified by their language. Often fraudulent, these
documents may reflect attempts to avoid legitimate debt, transfer assets
illegally, or fraudulently attach liens to the property of perceived enemies.

Fraudulent Identification Documents
Pictured: Special Agent Walter Szpak,
from the Philadelphia Office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, and
Patricia H. Donnelly, Esquire, DCBA.

Sovereigns produce and sell documents to use in lieu of government
identification. These sometimes professional looking credentials may falsely
imply diplomatic status, official authority, and come in a variety of forms
such as: "right to road travel" documents, licenses, passports, "warrants," or
badges.

March
DCBA CLE Seminar "Navigating the Issues, Ethics and Conflicts
with Sovereign Nation Litigants." Special Agent Walter Szpak, from the
Philadelphia Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, conducted a
presentation discussing the sovereign citizens groups in our area, their
tactics, and how they retaliate.

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Spring 2017

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