Redemption movement
Encyclopedia
The redemption movement consists of supporters of an American
conspiracy theory
. Redemption theory involves claims that when the U.S. government abandoned the gold standard
in 1933, the government pledged its citizens as collateral
so that the government could borrow money. The movement also asserts that common citizens can gain access to funds in secret accounts using obscure procedures and regulations.
According to the theory, the government created a fictitious person
(or "straw man") corresponding to each newborn citizen with bank accounts initially holding $630,000. The theory further holds that through obscure procedures under the Uniform Commercial Code
, a citizen can "reclaim" the straw man and write checks against its accounts. Its adherents sometimes call themselves "sovereign citizens
".
There have been many well-publicized convictions of citizens attempting to take advantage of this theory. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) regards the instructors and promoters of Redemption schemes as fraudsters while the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
has included the "straw man" claim in its list of frivolous positions that may result in the imposition of a $5,000 penalty when used as the basis for an inaccurate tax return.
Other important documents in this theory are the security agreement
, power of attorney
, copyright notice
, hold-harmless agreement, Form UCC-3, notice of security agreement, birth certificate bond, Form 56 (notice concerning fiduciary relationship), Form W-8BEN (serving notice to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury of the correct status of the issuer of the bond and countering any presumption that the issuer might be considered to be a fictional entity), declaration of status, Form 1040-V, Form 1099-OID, and the Notice of International Commercial Claim in Admiralty Administrative Remedy. It is held, however, that the UCC-1 merely creates a rebuttable presumption
, which can be overcome if a man or woman is receiving some sort of benefit from the state as a slave. It is held to be important to not sign documents such as W-4 forms, or if one is to sign them, to also write "under duress
".
One element of the theory states that Americans are U.S. nationals, not U.S. citizens, and can therefore avoid taxes by changing their filing status from "U.S. citizen" to "non-resident alien". This argument has been repeatedly rejected by federal courts. Classes are often set up to teach the intricacies of the theory, and books have been published about it in the underground press
. Canaanite law is held to be an important source of law and The Wizard of Oz
(presumably because of the scarecrow
character, i.e. the "straw man") and The Matrix
trilogy are held to have important symbolism in reference to this theory, and there is also said to be some connection to the New World Order
.
Redemption movement proponent Barton Buhtz has written that when a UCC form is processed by a state's UCC filing office, it becomes a public legal record/fact and that those who have filed UCC-1 Financing Statements correctly have not broken the law. In October 2007, Buhtz was found guilty of conspiracy to pass approximately $3.8 million in false U.S. Treasury instruments. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
has included the "straw man" claim in its list of frivolous positions that may result in the imposition of a $5,000 penalty when used as the basis for an inaccurate tax return. Likewise the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) regards the instructors and promoters of Redemption schemes as fraudsters.
A 2011 NPR
report claimed some of the people associated with this movement were imprisoned in a highly restrictive Communication Management Unit
.
in connection with federal tax filings under On September 30, 1991, he was fined $100,000, and was sentenced to five years in federal prison and three years of supervised release. Elvick was the national spokesman for the white supremacist group Committee of the States and the president of Common Title, a farm loan scam. He served his time and was released from the federal prison system on December 8, 1997. While incarcerated he was further convicted in another conspiracy.
Upon release from prison he restarted the scheme in Ohio, where he was convicted in April 2005 of forgery
, extortion
and corruption.
, a key figure is Sam Kennedy, host of the "Take No Prisoners” program on Republic Broadcasting Network
in Round Rock, Texas
. In a mass e-mail early in 2010, Kennedy vowed to use his show to present a "final remedy to the enslavement at the hands of corporations posing as legitimate government." He pointed to a plan to "end economic warfare and political terror by March 31, 2010.” In two months, he said, “we can and WILL, BE FREE with your assistance."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
. Redemption theory involves claims that when the U.S. government abandoned the gold standard
Gold standard
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...
in 1933, the government pledged its citizens as collateral
Collateral (finance)
In lending agreements, collateral is a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan.The collateral serves as protection for a lender against a borrower's default - that is, any borrower failing to pay the principal and interest under the terms of a loan obligation...
so that the government could borrow money. The movement also asserts that common citizens can gain access to funds in secret accounts using obscure procedures and regulations.
According to the theory, the government created a fictitious person
Legal fiction
A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule which was not necessarily designed to be used in that way...
(or "straw man") corresponding to each newborn citizen with bank accounts initially holding $630,000. The theory further holds that through obscure procedures under the Uniform Commercial Code
Uniform Commercial Code
The Uniform Commercial Code , first published in 1952, is one of a number of uniform acts that have been promulgated in conjunction with efforts to harmonize the law of sales and other commercial transactions in all 50 states within the United States of America.The goal of harmonizing state law is...
, a citizen can "reclaim" the straw man and write checks against its accounts. Its adherents sometimes call themselves "sovereign citizens
Sovereign citizen movement
The sovereign citizen movement is a loose network of American litigants, commentators and financial scheme promoters, classified as an "extremist anti-government group" by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation....
".
There have been many well-publicized convictions of citizens attempting to take advantage of this theory. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) regards the instructors and promoters of Redemption schemes as fraudsters while the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
has included the "straw man" claim in its list of frivolous positions that may result in the imposition of a $5,000 penalty when used as the basis for an inaccurate tax return.
Redemption theory
The Redemption movement is drawn from a theory by an individual named Roger Elvick. The theory is, in part, that for every citizen's birth certificate issued in the U.S. since the 1936 Social Security Act, the government deposits $630,000 in a hidden bank account linked to the newborn American and administered by a Jewish cabal. Redemptionists assert that by completing certain legal maneuvers and filing a series of government forms, the actual person may entitle themselves to the $630,000 held in the name of the doppelganger persona created for them at their birth, and may then access these government funds using "sight drafts". The government views these sight drafts as "rubber checks" and the entire scheme as fraudulent. The federal government has convicted the practitioners of fraud and conspiracy.Other important documents in this theory are the security agreement
Security agreement
A security agreement, in the law of the United States, is a contract that governs the relationship between the parties to a kind of financial transaction known as a secured transaction...
, power of attorney
Power of attorney
A power of attorney or letter of attorney is a written authorization to represent or act on another's behalf in private affairs, business, or some other legal matter...
, copyright notice
Copyright notice
A copyright notice, either as symbol or phrase, informs users of the underlying claim to copyright ownership in a published work.Copyright law is different from country to country, and a copyright notice is required in about 20 countries for a work to be protected under copyright...
, hold-harmless agreement, Form UCC-3, notice of security agreement, birth certificate bond, Form 56 (notice concerning fiduciary relationship), Form W-8BEN (serving notice to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury of the correct status of the issuer of the bond and countering any presumption that the issuer might be considered to be a fictional entity), declaration of status, Form 1040-V, Form 1099-OID, and the Notice of International Commercial Claim in Admiralty Administrative Remedy. It is held, however, that the UCC-1 merely creates a rebuttable presumption
Rebuttable presumption
Both in common law and in civil law, a rebuttable presumption is an assumption made by a court, one that is taken to be true unless someone comes forward to contest it and prove otherwise. For example, a defendant in a criminal case is presumed innocent until proved guilty...
, which can be overcome if a man or woman is receiving some sort of benefit from the state as a slave. It is held to be important to not sign documents such as W-4 forms, or if one is to sign them, to also write "under duress
Duress
In jurisprudence, duress or coercion refers to a situation whereby a person performs an act as a result of violence, threat or other pressure against the person. Black's Law Dictionary defines duress as "any unlawful threat or coercion used... to induce another to act [or not act] in a manner...
".
One element of the theory states that Americans are U.S. nationals, not U.S. citizens, and can therefore avoid taxes by changing their filing status from "U.S. citizen" to "non-resident alien". This argument has been repeatedly rejected by federal courts. Classes are often set up to teach the intricacies of the theory, and books have been published about it in the underground press
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
. Canaanite law is held to be an important source of law and The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
(presumably because of the scarecrow
Scarecrow (Oz)
The Scarecrow is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum and illustrator William Wallace Denslow. In his first appearance, the Scarecrow reveals that he lacks a brain and desires above all else to have one. In reality, he is only two days old and merely...
character, i.e. the "straw man") and The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
trilogy are held to have important symbolism in reference to this theory, and there is also said to be some connection to the New World Order
New World Order
New World Order, New world order or The New World Order may refer to:*New world order , any period of history evidencing a dramatic change in world political thought and the balance of power...
.
Redemption movement proponent Barton Buhtz has written that when a UCC form is processed by a state's UCC filing office, it becomes a public legal record/fact and that those who have filed UCC-1 Financing Statements correctly have not broken the law. In October 2007, Buhtz was found guilty of conspiracy to pass approximately $3.8 million in false U.S. Treasury instruments. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Legal status
Several people who have followed Roger Elvick's instructions have been convicted. The U.S. Internal Revenue ServiceInternal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
has included the "straw man" claim in its list of frivolous positions that may result in the imposition of a $5,000 penalty when used as the basis for an inaccurate tax return. Likewise the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) regards the instructors and promoters of Redemption schemes as fraudsters.
A 2011 NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
report claimed some of the people associated with this movement were imprisoned in a highly restrictive Communication Management Unit
Communication Management Unit
Communication Management Unit is a recent designation for a self-contained group within a facility in the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons that severely restricts, manages and monitors all outside communication of inmates in the unit.-Origins:As part of the Bush Administration's War on...
.
Roger Elvick
In June 1991, Roger Elvick was found guilty by a federal jury in Hawaii of conspiracy to impede justiceConspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
in connection with federal tax filings under On September 30, 1991, he was fined $100,000, and was sentenced to five years in federal prison and three years of supervised release. Elvick was the national spokesman for the white supremacist group Committee of the States and the president of Common Title, a farm loan scam. He served his time and was released from the federal prison system on December 8, 1997. While incarcerated he was further convicted in another conspiracy.
Upon release from prison he restarted the scheme in Ohio, where he was convicted in April 2005 of forgery
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
, extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
and corruption.
Sam Kennedy
According to The Christian Science MonitorThe Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
, a key figure is Sam Kennedy, host of the "Take No Prisoners” program on Republic Broadcasting Network
Republic Broadcasting Network
Republic Broadcasting Network is a satellite, shortwave, and Internet radio operation based in the state of Texas. It is run by John Stadtmiller, who advertises it as a "truth radio station"...
in Round Rock, Texas
Round Rock, Texas
Round Rock is a city in Travis and Williamson counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the metropolitan area. The 2010 census places the population at 99,887....
. In a mass e-mail early in 2010, Kennedy vowed to use his show to present a "final remedy to the enslavement at the hands of corporations posing as legitimate government." He pointed to a plan to "end economic warfare and political terror by March 31, 2010.” In two months, he said, “we can and WILL, BE FREE with your assistance."
See also
- Tax protester (United States)Tax protester (United States)A tax protester is someone who refuses to pay a tax on constitutional or legal grounds, typically because he or she believes that the tax laws are unconstitutional or otherwise invalid...
- "Capital letters" argument
- Paper terrorismPaper terrorismPaper terrorism is a neologism to refer to the use of false liens, frivolous lawsuits, bogus letters of credit, and other legal documents lacking sound factual basis as a method of harassment, especially against government officials. These methods are popular among some anti-government groups and...