Friday, September 14, 2012

Foreclosed Homeowner Who Used Sovereign Citizen Racket In Attempt To Reclaim Title & Possession To Home Cops Plea To Georgia RICO Charges

In DeKalb County, Georgia, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
  • One of a dozen so-called sovereign citizens indicted on racketeering charges for essentially stealing 18 high-end homes in eight counties pleaded guilty Monday in court. "I plead guilty because I’m tired,” David B. Graham told DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Courtney L. Johnson. “I’m guilty because I’m guilty.”

    Graham was accused of moving back into the Gwinnett County home he lost to foreclosure by illegally using the quit claim process to transfer the deed back into his own name. Graham pleaded guilty to violating Georgia's RICO or influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and to conspiracy to violate the RICO Act.

    He was one of many in a group that, between January and July 2010, exploited loopholes in the legal property deeding system to gum up an already tedious process. Graham said he was directed to a loosely organized sovereign citizen group to help him save his home.
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  • That scheme, prosecutors say, involved members of the group breaking into more than a dozen properties in DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry, Spaulding, Fulton, Fayette, Richmond and Newton counties, including a Buckhead strip mall, forging notarized deeds for themselves and one another to file with the respective county clerks, then threatening litigation against the rightful owners if those owners tried to evict the sovereigns or sell the properties. Prosecutors called it putting “a cloud on the title.”
For more, see Gwinnett man pleads guilty to stealing foreclosed home (Attorney: ‘He bought into sovereign citizen scheme’).