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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Inside the fringe movement teaching Americans to punish officials with fake debt claims
SACRAMENTO — Texas real estate agent Tara Jarrett opened the online class with a prayer, bowing her head and closing her eyes. 'Dear Heavenly Father,' she began. 'I ask that you would just speak to me and through me as I deliver this detailed message tonight.' What followed was a lesson on revenge. Jarrett walked the attendees, logged in from California and other states, through the process of filing liens to punish public officials, such as politicians and judges, who they alleged aren't upholding their oaths of office. Those liens are recorded in state Uniform Commercial Code databases, public filings intended to alert creditors about business debts and financial obligations. 'This is how we level the playing field,' Jarrett, 52, told her class in a video uploaded last year. 'We don't sue government officials. We file liens that crush their credit until they cooperate.' Across the country, antagonists and antigovernment 'sovereign citizens' are flooding states and counties with liens like the ones Jarrett and others show how to file. In the claims, they often allege government officials owe them money or property, a tactic the U.S. Justice Department and nonpartisan Congressional Research Service have identified as a form of 'paper terrorism.' Other filings aren't about retribution. Instead, they're financial maneuvers aimed at businesses, claiming to be owed cash, cars and homes. Consumer credit expert John Ulzheimer said these liens can complicate a person's ability to obtain a mortgage or a business' chances of securing lines of credit. In some cases, he said, these filings can even derail job applications for positions that require thorough background checks. 'It seems too easy to me that someone can do this,' Ulzheimer said. A Times investigation found that these claims, which were designed to be straightforward and quick to file, are inherently vulnerable to abuse, inflicting financial harm and costly legal battles. A single false filing can claim an individual or business owes debts worth hundreds of millions or even trillions of dollars. Others flood victims with repeated — and often nonsensical — filings that make it appear they are entangled in complex financial disputes. Among The Times' findings: 'This is a cowardly and dangerous tactic meant to intimidate public servants and put our families at risk,' said one high-profile California public official who first learned he had been named in a UCC claim when contacted by The Times. He said the filing was fake. The official asked for anonymity because the fake debt included his home address and he did not wish to be targeted further. He said protecting home addresses gained new urgency after a man targeting Democratic lawmakers killed Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband in their home in June. 'No one should underestimate how real these threats are,' he said. Back in Texas, Jarrett moved through her hourlong lesson flipping through black and white slides that detailed the power of filing liens against adversaries. 'It can literally take these public officials out of office if we do it the proper way,' said Jarrett, who sits on the board of star NFL receiver Mike Evans' charity. In an interview with The Times, Jarrett said she does not recommend this process to anyone and was simply providing information. The Times found no record of a person who took one of Jarrett's classes filing a retaliatory lien in California. In her $20-per-person class, she praises the tactic for being cheap and taking little time. Like bomb-making, she told the handful of attendees, it demands precision. Handled the wrong way, she said, it can blow up in your face. 'Likewise, bombing government officials with liens is a craft, not a science,' she added. Designed to be the quiet backbone of commerce, the Uniform Commercial Code system is about as mundane as bureaucracy gets. Or at least it's supposed to be. It was drafted in the 1950s to standardize interstate business transactions. One key feature is a public database run by secretary of state offices that records when a creditor claims a secured interest in an asset. The simplicity and speed of the filings are intentional: It helps keep credit accessible and prevent borrowers from using the same asset, such as a company's inventory, multiple times without lenders knowing. 'So, if I'm thinking of extending credit to your store and I'm willing to do it because you're offering your inventory as collateral, I can check the record that's available at the secretary of state's office and determine whether somebody else already has an interest in your inventory, and as a result, I'd be second in line,' said Neil Cohen, director of research for the Permanent Editorial Board for the UCC, which drafts legislation that can be adopted by states to keep the codes in sync. Many UCC filings in California's database reflect state tax liens or loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration listing what collateral was used. Particularly popular in California are solar companies placing liens on a home or the installed panels until a loan is repaid. The vast majority of UCC filings are legitimate, according to the National Assn. of Secretaries of State. But, in a 2023 report, the association said 'fraudulent or bogus filings' are a widespread and persistent problem across the country, warning that they 'can create serious financial difficulties for victims.' Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow for the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, said sovereign citizens first latched on to the UCC system in the late 1980s, but filings have increased over time as more and more conspiracy theories have revolved around commercial laws. Those fringe beliefs include claims that UCC filings can eliminate the need to pay car loans or credit card debt, which can plunge a person into financial ruin. Their tactics have also veered into criminal charges for fraud, said Pitcavage, citing a list of court cases compiled by the Anti-Defamation League. 'If you're in debt, you can end up in a whole lot more debt,' he said. 'Or you can turn a debt situation into a criminal situation.' Pitcavage said states are partially responsible for failing to recognize that allowing fake UCC filings to be recorded legitimizes the conspiracy theories. 'They don't do harm if they're not recorded,' Pitcavage said. 'Some states are very good ... and other states either are not good about it or actually have policies that basically say, you know, as long as they pay the filing fee you can file whatever you want.' California law allows the secretary of state's office to reject a UCC record if it's not properly filled out or if there is a reasonable belief that the document is fraudulent or intended to harass a person or entity. So far this year, the secretary of state's office has rejected more than 1,700 filings. Last year, the state denied nearly 5,000 filings. The agency declined to identify how many of the rejected filings were due to fraud or harassment versus paperwork errors. A spokesperson said the agency's role as the recording office for UCC filings is limited, but that the agency is 'always looking to improve customer experience.' Once a UCC filing is recorded, state officials step aside, leaving victims to deal with the fallout if it turns out to be fraudulent, a Times investigation found. To remove a filing from the state's database, victims must obtain a court order — a process that can cost thousands of dollars in attorney and court fees. The only other option in California is to record a new filing disputing or terminating the debt, which appears alongside the false claim rather than erasing it. In 2015, California expanded a law making it illegal to knowingly file a fake lien, broadening protections beyond public officials and employees to cover all victims. At least 16 additional states have laws that make it a crime to knowingly submit a fraudulent UCC record, according to the National Assn. of Secretaries of State report from 2023. Last year, a federal jury found a woman guilty of filing a fake lien against a U.S. attorney in Florida. In West Virginia, a man was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022 after he filed a fake lien against an IRS agent, who then had to take 'significant efforts' to clear it up when attempting to purchase a home, according to a federal appeals court opinion. A California man whom prosecutors identified as a 'sovereign citizen' was convicted in Ventura County on seven felony counts of filing false liens against government employees and sentenced to eight years in prison in 2019. Todd Duell filed additional fake liens that same year, including one against then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla, now a U.S. senator. Duell falsely claimed Padilla owed him $3 million and that he had secured the rights to Padilla's properties and bank accounts. A judge ordered the false lien be removed, finding that Duell targeted Padilla in retaliation for the criminal case filed against him. Duell couldn't be reached for comment. 'This has been an issue for at least 15 years, but it's gradually becoming more prevalent,' said John McGarvey, a Kentucky attorney who is part of the Permanent Editorial Board for the UCC, the group that proposes new legislation to keep the codes updated and aligned. Employees of Team Kia of El Cajon say they still remember the day Andre Mario Smith showed up at the dealership, clutching a UCC record he claimed entitled him to a new all-electric crossover. Confused, a car salesman photocopied the official-looking document adorned with the State of California seal, but ultimately sent Smith home without the Kia EV6 he tried to collect. 'We see this kind of stuff all the time,' said Michael Rogers, a San Diego attorney who represents Team Kia and other auto dealers. 'It's a big drain on society to have to deal with people like this who are just abusing the system.' Smith has filed numerous other UCC liens, including one for $999 quintillion against several Los Angeles County Superior Court judges. Smith declined to comment, texting: 'Not interested! Lose my number.' Rogers said the fake filings have real impacts on businesses. In the case of car dealerships, Rogers said the vehicles on their lots are often financed with a line of credit that is paid down when cars are sold. 'When dealerships want to take out a second line of credit to buy more used cars or do capital improvements, they've got these UCC filings cluttering up their financial history,' he said. 'It makes it very difficult for them to go out and get capital.' The UCC record Smith filed for the Kia remains in California's public database, but alongside 'termination' amendments Rogers filed that call the original claim erroneous. Rogers estimated that it would have cost up to $5,000 in court and attorney fees for the dealership to go to court to have the UCC record removed from the public database. The Times found a second person also filed a UCC claim against Team Kia. 'Now, I have to go through the process of getting this one terminated also,' he said. One of the most prolific individual UCC filers in California is Edward Kennedy. The Pennsylvania man has recorded UCC filings listing hundreds of people and businesses as being subject to his mysterious 'fee schedule,' in which he argues he's owed money for interactions with the government. A copy of that self-prescribed fee schedule was included in a lawsuit Kennedy filed against Facebook in 2021. It lists several pages of fees he says he charges, including $60,000 for every traffic citation he is issued, $50,000 when a public official fails to uphold their oath of office and $75,000 per hour if he's required to appear in court. In California UCC filings, he's named the state Assembly, numerous Pennsylvania officials, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and former Gov. Jerry Brown, among others. Kennedy filed a similar debt claim in Washington state, where he named Gov. Gavin Newsom and Microsoft as both being subject to his fee schedule in the same filing. It's unclear why Kennedy records so many UCC filings in California. Recording UCC statements is far cheaper in California at $5 per filing. By comparison, it costs $84 in Pennsylvania and $23 in Washington. Messages left for Kennedy were not returned. A county official in the Bay Area, who asked that his name not be used to avoid being targeted with additional fake filings, said he first learned he was named in a debt claim filed by Kennedy when contacted by The Times. The filing, which was recorded in 2022, included his home address, which he called 'unnerving.' He said he doesn't understand why he wouldn't be notified as part of the process so he could have promptly challenged it. 'It is shocking that individuals can file a baseless claim and then have it affect your credit and your way of life,' he said. Kristine Lee, who serves as assessor, clerk and recorder for Kings County in Central California, said she discovered five additional false filings against her after The Times alerted her to one. The filings listed her as owing debts that wouldn't expire for 20 years. 'I'm not sure what they think they would get out of me because it says liened and claimed at a sum of $100 billion,' Lee said. Lee said she was never notified when the documents were filed listing her work address. When she contacted the secretary of state's office, officials told her their hands were tied and 'it would have to be handled through the court.' That regulatory void has not gone unnoticed. Jarrett, the Texas real estate agent, told attendees in her class last year that UCC liens give them 'an enormous amount of legal leverage.' She opened and closed the class with a disclaimer, reminding those watching that she's not a lawyer and wasn't offering legal advice. She warned that they must follow the steps she outlines exactly or they could find themselves in serious legal trouble. But she repeatedly praised the method, calling it an equalizer. 'The process is powerful and dangerous to those who are in the line of fire,' she explained to attendees. 'There is no escape: Either acquiesce and justly recompense or suffer the awful consequences.' Times librarian Cary Schneider contributed to this report.
Politico
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Why Can Trump Sue You, But You Can't Sue Him?
If you read the language closely, you will notice that all of it could be true even if Trump himself did not author the letter, as he claims. The language quoted in the complaint appears to reflect careful reporting on the part of the Journal's reporters, good lawyering by the paper's attorneys or both. (POLITICO hasn't independently verified the letter.) On top of that, if the case is not dismissed or settled, it would proceed to discovery, in which the Journal's lawyers would almost certainly get the chance to depose Trump both about the alleged letter and drawing as well as his broader relationship with Epstein — the latter of which would be relevant in assessing the credibility of Trump's denial of his authorship. The Journal would also presumably seek all of Trump's records or correspondence with Epstein — which again are relevant to the credibility of Trump's denial and any potential motive to mislead the public about the letter. Depending on how this all unfolds, the case could ultimately generate even more damaging revelations for Trump. Court proceedings are presumptively public, so anything that the Journal puts in court papers about the deposition or discovery more generally would be available to the whole country. One cynical possibility: Trump knows all this and will never let the case get to discovery but was compelled to follow through on his threat to sue, so as not to lose face with his base. We have seen him do something similar in the past. Setting aside the merits of the case, there is still something fundamentally strange about the idea that Trump can go around suing seemingly whoever he wants while everyone else is largely precluded from suing him. The law on civil immunity for the president is relatively sparse. As a Congressional Research Service report last year noted, 'This is perhaps unsurprising, given that presidential immunity is a legal doctrine with no explicit textual basis in the Constitution that has theoretically applied to only 45 individuals in all of American history — most of whom have not been faced with legal proceedings implicating questions of civil or criminal liability.' In fact, the concept of civil immunity for the president has no basis either in the Constitution's text or in prior historical practice, as the legal scholar Saikrishna Prakash has demonstrated. President George Washington 'was something of a regular litigant in court,' Prakash noted in a 2021 paper. 'While threatening to litigate, bringing lawsuits, facing lawsuits and injunctions, Washington never suggested that he could not be sued or subject to judicial process.'
NBC News
20-07-2025
- Climate
- NBC News
Oregon wildfire burning over 95K acres could reach rare megafire status
The nation's largest wildfire this year has burned over 95,740 acres, fire officials in central Oregon said Sunday, as ground crews made progress to partially contain a blaze that could still intensify to become a so-called megafire. The size of the Cram Fire was adjusted slightly downward from Saturday after "more accurate mapping" was completed, officials said. They added that the massive blaze — which has drawn more than 900 fire personnel, destroyed a handful of homes and prompted evacuations in two counties — was 49% contained after crews struggled to keep back the flames last week. "Yesterday was another favorable day with us with the weather, and so a lot of good work was done," Scott Stutzman, operations section chief of the Oregon State Fire Marshal, said Sunday in a Facebook video. "We'll have those crews out there continuing to maintain a presence mopping up, and also assisting our wildland partners on the perimeter." Cooler temperatures and higher humidity over the weekend are expected to continue early this week, potentially aiding firefighting efforts, but the sheer size of the fire has been staggering: If it grows to at least 100,000 acres, it would be classified as a megafire, becoming the first one in the U.S. in 2025, said Stanton Florea, a spokesman with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates the country's wildland firefighting operations. Oregon saw six wildfires reach megafire status last year, federal data shows. The phenomenon is considered rare, but it has grown in frequency as wildfires in general become more widespread and intense. Megafires "are more common now," Florea said. "We're having longer fire seasons — what we're calling, the 'fire year.' And more intense fires that are lasting longer." So far this year, there have been 40,934 wildfires, the highest year-to-date total in at least a decade, according to National Interagency Fire Center data. But of the 1.6 million wildfires that have occurred since 2000, just 254 exceeded 100,000 acres burned, and only 16 were at least 500,000 acres, a Congressional Research Service report said in 2023. "A small fraction of wildfires become catastrophic, and a small percentage of fires accounts for the vast majority of acres burned," the service said. "For example, about 1% of wildfires become conflagrations — raging, destructive fires — but predicting which fires will 'blow up' into conflagrations is challenging and depends on a multitude of factors, such as weather and geography." The higher chance of extreme weather conditions, such as prolonged drought and strong winds, is being fueled by human-caused global warming, recent reports indicate. That means wildfires may not only ignite suddenly, but also strengthen in magnitude at a furious pace. The Cram Fire, which led to evacuations in parts of Jefferson and Wasco counties, began a week ago, exploding amid extremely hot, dry and windy conditions in the West. The cause remains under investigation. Florea said the Pacific Northwest is the highest-priority area in the country at the moment, with the nation's wildland firefighting resources being directed there, including to help battle at least nine large fires burning in Oregon. Such heavy demand means officials must prioritize how resources are used. An increase in the number of wildfires strains the system and the fatigued crews who work around-the-clock shifts, Florea added. While 88 engines and eight helicopters continue to be deployed to prevent the Cram Fire from spreading, the Oregon State Fire Marshal said Sunday it would begin modifying its response as containment improves. At least four homes and two other structures have been destroyed so far. The fire is no longer threatening residences to the same degree, officials said. Kyle Butler, whose home in rural Jefferson County was nearly burned in the blaze, said one neighbor fled the flames with her life, but returned to find her home severely damaged.
CNBC
10-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Virginia drops in America's Top States for Business rankings. Federal job cuts are a big reason
Six months into his second term in office, President Trump has begun to fundamentally change the relationship between the federal government and the states. In the process, he has shaken up CNBC's annual competitiveness ranking, America's Top States for Business. Virginia, last year's No. 1 state and a top three finisher in each of the last five years, slips to fourth place in 2025 — its worst showing since 2018 — and cedes the No. 1 spot to North Carolina. A major reason is a drop in the state's Economy ranking, to No. 14 in 2025 from No. 11 last year. Economy is the heaviest weighted category in the study under this year's methodology as more states pitch themselves as safe havens in a potential downturn. Virginia is already seeing a small downturn of sorts, as the Trump administration sets out to slash the federal workforce. That hits The Old Dominion where it lives. The federal government accounted for more than 144,000 jobs in Virginia last year, according to the Congressional Research Service. That is a larger percentage of the workforce than any state except Maryland and Hawaii. And that doesn't include Virginians who work for federal contractors, or commute to federal jobs elsewhere in the D.C. metro area. Include all of those, and the number approaches 300,000. In May, Virginia was one of only three states whose unemployment rate rose from the prior month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state is still adding jobs each month, albeit at a slower pace than last year, and Virginia's 3.4% unemployment rate in May was still below the national average. But the slowdown — and the fact that many of the federal job cuts have yet to be reflected in the official numbers — concerns University of Virginia economist Eric Scorsone, Executive Director of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. "Virginia has been an economy, historically, that is pretty resilient," he said. "But now, we're seeing something quite different, where Virginia is seeing some job losses, or at least job stagnation, whereas the nation as a whole is still creating jobs." The Center's most recent forecast, published in April, calls for the state to lose 32,000 jobs this year, with the job losses accelerating as the year goes on. While Scorsone said those job losses will occur primarily in the federal sector, he also sees a ripple effect. "Things like leisure and accommodations," he said. "As people lose jobs, they're going to spend less on those things, [and] maybe in retail," he added. Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, says the state can absorb those federal job cuts. In February, the state launched a web site, targeting displaced workers with job listings and other resources from across the state. "We have 250,000 open jobs posted that are unfilled. And so, there's a great opportunity for folks to find a new opportunity, new job, new career," Youngkin said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on April 15. A recent check of the site showed that the number of openings has shrunk to 199,000 as jobs have been filled and private sector hiring has slowed. That still would appear to be more than enough for the federal workers likely to be displaced. But Scorsone said it is not that simple. "Virginia's federal workforce is different than, say, other states. Our workforce tends to be highly educated, professional executive level," he said. "Many of the jobs that are open may be in different sectors, like health care. You can't just easily move into a health care job if that's not your area of expertise," he added. In his CNBC appearance in April, Youngkin acknowledged the likelihood that the state will lose jobs, and that the private sector alternatives will not be an exact fit for many displaced government employees. "Listen, they're not perfect matches," he said. "They're high paying, good jobs that require someone to possibly get some retraining or re-skilling, or go into a new field, but they're really good jobs." Youngkin said the budget cuts, and job losses, are necessary. "We need to rein in spending and re-establish fiscal reality back into the federal government," he said, adding that Virginia goes into the upheaval from a position of strength. "We're seeing record surpluses in our budgets. We're able to use those surpluses to reduce taxes and invest in education and law enforcement and other investments in business development," Youngkin said. Indeed, Virginia is still a business powerhouse, with the top Education ranking in the CNBC study, and the second best rating for Infrastructure. Over time, no state has performed better than Virginia in the CNBC rankings. The state has taken top honors six times since the project began in 2007. But in 2025, with economic anxiety rising, Virginia's economic situation is just shaky enough to take it down a few pegs.
CNBC
10-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Massachusetts is 2025's Most Improved State for Business boosted by financial independence from D.C.
For 400 years, the spirit of independence has served the people of Massachusetts well. In 2025, it helped the state achieve a turnaround of sorts in CNBC's annual America's Top States for Business study. The Bay State is America's most improved state in this year's rankings, rising 18 spots to No. 20 overall, after staging the biggest drop — falling 23 places — last year. Massachusetts was able to make that U-turn thanks to its relative independence from Washington. With federal budget cuts looming, this year's CNBC study considered their potential impact on each state's economy. Economy is the most important category in 2025, and Massachusetts improved its ranking in the category to No. 15, from No. 40 last year. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, federal funds comprised 30% of Massachusetts government spending last fiscal year. That made Massachusetts the 14th least dependent state on Washington (Wyoming was the least dependent at 19%; Louisiana was the most at 50%). In addition, Massachusetts' federal workforce of about 25,000 people makes up only about half a percent of its total workforce, according to data from the Congressional Research Service. That makes the state's federal workforce the eighth-smallest in the country relative to the total. "We tackle hard problems in Massachusetts. Hard stuff. Wicked hard stuff sometimes," Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, said in her State of the Commonwealth speech in January. She pointed to $1.5 billion in state funding for child care to make up for federal cuts after the pandemic. "We were the only state to fully replace federal support that went away," she said. Massachusetts still lags the nation in access to affordable child care, according to Child Care Aware of America, but it improved its performance this year, helping the state to an eighth-place finish in the Quality of Life category. But independence only goes so far, even in Massachusetts. The state is the third-largest recipient of federal health and science research grants, after New York and California. The Trump administration has taken aim at those grants nationwide, but nowhere more directly than in Massachusetts. Since April, the Trump administration has moved to freeze $3.2 billion in grants to Harvard University and to terminate another $100 million in federal contracts with the 389-year-old institution, accusing the university of liberal bias and of harboring antisemitism. The school has sued to block the cuts, citing the First Amendment, and the university's own efforts to curtail antisemitism on campus. But Christopher Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council — a business organization that has been advocating for the state's tech industry since 1977 — said Harvard is not the only institution threatened by the federal cuts. "We do have a large number of research institutions that are critically important to generating and contributing to our innovation economy here," he told CNBC. "Everyone's feeling the pinch," he added. In May, the University of Massachusetts directed department heads to develop budget scenarios that include 3% and 5% cuts. As of mid-June, the university said it had already received $29 million less in federal research awards than at the same time a year earlier. To blunt some of the impact of the cuts, the university established a matching fund that it says has committed more than $700,000 toward salaries and research funding that would otherwise be cut. But that money is a drop in the bucket, with the university normally receiving $180 million a year in federal research support, including $44 million in so-called "indirect" funding for facilities and administration that the administration has sought to sharply reduce. "Unfortunately, the commonwealth is really not in a position to play the role of savior as perhaps it could if it had been managing its state budget more appropriately," Anderson said. Anderson said that 15 years of what he called "unsustainable" growth in state spending have hobbled Massachusetts at the worst possible time. "At exactly the time when the federal government is cutting back, we find ourselves unable to invest quickly or effectively in the key economic development projects that are driven by powerful innovations like artificial intelligence," he said. Anderson also pointed to the Mass Leads Act, signed into law by Gov. Healey last year, which the High Technology Council supported. The four-year economic development bill purports to include hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for life science, climate technology, and artificial intelligence. While the law sets a goal of $4 billion for economic development, Anderson said only $251 million of that is currently funded due to state borrowing caps. "It doesn't allow Massachusetts to keep up," he said. An analysis by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics found Massachusetts roughly in the middle of the pack when it comes to state support for research and development, ranking 22nd in 2023. While Massachusetts improved its overall ranking in the CNBC study, it still has some serious issues beyond its budget pressures. It is the second-most-expensive state to do business in, behind Hawaii. Wage costs are the highest in the nation; utility costs are the third highest. And the state ranks No. 42 for Business Friendliness, with a heavy regulatory hand. Anderson said the long-term solution to the state's competitive issues might be to take that independent streak a bit further, encouraging research institutions to work more closely with the private sector rather than relying on state support. "This could be the beginning of a new era of collaboration between private sector companies and these institutions," he said. Join the conversation. Didn't see your state mentioned? You can see where it ranked overall, and in all 10 categories of competitiveness, in the full rankings of the 2025 America's Top States for Business.
