Feds Indict Trio In Alleged $1.24 Trillion Bogus Lien Extortion Racket Targeting Government Officials, Bank Executives

In Kingston, New York, the Times Record Herald reports:

• A federal grand jury has indicted three anti-government zealots in connection with an alleged scheme to extort money from Ulster County, three towns and a handful of public employees. The accused men also targeted executives of Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, court papers said.

• The bizarre plot came to light in April, when Ulster County and public workers brought a racketeering case against the alleged conspirators. The suit accused six people of intimidating government employees by sending them fraudulent bills and filing liens against their personal property, totaling $143 billion. Feds pegged the extortion plot at $1.24 trillion.(1)

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• According to the court papers, the stream of phony invoices and fraudulent liens started in 2009, after Ulloa and Parenteau were ticketed in separate incidents for driving without licenses. Ulloa later claimed he had an international driving permit.

• But rather than hire lawyers and plead their cases in courts, the men and their alleged accomplices unleashed a barrage of fake paperwork, court documents said. Ulloa sent phony criminal invoices totaling $700 million to Rosendale Town Justice Robert Vosper. Parenteau filed a $62 billion federal lien against the Town of Lloyd and its police chief. And when Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union began foreclosure proceedings on a property Ulloa owned on Van Keuren Highway in Kingston, he filed a $2.82 billion lien against a top bank executive.

For more, see Ulster County men indicted in bizarre anti-government extortion plot (Feds say men sent fake bills, filed liens in $1.24T scheme).

For an earlier story, see Courthouse News Service: Towns, Judges Say They're Being Extorted.

For the civil lawsuit filed earlier this year, see County of Ulster, New York, et al. v. Ulloa, et al.

(1) According to the story, federal authorities arrested two of the men: Richard Enrique Ulloa, 41, of Stone Ridge, faces four counts of mail fraud. Ed George Parenteau, 53, of Chenango County, was charged with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Ulloa was released on $10,000 bail, but Parenteau remains jailed in Albany County. The third man, Jeffrey Charles Burfeindt, 47, of Highland, is still missing. He faces the same charges as Parenteau. The men were charged with mail fraud because their fake documents were sent through the mail. No charges were filed against the remaining three, who were named in the civil suit.