Sovereign Citizen Gets Five Years For Paper Terrorism Extortion Racket; Filed Liens Totaling In The Trillion$ Against Cops, Judges, Credit Union CEO

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

• An anti-government bully was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison for using fake bills, bogus property liens and bizarre court filings to attack Ulster County bankers and government officials.
• Richard Ulloa, 52, was sentenced on seven counts of mail fraud for using the U.S. Postal Service to deliver phony bills and liens that threatened to harm the credit of bankers and public officials.



• The tactic is known as "paper terrorism." Ulloa remained defiant till the end. Even though he filed roughly $4 trillion in liens and bills against police, judges and county employees, Ulloa told a judge in Albany that it was he who lost more than anyone. "I lost a job, I lost a business and I lost property," said Ulloa, who once earned more than $180,000 a year as an IBM engineer. "I have lost more than anybody else."



• Ulloa, of Stone Ridge, is a member of the sovereign citizens, a national movement of radicals who do not believe the government has the right to create or enforce laws. His anti-government scheme took many turns.



• It started in 2008, when the Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union began foreclosure proceedings on his Ridge Mountain Road home. Ulloa responded by sending a "criminal complaint" to the bank, demanding $46 million from its officers. When the bank didn't pay, he filed a $2.8 billion lien against bank CEO Bill Spearman.



• The pattern repeated itself twice more, when Ulloa was issued traffic tickets in Rosendale and the Town of Ulster. He filed bills and liens against police officers and judges in both municipalities. He also filed bogus papers against Ulster County officials.



• Soon after federal authorities charged Ulloa and two co-conspirators in 2010, the sovereigns took even stranger actions. Court papers show they convened a kangaroo court in Highland, issued fake indictments against their victims and threatened to have sovereign "rangers" arrest them.



• Despite being cleared by a mental-health evaluator, Ulloa's lawyer argued Monday that his client had become mentally ill sometime over the past six years.U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy didn't buy the argument. "Somewhere along the way, you decided to follow the voice of the sovereign citizens," McAvoy told Ulloa. "You did that with reckless disregard and evil intention." Ulloa must pay $63,401 in restitution to Ulster County and MHVFCU.



• His scheme instilled fear in its victims, because sovereign citizens in other parts of the country have turned violent, even killing cops in two cases. MHVFCU and Ulster County handed out photos of Ulloa to some employees, urging them to call security if he showed up.



• "There was a lot of anxiety about this guy coming into our offices," said Spearman, the bank CEO. "There were some concerns that he might act out."

For more, see Ulster 'paper terrorist' gets 5 years (Stone Ridge man, 52, sued, schemed against officials).

Go here for earlier posts on this crackpot.