FBI: Fraudulent 'Secret Government Fund' Program To Thwart Foreclosures Based On Bogus "Redemption Theory"

In Wethersfield, Connecticut, the Hartford Courant reports:

• The sales pitch offered people who were drowning in debt a miraculous life jacket. It went like this: There's a U.S. Treasury fund that can be used by individuals to stop foreclosure actions, pay off debts and end their money worries.
  
  But the Treasury Department keeps the fund a secret. There's a special way to get the loot, but to find out how will involve a fee.
  
  The fund, of course, doesn't exist, a life preserver filled with rocks. People who paid thousands of dollars for help ended up in worse financial shape than before.
  
  The alleged scam, based on a well-worn fabrication, was revealed last month when federal tax agents arrested Deowraj Buddhu, 69, and his daughter, Sunita Buddhu, 41, both of Wethersfield, on mail fraud and conspiracy charges. The pair are jailed, waiting for trial.
  
  The "program" they peddled, police said, was a version of a fraud based on "Redemption Theory," a type that pops up so often that the FBI routinely warns the public not to fall for it.
  
  The FBI says the theory was introduced by Roger Elvick, a white supremicist, it in the 1980s. He claimed that since abandoning the gold standard in the 1930s, the U.S. government has used its citizens as collateral, issuing Social Security numbers and birth certificates to register people in trade agreements with other countries. In conjunction with "registration," a secret fund was established that is funded with $630,000 for every U.S. citizen, the theory goes.
  
  Elvick's theory has been embraced by the sovereign citizen movement, whose extremist adherents claim they are essentially a nation unto themselves and have no obligation to the American government, including paying taxes, possessing a driver's license or obeying the law.

For more, see Alleged 'Redemption Theory' Scam Has Roots In Ultra-Right-Wing Dogma (Wethersfield Father And Daughter Charged With Persuading People A Secret Government Fund Would Pay Their Debts).