Harvey ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Charged in Scheme to Extort Millions From Employer, Westwego Officials
A Harvey man who purports to be a “sovereign citizen” immune from local, state and federal law has been arrested on federal terrorism charges. Melvin Lewis II, 51, is accused of scheming to defraud his former employer and several officials in Jefferson Parish of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Lewis was booked Thursday with mail fraud and mailing threatening communications, the FBI announced. The charges stem from his employment with Dynamic Industries of Harvey, and from a traffic ticket he received last year in Westwego.
The FBI describes sovereign citizens as “anti-government extremists who believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or ‘sovereign’ from the United States. As a result, they believe they don’t have to answer to any government authority, including courts, taxing entities, motor vehicle departments, or law enforcement.”
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