‘Sovereign Citizens’ Guru Sentenced to Nearly Five Years in Scam
In addition to his upcoming prison term, Davis has been ordered to pay $95,782 in restitution to the government, and will be subject to three years of supervised release when he gets out prison, the Review-Journal reports.
Davis is a major figure on the sovereign scene. He was an “elder” in the Guardians of the Free Republics, a group that in 2010 fruitlessly demanded that all 50 governors step down. And under the nickname “I am: Sam” (whose odd punctuation follows conventions used by sovereigns who believe it exempts them from government authority), he hosted seminars promulgating the so-called “redemption” scam, a bizarre technique that supposedly allows participants to tap into huge amounts of cash that the government is thought to keep in their name. Davis shared Web space with other key redemption gurus – including Jerry Kane, who with his 16-year-old son Joseph shot to death two West Memphis, Ark., police officers who had pulled them over in a routine traffic stop in May 2010