Anti-government group members arrested for money laundering

Published Friday, March 6, 2009 | 3:51 p.m.

Updated Friday, March 6, 2009 | 5:28 p.m.

Four arrested in Las Vegas on federal charges (3-5-09)

Four members of an anti-government movement, known as the "Sovereign Movement," have been arrested after a three-year investigation by the Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force on allegations of money laundering, tax evasion and possessing unregistered machine guns.

The four men were arrested Thursday in the Las Vegas area, said Greg Brower, U.S. Attorney for Nevada.

Samuel Davis, 54, of Council, Idaho; Shawn Rice, 46, of Seligman, Ariz.; Harold Call, 67, of Las Vegas; and Jan Lindsey, 66, of Henderson, were taken into custody, Brower said.

Davis and Rice are charged in a federal indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and 30 counts of money laundering. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine on each count.

Call is charged in a federal indictment with two counts of possession and transfer of a machine gun and three counts of possession of an unregistered machine gun. If convicted, Call faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.

Undercover agents working for the FBI infiltrated the anti-government group, which often met at a Denny's restaurant at Fremont Street and Boulder Highway, and for $750 purchased parts from Call to turn guns into machine guns, the search warrants said.

Call in one phone conversation said he phoned the IRS to see whether his account had been credited. He said that after asking a woman IRS four times for his account balance, Call learned the IRS had not credited his account. In the phone call with the undercover FBI agent, Call said, "Every time I talk to the IRS, I just want to go kill somebody."

In addition to the STEN machine gun, the task force seized a mill and other equipment that allowed Call to transform weapons into machine guns and he demonstrated an AR-15 rifle he had converted to allow for fully automatic firing.

Lindsey is charged in a federal indictment with one count of evasion of payment of tax and four counts of tax evasion. If convicted, Lindsey faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.

The indictments were returned by a federal grand jury Tuesday and unsealed on Thursday. The defendants were to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leavitt on Friday.

From March 2008 through the date of the indictment, Davis and Rice allegedly laundered about $1.3 million for FBI undercover agents, court records show. Davis and Rice were told by the undercover agents that the monies were proceeds of a bank fraud scheme, specifically from the theft and forgery of stolen official bank checks.

Davis and Rice laundered the money through a nominee trust account controlled by Davis and through an account of a purported religious organization controlled by Rice. The men took about $74,000 and $22,000, respectively, in fees for their money laundering services before handing the rest of the funds to the undercover FBI agents.

Davis is allegedly a national leader of the anti-government movement, traveling nationwide to teach different theories and ideologies of the movement, court records said. Rice allegedly claims that he is a lawyer and Rabbi, and uses his law school education and businesses to promote his sovereign ideas and to gain credibility in the community.

Call allegedly possessed and transferred an "auto sear" or "lightning link," a combination of firearm parts designed to convert a weapon from a single-shot manual one to automatic use, on Sept. 11, 2008, and Jan. 20, 2009, the court records said. Call allegedly possessed a STEN machine gun on Oct. 9, 2008, which was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

Lindsey is a retired FBI agent. He and Call are leaders of the Nevada Lawmen Group for Public Awareness, a group that is associated with the sovereign movement.

Lindsey allegedly failed to timely file or pay federal income tax for the years 1999 through 2006, and committed various acts designed to hide his income and assets from the IRS, including filing false tax returns, making false statements to the IRS, placing funds and property in the names of nominees, using fake negotiable instruments to attempt to pay his taxes and filing false documents with the IRS and Clark County.

In a detailed search warrant unsealed Friday, authorities said Lindsey underwent and passed a background investigation in 2000 for his work conducting FBI background checks, but in 2005 he revealed he had not filed his income taxes. The FBI's Security Division determined he was a security risk and did not grant him clearances.

The search warrant said Lindsey owes the IRS $333,397.78 for unpaid taxes from 1999 to 2002.

On May 7, 2008, Lindsey filed a false tax form for 2000 saying his wife earned $13,638.33 from Azurix and $7,249.77 from Enron, when IRS wage records show she earned $169,109 and $174,142, respectively, from the two companies.

Unsealed search warrant affidavits allege that Rice, Davis, Lindsey and Call are heavily involved in the "Sovereign Movement," an extreme anti-government organization whose members attempt to disrupt and overthrow government and other forms of authority by using "paper terrorist" tactics, intimidation, harassment and violence, court records said.

Members of the group believe they do not have to pay taxes and believe the federal government deceived Americans into obtaining Social Security cards, drivers' licenses, car registrations and wedding licenses, among other official records. The group believes that if these contracts are revoked, persons are "sovereign citizens."

Members of this group also believe that U.S. currency is invalid. They widely use fictitious financial instruments, such as fake money orders, personal checks and sight drafts, and participate in "redemption" schemes where the false financial documents are used to pay creditors.

The FBI-led Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force includes the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Henderson Police Department, IRS Criminal Investigation, Metro Police, the Nevada Department of Public Safety and the North Las Vegas Police Department in addition to other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in Nevada, Council, Idaho, and Flagstaff and Seligman, Ariz.

Discussion: 12 comments so far…

By Lenny_V

3/6/09 at 5:40 p.m.

Suggest removal

They laundered money for FBI agents? Uh, isn't that entrapment?
By snyderm

3/6/09 at 6:13 p.m.

Suggest removal

I can't believe the judge is going to let them out!
By LasVegas2009

3/6/09 at 7:49 p.m.

Suggest removal

I used to get e-mails from that group!
By afveteran

3/6/09 at 9:40 p.m.

Suggest removal

These guys are nothing but crooks, with illegal firearms. What else is new?
By truthseeker

3/7/09 at 1:40 a.m.

Suggest removal

THIS CRAP HAPPENS EVERY YEAR AT THIS TIME OF YEAR TO SCARE AND KEEP YOU CATTLE IN THE CAGE. THERES NO CRIME NO ONE WAS INJURED,LOOK UP DEFINITION OF MONEY, YOU'LL FIND THERE IS NONE. IRS IS A TRUST ORGANIZATION OUT OF PUERTO RICO.THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN AUDITED.WE HAVE BEEN LIED TO SINCE 1913. LOOK UP HJR-192. WHAT IS GOVERNMENT , BRAINWASHED PEOPLE NOT KNOWING WHAT CONSTITUTION, BILL OF RIGHTS AND TEN COMMANDMENTS, SOMETHING COUNTRY LOST A LONG TIME AGO.THEYRE NOT ANTI GOV. ,THERE JUST USING RULES ALREADY IN USE.
By vegasj

3/7/09 at 4:39 a.m.

Suggest removal

When's the next Vegas gun show? Coo, coo, coo...boogity boogity, boogity.
By pmmart

3/7/09 at 8:07 a.m.

Suggest removal

Wasn't there a guy named Call involved in the infamous Randy Weaver "incident" in Idaho way back when?

Or was that part of the name of the town?

Don't you just hate it when you get old?
By afveteran

3/7/09 at 9 a.m.

Suggest removal

"BRAINWASHED PEOPLE NOT KNOWING WHAT CONSTITUTION, BILL OF RIGHTS AND TEN COMMANDMENTS, SOMETHING COUNTRY LOST A LONG TIME AGO.THEYRE NOT ANTI GOV. ,THERE JUST USING RULES ALREADY IN USE". by truthseeker
-----------------------------------------------
The truthseeker believes in UFO's at Hangar 51?
By KillerB

3/7/09 at 1:53 p.m.

Suggest removal

Nothing in this article proves these accused did anything remotely connected to "terrorism." That's just a label, like "evil," to get an unthinking response from the herd.

Pay attention, People. Our protected liberties are actively being watered down by 51 legislatures and a huge bureaucratic machine in overdrive. Dust off your personal copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, AND Nevada's Declaration of Rights. Only then are you qualified to answer whether these men were were within their rights to prepare for self defense or revolution. Otherwise those founding documents -- the organic laws -- are fast becoming irrelevant.

"The ideas of the herd should rule in the herd -- but not reach out beyond it." -- Nietzsche
By LeePow

3/8/09 at 11:51 a.m.

Suggest removal

These trumped up charges are probably b.s. and overblown. The guy probably owes taxes, well, then tax him, get him for what he owes, but the Terrorism Task Force? We have a Terrorism Task force why? For this? Wake up, people. Today it's him, you could be next. Learn your rights!
By scott_ctc

3/8/09 at 12:51 p.m.

Suggest removal

There's no need to conceal your earnings from the IRS, or not file. Most people don't know exactly how they become liable for the income tax (these guys sure didn't). Do you know (hint: it's an excise tax, the Supreme Court says so)? Find out exactly what is being taxed and what the law allows you to do about it at HowYouBecomeLiable.com .
By redferret

3/9/09 at 8:15 a.m.

Suggest removal

These guys sound like wackos, and good job on the government for finding them.
And for crying out loud, in Nevada you can own a machine gun. You don't need to illegally modify them. God the way people talk these days I might try to buy stock in aluminum foil.

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