March 15, 2025 • 28 mins
The Great Thumbprint Hoax: How NOT to Dodge Your Taxes! 🙄💸
Ever wondered how a self-proclaimed 'President' of an imaginary nation tried to dodge a $300 million tax bill with fake bonds and a red thumbprint? 🤯 Dive into the absurdity with this episode of Dirty Money Files, where we uncover the wild world of the Sovereign Citizen Movement and their laughable schemes. From Walmart parking lot deals to exploiting desperate people during the financial crisis of 2008-2009, James Timothy Turner's audacious fraud is a tale of utter delusion and epic punishment. Let's mock, laugh, and learn from this finance fiasco - don't forget to hit subscribe and share the craziness! 💰😂🚓
00:00 Introduction to the Bold Scam
00:45 The Sovereign Citizen Movement
02:22 James Timothy Turner's Grand Scheme
05:09 The Fake Bonds and Their Appeal
10:30 The IRS Takes Notice
14:45 The Downfall of James Timothy Turner
21:48 Lessons from the Scam
24:36 Lingering Questions and Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right.
Ever heard of the saying go bigor go home?
Well, today's scammer took thatadvice too seriously, except he
forgot the part where going bigalso meant going to prison.
Welcome to Dirty Money Files,where cons are bold, schemes are
absurd and consequencesdeliciously satisfying.
(00:27):
In a chef's kiss kind of way,today's story has it all
Self-proclaimed presidents ofimaginary nations, red
thumbprints on fake financialdocuments and Walmart parking
deals that make you wonder ifwe've all been just doing life
wrong, or maybe right, becausewe're not sitting in prison for
(00:49):
18 years.
Today we are going to take alovely dip into the wild world
of the sovereign citizenmovement, which is basically a
group of people who believe lawsare optional and taxes are
theft Pretty much legalconspiracy theorists who think
they can just opt out of reality.
(01:20):
James Timothy Turner didn't justtry to dodge taxes.
James Timothy Turner didn'tjust try to dodge taxes.
He instead thought of himselfthe mastermind that could
rewrite the whole US financialsystem with a color printer and
a red thumbprint, and shockinglyfinds out that's not exactly
how the world works.
Turner charged $150 and apre-1964 silver dollar and don't
(01:45):
worry, I will explain that soonIn order to teach people to
create fake bonds, he claimed hewould magically erase their
debts, because nothing says,trust me, like demanding payment
in an outdated currency.
He even tried to pay his own$300 million tax bill with one
(02:07):
of these fake bonds.
That is a big bill.
Yeah, he must have had a bit ofa business empire galley on
there, dodgy one, and you canprobably guess how well that
turned out.
I assume the IRS has a lot ofpatience, but I would say they
draw the line at Monopoly money.
Either way, buckle up, becausethis is the tale of financial
(02:30):
delusion, patriotic nonsense anda hubris so outrageous it feels
like satire.
But trust me, every absurddetail is real, and so let's dig
in.
First, we'll set the scene byexploring how Turner became the
self-proclaimed president of animaginary nation and why so many
(02:53):
people fell for his ridiculousscam and spoiler.
Desperation and delusion makefor a dangerous cocktail.
Picture this a seminar held insome dingy hotel conference room
where the lights buzz overheadand attendees clutch cheap
styrofoam cups of coffee.
Eyes are wide open with hope.
(03:16):
At the front, james TimothyTurner.
He stands behind a flimsyfolding table preaching about
financial freedom and his secretFake bonds that look like
something your 8-year-old mightwhip up in an art class
attendees.
The ultimate hack, a way towipe out their debt and their
(03:36):
taxes with nothing more than aprinter, some legal gibberish
and, for some reason, a redthumbprint.
It sounds like the setup for abad comedy, but for Turner and
(03:58):
his followers it was real.
So real, in fact, that Turneractually tried to pay his own
$300 million tax bill with oneof these fake bonds.
Honestly, how does someone comeup with this and, more
importantly, how does anyonebelieve it?
Well, to answer that, we needto start at the beginning, to
(04:20):
the rise of James Timothy Turnerand the fertile ground that
made his scam possible.
It's the late 2000s.
The economy is in shambles,jobs are scarce, debt is
skyrocketing and foreclosuresare rampant.
People are desperate for a wayout, and I think we know why
(04:42):
we're here.
Desperation is the perfectbreeding ground for schemes like
Turner's.
James Timothy Turner I like hisname.
It's a bit of a tongue twister.
I like it.
An Alabama native with an ego,unfortunately the size of his
skinks.
He wasn't just your average Joetax dodger.
(05:05):
No, he was full delusional,crowning himself the president
of a completely made-up Republicfor the United States of
America, built entirely onsovereign citizen BS.
To his followers, turner wasn'tjust a guy with a plan.
To his followers, ternam wasn'tjust a guy with a plan.
He was a savior.
(05:26):
He offered hope to peopledrowning in debt, promising them
a way to beat the system thathad, in their eyes, failed them.
All they had to do was trusthim and, of course, pay him.
But before we move forward onthat, let's talk about sovereign
citizens.
(05:46):
Sovereign citizens arebasically well, people who've
decided that laws are more of asuggestion.
Taxes, no thanks.
Speed limits Not their vibe.
Reality, yeah.
They'll pass on that too.
Their favourite hobby Floodingthe courts with absolute
gibberish they call trucelanguage.
It's a chaotic cocktail ofconspiracy buzzwords and fake
(06:11):
legal nonsense.
The judges hate it, the IRShates it and honestly, everyone
hates it, but to these pelicansit's just the apparent key to
freedom.
Turner used the sovereigncitizen movement as the perfect
front for his scam.
He wrapped up his fake bondscheme in their legal bogus
(06:34):
nonsense, giving it enoughcredibility to reel in the
desperate and gullible.
He wasn't just pushingfinancial freedom, he was
selling it in a way to stick itto the man and unfortunately,
people bought it.
Turner held seminars across thecountry in 2008 and 2009,
(06:55):
teaching attendees methods todefraud the Internal Revenue
Service, irs.
He promoted the use offictitious financial instruments
, referred to as bonds, in whichhe could claim discharged debts
, including federal taxes,charging $150 per person plus a
(07:16):
pre-1964 silver dollar.
You need to know.
Is the silver dollar worth moreor less than $150?
Probably more.
I mean, it's outdated currency.
It'd be like a coin collector'sdream.
Like dad, I'm into this Becausethey use paper dollars now.
Yeah, no, I know, I'm justcurious what the value was at
(07:37):
the time.
Well, I don't know what thevalue was at the time, but I did
read a little bit about howpeople do collect it for the,
the metal, the precious metal,um, like quality, content or
something, not just coincollection, because it did.
Actually, it was like 90 silverand like 10 nickel or something
(07:59):
I don't know.
Um, anyway, so he charged thesefor reasons no one will ever
really understand, or maybe hejust liked shiny things.
But yes, the pre-1964 dollar isexactly what it sounds like a
silver dollar coin.
His demand for silver dollars asseminar fees wasn't some random
(08:22):
choice.
These coins are made from realsilver and are practically
catnip for the sovereigncitizens he targeted.
Basically, sovereign citizensare obsessed with the idea that
government-issued money is ascam, and see precious metals
like silver and gold as the onlyreal currency.
(08:45):
So by insisting on silver,turner wasn't just getting paid.
He was feeding their delusionalanti-government ideals.
Either way, his seminarsprovided information and
strategies that were laughablysimple.
You'd print the bonds on yourhome printer, slap on a red
thumbprint for authenticationand then, ooh, you have what
(09:10):
Turner claimed was a legitimatefinancial document.
It honestly sounds like it wasfelony arts and crafts.
But it gets even better.
Regarding the distributionmethods, imagine meeting your
financial sa in a walmartparking lot or, I guess, like
(09:30):
kmart for us, where he hands youa stack of fake bonds from the
trunk of his car.
Honestly, nothing screamslegitimate financial operation
like a deal conducted in a carpark.
But for some of his morepremium clients, like Thomas Fry
, the pharmacist we'll hear moreabout later Turner handed out
(09:52):
these bonds personally,providing step-by-step
instructions on how to use themand the goal of these Submit
them to banks, creditors or theIRS as payment for debts.
Turner's followers wereconvinced, with some of them
trying to use these bogus bondsto pay off mortgages and credit
card debt.
(10:13):
Imagine yeah, that easy, I know, definitely right now.
It's pretty expensive, though.
What it's pretty expensive,true, if you get it printed.
You know, I guess, like thoselaser ones, they've got those
heat ones.
Now, yeah, maybe you would likeargue less with your printer.
That's a serious financialcommitment.
Hate the printer.
(10:35):
Um turner himself took things alittle bit further, attempting
to pay off his 300 milliondollar tax bill with one of
these fake bonds.
How many seminars is he giving?
$150 for a seminar?
And then he ends up with a $300million tax debt.
I don't know, I couldn't reallyfind too much information prior
(10:56):
to this, but, like Jesus,that's a lot of a tax debt.
Anyway, shockingly, the IRSdidn't accept it, because it
turns out the IRS prefers actualmoney over printer paper with a
red thumbprint, pink element.
You know, yeah, who knew.
In addition, he aided andembedded in sending at least 15
(11:18):
similar fictitious bonds to theTreasury to pay taxes and other
debt.
So James Turner wasn't justselling fake financial documents
, he was selling a dream-ish, adream that you could outsmart
the system, erase your debts andlive free from the burdens of
taxes and laws.
(11:39):
And for his followers, it was adeal too good to miss.
But, as you'll see, it was adeal too good to miss.
But, as you'll see, this dreamwas built on a foundation of
lies, delusion and spectacularmisunderstanding of how laws and
colour printers actually work,like how it's, as you'll see, as
though the listeners haven'talready caught on the fact that
(12:01):
people have fallen in lies.
If you haven't figured that outyet, I don't know if you will
see for the rest of the episode.
You probably need to know bynow.
You definitely would need to goget financial literacy training
.
Anyway, when the dream finallycollapsed, it left a trail of
financial ruin, legal troubleand probably some very, very
(12:22):
confused Walmart shoppers.
So at the heart of this scamwere these dodgy financial
documents that Turner sworecould wipe out millions in debt.
He called them bonds, but let'sbe real, they were just fancy
bits of paper covered inofficial-sounding nonsense,
random legal jargon and onestandout feature what is money,
(12:45):
really?
But you know, random jargon ona piece of paper.
True, now you get it.
Now you get the sovereigncitizens.
Okay, well, I'll find out whatI'm doing next.
You're going to be on TikTok,like arguing.
I'll be on a Google spiral.
No, like, you've seen thoselike TikToks where, like people
are like actually arguing withcops.
(13:06):
Yeah, I mean, they're all overAustralia as well.
It's not just like an Americanthing?
Hmm, um, where was I?
Um?
Turner claimed this thumbprintmade bonds legally binding.
Where he got that idea?
Who really knows?
Either way, it was absoluterubbish.
(13:29):
These documents were supposed tolook official enough to full
banks and government agencies,but to anyone with a shred of
financial literacy or really abrain, they were obviously a
gift.
They were obviously fake, andyet Turner sold these bonds to
his followers with completeconfidence, calling them the
(13:52):
secret to financial freedom.
In reality, though, they werejust the fast track to financial
disaster, and so how did Turnerkeep his household cards from
collapsing straight away?
The answer lies in three thingsConfidence, complexity and
desperation.
First, turner's confidence washis superpower.
(14:15):
He sold his scam with suchconviction that even skeptics
started to wonder if there wassomething to it.
Second, his pseudo-legal jargonhe spouted was intentionally
complex.
The average person had no wayof knowing whether what he said
was legitimate or nonsense.
(14:35):
And finally, turner preyed ondesperate people.
When you're drowning in debt,you're more likely to cling to a
life raft or like leaking on.
It's like global financialcrisis right in 2008.
Yeah, yeah, so people are verydesperate at this point.
I guess that makes sense thatpeople tried to use it for the
(15:00):
mortgages, because that was, itwas the housing issue.
Yeah, anyway, his scam wasbuilt on a foundation of false
promises and bad printingtechniques, but for a while it
worked.
People believed in him, theybelieved in the fake bonds and
they believed they couldoutsmart the IRS with a piece of
(15:20):
paper and a thumbprint.
But no scam lasts forever, andTurner's time was running out.
His followers weren't the onlyones paying attention to him.
So was the IRS, obviously, andwhen the government finally
decided to crack down, theybrought the full weight of the
law with him the real law, notfake law.
(15:44):
And so next up, we will dive inon how this ridiculous game
unraveled and explore thefallout for everyone involved,
because when you go up againstUncle Sam, you better believe he
doesn't play games.
Every great scam has a breakingpoint, and for James Timothy
(16:05):
Turner's it came courtesy of apharmacist, thomas Fry, a
59-year-old from Andalusia,alabama and I'm so sorry You're
not going to get places rightever on this show.
No, I can't practice.
Okay, he thought he'd found theultimate tax hack.
(16:26):
Fry owed $250,000 in back taxesand decided to settle the bill
using one of Turner's vaguebonds.
Naturally, the IRS took onelook at the bond and said nice
try, but what really raisedeyebrows was the red thumbprint.
Imagine being the IRS agent whohad to file that report.
(16:51):
Suspected taxpayer fraudincludes art project with
thumbprint.
It was enough to trigger aninvestigation, just not actually
into Fry, but into the man whohad sold him the ridiculous idea
in the first place.
As the IRS agent dug deeper,they uncovered the paper trail
(17:11):
that led straight to Turner.
Reports of his nationwideseminars and fake financial
documents poured in.
The IRS realized this wasn'tjust a one-off incident.
It was a full-blown operation,and the final straw came
Turner's own attempt to pay his$300 million tax bill with one
(17:35):
of his fake bonds.
Investigators began to close in, culminating in a sting
operation that, of course, wentdown in a Walmart parking lot.
Sorry, I just the irony.
In September 2012, turner wasindicted on 10 counts, including
(17:57):
conspiracy to deep road, theUnited States attempting to
obstruct the IRS and, of course,fabricated financial documents.
Fabricated financial documentsIncluded in the broader charges
against him was the $17.6billion maritime lien that James
Timothy Turner filed.
This kind of filing is commonlypart of the broader strategy
(18:18):
employed by members of thesovereign citizen movement.
The tactic involves filingfraudulent or retaliatory.
Retali, retaliatory,retaliatory.
The tactic involves filingfraudulent or retaliatory liens
(18:40):
against government officials orprivate citizens, often as a
means of harassment or to assertbaseless legal claims.
Turner's lien, filed inMontgomery County, alabama,
wasn't a legitimate maritimeclaim.
It had nothing to do withshipment or international
(19:00):
commerce.
Instead, it was based on adeliberate misinterpretation of
maritime law, a hallmark ofsovereign citizen ideology.
Because, you know, I guess theycan't.
Isn't it like internationalwaters?
You can't.
I don't know if there's manyinternational waters in Alabama,
(19:21):
but we'll find out.
These liens are typically usedto intimidate targets, creating
legal and financial headaches bycomplicating their records and
transactions through such-likefilings that have no actual
legal standing to them.
James Timothy Turner's failureto file a federal income tax
(19:42):
return for 2009 was also anotherkey charge in the broader case
against him involving financialcrimes and anti-government
activities.
That year, turner earnedtaxable income primarily through
seminars, where he promoted hisfraudulent tax evasion schemes,
making him legally required tofile under federal law.
(20:04):
However, as a prominent figurein the sovereign citizen
movement, turner likely adheredto the unfounded belief that
federal tax laws didn't apply tohim, a claim that courts have
previously consistentlydismissed.
Under the Internal Revenue Code, bailing to file a tax return
(20:26):
is a criminal offence punishableby prison time or significant
fines.
In Turner's case, thisadditional charge was to show
part of a larger pattern of taxevasion and obstruction that
then, of course, strengthenedthe government's case.
His refusal to comply with taxlaws not only broke federal
(20:46):
statutes, but also clearlyshowed his broader defiance of
the government authority, whichwe can see is clearly a
reoccurring element of hisactivities.
That ultimately led to his18-year prison sentence.
The trial that followed wasnothing short of a spectacle.
Federal Prosecutor JustinGelfand had the unenviable task
(21:10):
of explaining to a jury why ared thumbprint on a piece of
paper doesn't make it a legallybinding financial document.
Turner, true to form, doubleddown on his delusions.
He argued that his bonds werelegitimate and that he had
uncovered secrets thatWashington didn't want the
(21:30):
public to know.
He painted himself a victim ofthe government's overreach,
claiming he was being persecutedfor exposing the truth.
The jury, thankfully, sawthings differently.
On July 31, 2013, turner wasconvicted on all counts.
The judge handed him an 18-yearprison sentence, which was
(21:53):
actually one of the harshestever given for this kind of
financial fraud, and $21 inrestitution to the IRS, and
imposed a five-year term ofsupervised release following his
(22:14):
prison term.
In the end, the man who dreamedof a sovereign nation wound up
in federal prison with more debt.
Turner wasn't the only one whopaid the price for this scam.
His followers, many of them whowere already financially
struggling, found themselves indeeper trouble.
Take, for example, thomas Fry,the pharmacist who tried to pay
(22:37):
off $250,000 of tax debt.
Why is it so high, these taxdebts?
Anyway, the pharmacist, theydon't have good accountants
giving them advice, I guessCreepy.
Thomas Fry, the pharmacist whotried to pay off his $250,000
tax debt with one of Turner'sfake bonds, saw not financial
(22:59):
freedom, but instead a six-monthprison sentence and probably a
lifetime of regret.
For Turner's victims, theconsequences weren't just legal,
they were personal andfinancial.
People who attended hisseminars were left with more
mountains of debt and no realway to pay them off, and, I
(23:21):
guess, being humiliated frombeing duped Worse.
Many of them genuinely believedTurner's promises, only to
discover theirget-out-of-debt-free cards were
nothing more than elaboratescraps of paper, and so this
wasn't just a scam.
It was a betrayal of trustpreying on people's anguish and
(23:42):
desire for financial salvation.
I think the lesson here isthere's no such thing as a free
ride, particularly out of taxdebt, if someone tells you
they've discovered a secret.
The government doesn't want youto know.
They're either lying,delusional or about to sell you
something.
And if they ask you to pay insilver dollars, just run.
(24:05):
When people feel trapped bydebt, when they're drowning in
bills and struggling to keeptheir heads above water, even
the most ridiculous promises cansound like salvation, and
that's exactly what Turneroffered, no matter how illogical
it was.
And this is the part where weand society need to ask
(24:26):
ourselves the hard questions howdid we get to a place where
people were so desperate theythought fake bonds could
actually solve their problems?
Turner may have been the conman, but the system that he
exploited one where people feltpowerless, concerned and ignored
obviously set this stage.
(24:48):
Now, turner's conviction in 2013might have been a win for the
IRS, but it didn't spell the endof the sovereign citizen
movement.
If anything, the ideology hasadapted and evolved in the
digital age.
Today, you can find YouTubechannels, tiktoks and entire
forums dedicated to spreadingthese pseudo-legal theories and
(25:09):
secrets about how to outsmartthe government, and it's not
just about tax scams anymore.
The movement has inspiredeverything from fraudulent real
estate scams to confrontationswith law enforcement.
Like I was saying with the car,they don't give over their
license.
I was saying with the car, theydon't give over their like
(25:30):
license.
The FBI even classifies certainsovereign citizen extremists as
domestic terrorism threats,which is a sign of how dangerous
these ideals can be when takento the extreme.
Of course, though, for mostfollowers, it's not about
extremism, it's aboutdesperation.
Turner's followers weren'tlooking to overthrow the
government.
They were just looking to getout of debt, and what makes
(25:54):
these scams so treacherous isthey prey on people who feel
like they've run out of options.
Scams like Turner's are verymuch still alive.
The tactics might change, butthe playbook stays the same
Exploit financial fear, promisean easy fix and wrap it in
enough legitimacy to make itbelievable.
(26:14):
Today, instead of fake bonds,you've got crypto scams, online
trading gurus and influencerspushing get-rich-quick schemes
on social media, and, just likeTurner's Bonds, these scams
often target the most vulnerablePeople, who can't afford to
lose but have no choice but togamble.
Without a doubt, the bestprotection from these schemes is
(26:38):
financial education,understanding the basics, like
how taxes work and whatconstitutes as legitimate
financial advice or documents,and, of course, skepticism.
The more we talk about caseslike Turner's, the harder it
becomes for scammers to operatein these shadows.
In the end, the story of JamesTimothy Turner's isn't just
(27:01):
about one man's delusions or thebizarre quirks of the sovereign
citizen movement.
It's about how easily peoplecan be led astray when they're
desperate for a solution totheir problems.
It's about systems that leavepeople vulnerable to
exploitation and the enduringtruth that if something sounds
too good to be true, it probablyis Okay.
(27:22):
So we've unraveled the scam,laughed at the absurdity and
noted the consequences, butthere are still a few lingering
questions, some, of course, thatmay never be answered and some,
honestly, that make this wholestory weirder.
First up, why did Turner reallyuse the pre-1964 silver dollars?
(27:45):
Was it really just a marketinggimmick or a way to make his
seminars feel more exclusive?
And then there's the walmartconnection.
Why did so many transactionsand handovers be conducted in
walmart parking lots?
What was the convenience?
Did turner think it was theperfect cover for a criminal
(28:08):
enterprise?
It's not exactly subtle either.
And then let's not forget theinfamous red thumbprint.
Did Turner really believe thatdipping your hand or your thumb
in ink transformed a counterfeitdocument into a legal tender?
Or was it just a stupid fancyfeature to make the bond seem
(28:30):
more authentic to his prey?
It's the kind of thing you'dexpect from a child, not a
full-on tax or financial scam.
And, of course, the biggestquestion did Turner actually
believe in his own BS?
Did he truly believe in thesovereign citizen ideology,
convinced he was fighting thegood fight against the IRS?
(28:51):
Or was it just some devious con?
The line between scammer andbeliever can get pretty blurry.
At the end of the day, maybesome things like what the hell
is going on in his brain arebetter left a mystery.
Honestly, why would anyonethink a printer and a thumbprint
(29:13):
could fool the US government?
It's beyond me Even more whyChina thought he'd get away with
writing off a $300 million taxbill written in essentially what
was Microsoft Word.
And so that's the story ofJames Timothy Turner.
And so that's the story of JamesTimothy Turner, a man who
dreamed of building a sovereignnation but ended up with nothing
(29:36):
more than fake bonds, redthumbprints and an 18 year stay
in federal prison.
Honestly, it's the kind ofabsurd, as it was audacious, he
(29:59):
promised his followers financialfreedom with a printer and some
pseudo-legal jargon, and for awhile they believed him.
But as we've learned today,there's no such thing as a
shortcut when it comes to taxes.
And let's not forget theplayers in this story, the
desperate followers who boughtinto the financial freedom dream
(30:21):
, the IRS agents who had todecode Turner's nonsense, and
the federal prosecutors who hadto explain to a jury why
monopoly money isn't legaltender.
It's like a comedy of errors.
So what's the takeaway?
First, if someone claimsthey've discovered a secret
loophole to avoid taxes, they'relying.
(30:44):
Second, if they ask you to payin silver dollars, run.
And third, never trust a manwho conducts business out of a
Walmart parking lot.
It's just a good rule of thumbof life.
Anyways, thanks for joining uson this wild ride through the
dirty money files of JamesTimothy Turner.
(31:07):
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to hit that
subscribe button, leave us areview and share it with your
favorite financial misfit.
Until then, keep your moneywhere you can see it and your
taxes paid, and keep yourskepticism.
All right.
Ever heard of the saying go bigor go home?
Well, today's scammer took thatadvice too seriously, except he
forgot the part where going bigalso meant going to prison.
Welcome to Dirty Money Files,where cons are bold, schemes are
absurd and consequencesdeliciously satisfying.
(00:27):
In a chef's kiss kind of way,today's story has it all
Self-proclaimed presidents ofimaginary nations, red
thumbprints on fake financialdocuments and Walmart parking
deals that make you wonder ifwe've all been just doing life
wrong, or maybe right, becausewe're not sitting in prison for
(00:49):
18 years.
Today we are going to take alovely dip into the wild world
of the sovereign citizenmovement, which is basically a
group of people who believe lawsare optional and taxes are
theft Pretty much legalconspiracy theorists who think
they can just opt out of reality.
(01:20):
James Timothy Turner didn't justtry to dodge taxes.
James Timothy Turner didn'tjust try to dodge taxes.
He instead thought of himselfthe mastermind that could
rewrite the whole US financialsystem with a color printer and
a red thumbprint, and shockinglyfinds out that's not exactly
how the world works.
Turner charged $150 and apre-1964 silver dollar and don't
(01:45):
worry, I will explain that soonIn order to teach people to
create fake bonds, he claimed hewould magically erase their
debts, because nothing says,trust me, like demanding payment
in an outdated currency.
He even tried to pay his own$300 million tax bill with one
(02:07):
of these fake bonds.
That is a big bill.
Yeah, he must have had a bit ofa business empire galley on
there, dodgy one, and you canprobably guess how well that
turned out.
I assume the IRS has a lot ofpatience, but I would say they
draw the line at Monopoly money.
Either way, buckle up, becausethis is the tale of financial
(02:30):
delusion, patriotic nonsense anda hubris so outrageous it feels
like satire.
But trust me, every absurddetail is real, and so let's dig
in.
First, we'll set the scene byexploring how Turner became the
self-proclaimed president of animaginary nation and why so many
(02:53):
people fell for his ridiculousscam and spoiler.
Desperation and delusion makefor a dangerous cocktail.
Picture this a seminar held insome dingy hotel conference room
where the lights buzz overheadand attendees clutch cheap
styrofoam cups of coffee.
Eyes are wide open with hope.
(03:16):
At the front, james TimothyTurner.
He stands behind a flimsyfolding table preaching about
financial freedom and his secretFake bonds that look like
something your 8-year-old mightwhip up in an art class
attendees.
The ultimate hack, a way towipe out their debt and their
(03:36):
taxes with nothing more than aprinter, some legal gibberish
and, for some reason, a redthumbprint.
It sounds like the setup for abad comedy, but for Turner and
(03:58):
his followers it was real.
So real, in fact, that Turneractually tried to pay his own
$300 million tax bill with oneof these fake bonds.
Honestly, how does someone comeup with this and, more
importantly, how does anyonebelieve it?
Well, to answer that, we needto start at the beginning, to
(04:20):
the rise of James Timothy Turnerand the fertile ground that
made his scam possible.
It's the late 2000s.
The economy is in shambles,jobs are scarce, debt is
skyrocketing and foreclosuresare rampant.
People are desperate for a wayout, and I think we know why
(04:42):
we're here.
Desperation is the perfectbreeding ground for schemes like
Turner's.
James Timothy Turner I like hisname.
It's a bit of a tongue twister.
I like it.
An Alabama native with an ego,unfortunately the size of his
skinks.
He wasn't just your average Joetax dodger.
(05:05):
No, he was full delusional,crowning himself the president
of a completely made-up Republicfor the United States of
America, built entirely onsovereign citizen BS.
To his followers, turner wasn'tjust a guy with a plan.
To his followers, ternam wasn'tjust a guy with a plan.
He was a savior.
(05:26):
He offered hope to peopledrowning in debt, promising them
a way to beat the system thathad, in their eyes, failed them.
All they had to do was trusthim and, of course, pay him.
But before we move forward onthat, let's talk about sovereign
citizens.
(05:46):
Sovereign citizens arebasically well, people who've
decided that laws are more of asuggestion.
Taxes, no thanks.
Speed limits Not their vibe.
Reality, yeah.
They'll pass on that too.
Their favourite hobby Floodingthe courts with absolute
gibberish they call trucelanguage.
It's a chaotic cocktail ofconspiracy buzzwords and fake
(06:11):
legal nonsense.
The judges hate it, the IRShates it and honestly, everyone
hates it, but to these pelicansit's just the apparent key to
freedom.
Turner used the sovereigncitizen movement as the perfect
front for his scam.
He wrapped up his fake bondscheme in their legal bogus
(06:34):
nonsense, giving it enoughcredibility to reel in the
desperate and gullible.
He wasn't just pushingfinancial freedom, he was
selling it in a way to stick itto the man and unfortunately,
people bought it.
Turner held seminars across thecountry in 2008 and 2009,
(06:55):
teaching attendees methods todefraud the Internal Revenue
Service, irs.
He promoted the use offictitious financial instruments
, referred to as bonds, in whichhe could claim discharged debts
, including federal taxes,charging $150 per person plus a
(07:16):
pre-1964 silver dollar.
You need to know.
Is the silver dollar worth moreor less than $150?
Probably more.
I mean, it's outdated currency.
It'd be like a coin collector'sdream.
Like dad, I'm into this Becausethey use paper dollars now.
Yeah, no, I know, I'm justcurious what the value was at
(07:37):
the time.
Well, I don't know what thevalue was at the time, but I did
read a little bit about howpeople do collect it for the,
the metal, the precious metal,um, like quality, content or
something, not just coincollection, because it did.
Actually, it was like 90 silverand like 10 nickel or something
(07:59):
I don't know.
Um, anyway, so he charged thesefor reasons no one will ever
really understand, or maybe hejust liked shiny things.
But yes, the pre-1964 dollar isexactly what it sounds like a
silver dollar coin.
His demand for silver dollars asseminar fees wasn't some random
(08:22):
choice.
These coins are made from realsilver and are practically
catnip for the sovereigncitizens he targeted.
Basically, sovereign citizensare obsessed with the idea that
government-issued money is ascam, and see precious metals
like silver and gold as the onlyreal currency.
(08:45):
So by insisting on silver,turner wasn't just getting paid.
He was feeding their delusionalanti-government ideals.
Either way, his seminarsprovided information and
strategies that were laughablysimple.
You'd print the bonds on yourhome printer, slap on a red
thumbprint for authenticationand then, ooh, you have what
(09:10):
Turner claimed was a legitimatefinancial document.
It honestly sounds like it wasfelony arts and crafts.
But it gets even better.
Regarding the distributionmethods, imagine meeting your
financial sa in a walmartparking lot or, I guess, like
(09:30):
kmart for us, where he hands youa stack of fake bonds from the
trunk of his car.
Honestly, nothing screamslegitimate financial operation
like a deal conducted in a carpark.
But for some of his morepremium clients, like Thomas Fry
, the pharmacist we'll hear moreabout later Turner handed out
(09:52):
these bonds personally,providing step-by-step
instructions on how to use themand the goal of these Submit
them to banks, creditors or theIRS as payment for debts.
Turner's followers wereconvinced, with some of them
trying to use these bogus bondsto pay off mortgages and credit
card debt.
(10:13):
Imagine yeah, that easy, I know, definitely right now.
It's pretty expensive, though.
What it's pretty expensive,true, if you get it printed.
You know, I guess, like thoselaser ones, they've got those
heat ones.
Now, yeah, maybe you would likeargue less with your printer.
That's a serious financialcommitment.
Hate the printer.
(10:35):
Um turner himself took things alittle bit further, attempting
to pay off his 300 milliondollar tax bill with one of
these fake bonds.
How many seminars is he giving?
$150 for a seminar?
And then he ends up with a $300million tax debt.
I don't know, I couldn't reallyfind too much information prior
(10:56):
to this, but, like Jesus,that's a lot of a tax debt.
Anyway, shockingly, the IRSdidn't accept it, because it
turns out the IRS prefers actualmoney over printer paper with a
red thumbprint, pink element.
You know, yeah, who knew.
In addition, he aided andembedded in sending at least 15
(11:18):
similar fictitious bonds to theTreasury to pay taxes and other
debt.
So James Turner wasn't justselling fake financial documents
, he was selling a dream-ish, adream that you could outsmart
the system, erase your debts andlive free from the burdens of
taxes and laws.
(11:39):
And for his followers, it was adeal too good to miss.
But, as you'll see, it was adeal too good to miss.
But, as you'll see, this dreamwas built on a foundation of
lies, delusion and spectacularmisunderstanding of how laws and
colour printers actually work,like how it's, as you'll see, as
though the listeners haven'talready caught on the fact that
(12:01):
people have fallen in lies.
If you haven't figured that outyet, I don't know if you will
see for the rest of the episode.
You probably need to know bynow.
You definitely would need to goget financial literacy training
.
Anyway, when the dream finallycollapsed, it left a trail of
financial ruin, legal troubleand probably some very, very
(12:22):
confused Walmart shoppers.
So at the heart of this scamwere these dodgy financial
documents that Turner sworecould wipe out millions in debt.
He called them bonds, but let'sbe real, they were just fancy
bits of paper covered inofficial-sounding nonsense,
random legal jargon and onestandout feature what is money,
(12:45):
really?
But you know, random jargon ona piece of paper.
True, now you get it.
Now you get the sovereigncitizens.
Okay, well, I'll find out whatI'm doing next.
You're going to be on TikTok,like arguing.
I'll be on a Google spiral.
No, like, you've seen thoselike TikToks where, like people
are like actually arguing withcops.
(13:06):
Yeah, I mean, they're all overAustralia as well.
It's not just like an Americanthing?
Hmm, um, where was I?
Um?
Turner claimed this thumbprintmade bonds legally binding.
Where he got that idea?
Who really knows?
Either way, it was absoluterubbish.
(13:29):
These documents were supposed tolook official enough to full
banks and government agencies,but to anyone with a shred of
financial literacy or really abrain, they were obviously a
gift.
They were obviously fake, andyet Turner sold these bonds to
his followers with completeconfidence, calling them the
(13:52):
secret to financial freedom.
In reality, though, they werejust the fast track to financial
disaster, and so how did Turnerkeep his household cards from
collapsing straight away?
The answer lies in three thingsConfidence, complexity and
desperation.
First, turner's confidence washis superpower.
(14:15):
He sold his scam with suchconviction that even skeptics
started to wonder if there wassomething to it.
Second, his pseudo-legal jargonhe spouted was intentionally
complex.
The average person had no wayof knowing whether what he said
was legitimate or nonsense.
(14:35):
And finally, turner preyed ondesperate people.
When you're drowning in debt,you're more likely to cling to a
life raft or like leaking on.
It's like global financialcrisis right in 2008.
Yeah, yeah, so people are verydesperate at this point.
I guess that makes sense thatpeople tried to use it for the
(15:00):
mortgages, because that was, itwas the housing issue.
Yeah, anyway, his scam wasbuilt on a foundation of false
promises and bad printingtechniques, but for a while it
worked.
People believed in him, theybelieved in the fake bonds and
they believed they couldoutsmart the IRS with a piece of
(15:20):
paper and a thumbprint.
But no scam lasts forever, andTurner's time was running out.
His followers weren't the onlyones paying attention to him.
So was the IRS, obviously, andwhen the government finally
decided to crack down, theybrought the full weight of the
law with him the real law, notfake law.
(15:44):
And so next up, we will dive inon how this ridiculous game
unraveled and explore thefallout for everyone involved,
because when you go up againstUncle Sam, you better believe he
doesn't play games.
Every great scam has a breakingpoint, and for James Timothy
(16:05):
Turner's it came courtesy of apharmacist, thomas Fry, a
59-year-old from Andalusia,alabama and I'm so sorry You're
not going to get places rightever on this show.
No, I can't practice.
Okay, he thought he'd found theultimate tax hack.
(16:26):
Fry owed $250,000 in back taxesand decided to settle the bill
using one of Turner's vaguebonds.
Naturally, the IRS took onelook at the bond and said nice
try, but what really raisedeyebrows was the red thumbprint.
Imagine being the IRS agent whohad to file that report.
(16:51):
Suspected taxpayer fraudincludes art project with
thumbprint.
It was enough to trigger aninvestigation, just not actually
into Fry, but into the man whohad sold him the ridiculous idea
in the first place.
As the IRS agent dug deeper,they uncovered the paper trail
(17:11):
that led straight to Turner.
Reports of his nationwideseminars and fake financial
documents poured in.
The IRS realized this wasn'tjust a one-off incident.
It was a full-blown operation,and the final straw came
Turner's own attempt to pay his$300 million tax bill with one
(17:35):
of his fake bonds.
Investigators began to close in, culminating in a sting
operation that, of course, wentdown in a Walmart parking lot.
Sorry, I just the irony.
In September 2012, turner wasindicted on 10 counts, including
(17:57):
conspiracy to deep road, theUnited States attempting to
obstruct the IRS and, of course,fabricated financial documents.
Fabricated financial documentsIncluded in the broader charges
against him was the $17.6billion maritime lien that James
Timothy Turner filed.
This kind of filing is commonlypart of the broader strategy
(18:18):
employed by members of thesovereign citizen movement.
The tactic involves filingfraudulent or retaliatory.
Retali, retaliatory,retaliatory.
The tactic involves filingfraudulent or retaliatory liens
(18:40):
against government officials orprivate citizens, often as a
means of harassment or to assertbaseless legal claims.
Turner's lien, filed inMontgomery County, alabama,
wasn't a legitimate maritimeclaim.
It had nothing to do withshipment or international
(19:00):
commerce.
Instead, it was based on adeliberate misinterpretation of
maritime law, a hallmark ofsovereign citizen ideology.
Because, you know, I guess theycan't.
Isn't it like internationalwaters?
You can't.
I don't know if there's manyinternational waters in Alabama,
(19:21):
but we'll find out.
These liens are typically usedto intimidate targets, creating
legal and financial headaches bycomplicating their records and
transactions through such-likefilings that have no actual
legal standing to them.
James Timothy Turner's failureto file a federal income tax
(19:42):
return for 2009 was also anotherkey charge in the broader case
against him involving financialcrimes and anti-government
activities.
That year, turner earnedtaxable income primarily through
seminars, where he promoted hisfraudulent tax evasion schemes,
making him legally required tofile under federal law.
(20:04):
However, as a prominent figurein the sovereign citizen
movement, turner likely adheredto the unfounded belief that
federal tax laws didn't apply tohim, a claim that courts have
previously consistentlydismissed.
Under the Internal Revenue Code, bailing to file a tax return
(20:26):
is a criminal offence punishableby prison time or significant
fines.
In Turner's case, thisadditional charge was to show
part of a larger pattern of taxevasion and obstruction that
then, of course, strengthenedthe government's case.
His refusal to comply with taxlaws not only broke federal
(20:46):
statutes, but also clearlyshowed his broader defiance of
the government authority, whichwe can see is clearly a
reoccurring element of hisactivities.
That ultimately led to his18-year prison sentence.
The trial that followed wasnothing short of a spectacle.
Federal Prosecutor JustinGelfand had the unenviable task
(21:10):
of explaining to a jury why ared thumbprint on a piece of
paper doesn't make it a legallybinding financial document.
Turner, true to form, doubleddown on his delusions.
He argued that his bonds werelegitimate and that he had
uncovered secrets thatWashington didn't want the
(21:30):
public to know.
He painted himself a victim ofthe government's overreach,
claiming he was being persecutedfor exposing the truth.
The jury, thankfully, sawthings differently.
On July 31, 2013, turner wasconvicted on all counts.
The judge handed him an 18-yearprison sentence, which was
(21:53):
actually one of the harshestever given for this kind of
financial fraud, and $21 inrestitution to the IRS, and
imposed a five-year term ofsupervised release following his
(22:14):
prison term.
In the end, the man who dreamedof a sovereign nation wound up
in federal prison with more debt.
Turner wasn't the only one whopaid the price for this scam.
His followers, many of them whowere already financially
struggling, found themselves indeeper trouble.
Take, for example, thomas Fry,the pharmacist who tried to pay
(22:37):
off $250,000 of tax debt.
Why is it so high, these taxdebts?
Anyway, the pharmacist, theydon't have good accountants
giving them advice, I guessCreepy.
Thomas Fry, the pharmacist whotried to pay off his $250,000
tax debt with one of Turner'sfake bonds, saw not financial
(22:59):
freedom, but instead a six-monthprison sentence and probably a
lifetime of regret.
For Turner's victims, theconsequences weren't just legal,
they were personal andfinancial.
People who attended hisseminars were left with more
mountains of debt and no realway to pay them off, and, I
(23:21):
guess, being humiliated frombeing duped Worse.
Many of them genuinely believedTurner's promises, only to
discover theirget-out-of-debt-free cards were
nothing more than elaboratescraps of paper, and so this
wasn't just a scam.
It was a betrayal of trustpreying on people's anguish and
(23:42):
desire for financial salvation.
I think the lesson here isthere's no such thing as a free
ride, particularly out of taxdebt, if someone tells you
they've discovered a secret.
The government doesn't want youto know.
They're either lying,delusional or about to sell you
something.
And if they ask you to pay insilver dollars, just run.
(24:05):
When people feel trapped bydebt, when they're drowning in
bills and struggling to keeptheir heads above water, even
the most ridiculous promises cansound like salvation, and
that's exactly what Turneroffered, no matter how illogical
it was.
And this is the part where weand society need to ask
(24:26):
ourselves the hard questions howdid we get to a place where
people were so desperate theythought fake bonds could
actually solve their problems?
Turner may have been the conman, but the system that he
exploited one where people feltpowerless, concerned and ignored
obviously set this stage.
(24:48):
Now, turner's conviction in 2013might have been a win for the
IRS, but it didn't spell the endof the sovereign citizen
movement.
If anything, the ideology hasadapted and evolved in the
digital age.
Today, you can find YouTubechannels, tiktoks and entire
forums dedicated to spreadingthese pseudo-legal theories and
(25:09):
secrets about how to outsmartthe government, and it's not
just about tax scams anymore.
The movement has inspiredeverything from fraudulent real
estate scams to confrontationswith law enforcement.
Like I was saying with the car,they don't give over their
license.
I was saying with the car, theydon't give over their like
(25:30):
license.
The FBI even classifies certainsovereign citizen extremists as
domestic terrorism threats,which is a sign of how dangerous
these ideals can be when takento the extreme.
Of course, though, for mostfollowers, it's not about
extremism, it's aboutdesperation.
Turner's followers weren'tlooking to overthrow the
government.
They were just looking to getout of debt, and what makes
(25:54):
these scams so treacherous isthey prey on people who feel
like they've run out of options.
Scams like Turner's are verymuch still alive.
The tactics might change, butthe playbook stays the same
Exploit financial fear, promisean easy fix and wrap it in
enough legitimacy to make itbelievable.
(26:14):
Today, instead of fake bonds,you've got crypto scams, online
trading gurus and influencerspushing get-rich-quick schemes
on social media, and, just likeTurner's Bonds, these scams
often target the most vulnerablePeople, who can't afford to
lose but have no choice but togamble.
Without a doubt, the bestprotection from these schemes is
(26:38):
financial education,understanding the basics, like
how taxes work and whatconstitutes as legitimate
financial advice or documents,and, of course, skepticism.
The more we talk about caseslike Turner's, the harder it
becomes for scammers to operatein these shadows.
In the end, the story of JamesTimothy Turner's isn't just
(27:01):
about one man's delusions or thebizarre quirks of the sovereign
citizen movement.
It's about how easily peoplecan be led astray when they're
desperate for a solution totheir problems.
It's about systems that leavepeople vulnerable to
exploitation and the enduringtruth that if something sounds
too good to be true, it probablyis Okay.
(27:22):
So we've unraveled the scam,laughed at the absurdity and
noted the consequences, butthere are still a few lingering
questions, some, of course, thatmay never be answered and some,
honestly, that make this wholestory weirder.
First up, why did Turner reallyuse the pre-1964 silver dollars?
(27:45):
Was it really just a marketinggimmick or a way to make his
seminars feel more exclusive?
And then there's the walmartconnection.
Why did so many transactionsand handovers be conducted in
walmart parking lots?
What was the convenience?
Did turner think it was theperfect cover for a criminal
(28:08):
enterprise?
It's not exactly subtle either.
And then let's not forget theinfamous red thumbprint.
Did Turner really believe thatdipping your hand or your thumb
in ink transformed a counterfeitdocument into a legal tender?
Or was it just a stupid fancyfeature to make the bond seem
(28:30):
more authentic to his prey?
It's the kind of thing you'dexpect from a child, not a
full-on tax or financial scam.
And, of course, the biggestquestion did Turner actually
believe in his own BS?
Did he truly believe in thesovereign citizen ideology,
convinced he was fighting thegood fight against the IRS?
(28:51):
Or was it just some devious con?
The line between scammer andbeliever can get pretty blurry.
At the end of the day, maybesome things like what the hell
is going on in his brain arebetter left a mystery.
Honestly, why would anyonethink a printer and a thumbprint
(29:13):
could fool the US government?
It's beyond me Even more whyChina thought he'd get away with
writing off a $300 million taxbill written in essentially what
was Microsoft Word.
And so that's the story ofJames Timothy Turner.
And so that's the story of JamesTimothy Turner, a man who
dreamed of building a sovereignnation but ended up with nothing
(29:36):
more than fake bonds, redthumbprints and an 18 year stay
in federal prison.
Honestly, it's the kind ofabsurd, as it was audacious, he
(29:59):
promised his followers financialfreedom with a printer and some
pseudo-legal jargon, and for awhile they believed him.
But as we've learned today,there's no such thing as a
shortcut when it comes to taxes.
And let's not forget theplayers in this story, the
desperate followers who boughtinto the financial freedom dream
(30:21):
, the IRS agents who had todecode Turner's nonsense, and
the federal prosecutors who hadto explain to a jury why
monopoly money isn't legaltender.
It's like a comedy of errors.
So what's the takeaway?
First, if someone claimsthey've discovered a secret
loophole to avoid taxes, they'relying.
(30:44):
Second, if they ask you to payin silver dollars, run.
And third, never trust a manwho conducts business out of a
Walmart parking lot.
It's just a good rule of thumbof life.
Anyways, thanks for joining uson this wild ride through the
dirty money files of JamesTimothy Turner.
(31:07):
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to hit that
subscribe button, leave us areview and share it with your
favorite financial misfit.
Until then, keep your moneywhere you can see it and your
taxes paid, and keep yourskepticism.
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