account. Each account is allegedly organized as a trust or a corporation, and sovereign citizens believe that if you can legally separate this “straw man” account from your person, you can use the money for your own purposes and put yourself outside the reach of the law. Sovereign citizens believe evidence for their theory is found on the birth certificate itself. Since most certificates use all capital letters to spell out a baby's name, sovereign citizens claim the all-capital “JOHN DOE” (for example) is actually the name of the corporate shell identity, or "straw man," while “John Doe” is the baby's real, “flesh-and-blood” name. Sovereign citizens believe that legal documents utilizing capital letters, such as a person’s state-issued driver's license, marriage license, car registration, criminal court records, and correspondence from the IRS, all pertain to the corporate shell identity, not a person’s real, sovereign identity. This belief that official government documents with names in all capital letters refer to the “straw man” is the reason many sovereign citizens deny that they are the person named in court documents. The “straw man theory” also underlies sovereign citizens’ reliance on the Uniform Commercial Code, since they see most legal matters as financial transactions. Sovereign citizens create their own driver’s licenses and include their thumbprints, usually in red ink, on documents to distinguish their “flesh and blood” person from the “straw man.” When writing their names, they often add punctuation marks like colons or hyphens. The Redemption Scheme The Redemption Theory leads to sovereign citizens’ most prevalent method to defraud banks, credit institutions, and the U.S. government: the Redemption Scheme. In essence, the Redemption Scheme involves extorting money from the U.S. Treasury Department by issuing bogus instruments they call “sight drafts” to pay off debts or make purchases. The redemption process has two essential steps. First, the sovereign files a UCC Financing Statement against the
victim to pay taxes on that money, and when the returns do not match, it can trigger an investigation. Some sovereigns even hold trials against those they perceive have wronged them, generally law enforcement officers and judges, in their own “common-law courts,” convicting public officials in absentia and sentencing them to death for “treason.” A core tenant of sovereign ideology is that “free” people are not responsible for debts accrued while in U.S. citizen status. Sovereigns may attempt to pay debts with bogus bonds, false “bills of exchange,” promissory notes, checks, warrants or other fictitious financial instruments. These instruments often contain odd notations, such as serial numbers that resemble social security numbers, false routing numbers, phrases like “without prejudice” and references to the UCC. Violence Sovereigns are characteristically argumentative and uncooperative during traffic stops. They may present identification from non-existent states or “Republics” or claim jurisdictional or diplomatic immunity due to their citizenship status. Sovereigns will debate with police officers about “traveling” versus “driving” or they will claim that they were engaged in a private, activity. They will state their preference to not engage in a “contractual relationship” with the officer. Sovereigns often will ask officers for a copy of their oath of office or request the officers fill out a lengthy questionnaire. When it is apparent such delay tactics have failed, some sovereigns become confrontational. Upon arrest, sovereigns may claim to have been kidnapped and may subsequently mail documentation detailing enormous fines and fictitious charges against the arresting officers. Although physical altercations and violence are rare, since 2001, at least 28 officers have been killed during encounters with sovereign citizens. Notable examples include: a 1995 Ohio