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September 27, 2021 - If you have never heard of the Moorish Sovereign Citizen Movement you can be forgiven. It isn't something that the media focusses on except when something extreme happens. The most recent example of that was last summer when a group of armed men who are members of this movement were arrested on a Massachusetts highway. But the movement isn't just about making a statement. It's a loosely organized group that believes they are entitled to the things that you have earned through a life of hard work. And they starting to show their teeth.
Moorish Sovereign Citizens are groups of people who claim that they are not subject to the laws of the United States. Instead they claim that black people are subject to ancient laws and foreign citizens. They have setup websites and claim to have embassies and to represent otherwise-nonexistent governments. And those government have a bad habit of producing fake documents to back up the claims being made.
The movement started in the 1990's but didn't really gain much attention until last year. That’s when the men mentioned above were arrested. But many of the frauds that they have attempted to commit have gone largely unreported in the news.
Late last year, one group claiming to be citizens of the Moorish National Republic Federal Government attempted to seize $4.5 million in privately owned homes in Everett, WA. More recently, two men attempted to seize the home of a woman in Essex County, NJ. They claimed to be citizens of the Lenapehoking of the Al Moroccan Empire at New Jersey State Republic; a mouthful, we know.
In the latest case, the victim of the crime started to receive letters claiming that she didn't own her home and that is actually belonged to people making the claim. She made the mistake of thinking that the letters were a joke, only to come home one day and find two men she didn't know if her house and that the locks on the house had been changed. A call to the police eventually led to a SWAT confrontation with the people occupying her property and their arrest.
When the police responded to her call, the men in the house produced a set of fake documents from their "embassy" claiming ownership. On the other hand, the victim produced a copy of her deed. That was enough to get the police to act. It is worth noting, and somewhat ironic, that the victim in this case was also black. That makes it pretty clear that the Moorish Sovereign Citizen Movement has nothing to do with race and everything to do with fraud.
As with any fraud alert, this so-called movement shouldn't be ignored. Anyone receiving letters like the ones described here needs to take them seriously and needs to take precautions to secure their property. There really isn't much that the police can do to protect people until they are actually victimized. And right now, there is no reason to believe that this is a passing fad.
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Fraud and Scams 
