Open letter to Sean David Morton

Dear Federal inmate 1708301081: 

         I'm responding to your two August blog posts, published by your friend Kerry Cassidy (who you swindled out of $116,000) .

        You complain that you were denied an attorney for the sentencing phase of your trial. Yes, the transcript confirms that. However, the following transcript from 4th April 2019 shows WHY you were.

«DEFENDANT: I knowing and unequivocally wish to represent myself.

THE COURT: I'm sure Ms. Cader has described to you the pitfalls of doing that, haven't you, Ms. Cader?

MS. CADER: Yes, Your Honor.

THE COURT: The case has more than the ordinary complexity for a criminal case. If you're not trained in the law, you'll be up against a prosecutor who is. There are Rules of Evidence that have to be observed, and you may find yourself unable to present your defense effectively because of your lack of knowledge and experience in laying a foundation and presenting evidence. Likewise, you may be at a lost [sic] to prevent evidence that shouldn't be admitted by the government. The trial is an exercise that requires experience and skill, and I can't tell you -- at least in my view -- how foolish your decision is. On the other hand, I can't prevent you from even making a foolish decision.

DEFENDANT: I understand all that, sir.

THE COURT: That is still your wish?

DEFENDANT: Yes, it is.»

        I remind you that your plea to be allowed to change your mind came at the very end of the sentencing hearing, when you finally realized what a bloody idiot you had been to decline counsel in the first place. The judge was absolutely correct in denying your late request, since counsel would not, at that point, have been able to do anything to forestall sentencing.

You wrote:

« [I] am convicted of a KLEIN CONSPIRACY, which means that I single handedly shut down the [sic] ALL of the working functions of the IRS and US FED GOV…»

      No, 1708301081, that is not what that means. It simply means that you conspired (with two tax preparers) to defraud the Federal Government.

You wrote:

« I have spent 3 years now in the federal gulag for having a CPA do my taxes, my getting a LEGAL AND LAWFUL RETURN, and then trying to HELP PEOPLE that were being crushed by the banks and the criminal debt system. »

        No,  1708301081, your tax returns for the years 2005-2008 were not LEGAL nor were they LAWFUL. Over a year ago prosecutors Hanna, Aull, Makarewicz and Hughes wrote this:

« In total, defendant submitted returns for the years 2005 through 2008 claiming refunds of $3,930,811 (2005 - $136,077; 2006 - $1,560,634; 2007 - $1,754,594; 2008 - $479,506). The tax returns were all completely false. ... [N]o withholding payments were ever made to the IRS on their behalf. The Forms 1099-OID submitted by defendants were also utter fabrications, and had never been issued to defendants by the listed financial institutions.

Of the five false tax returns submitted by defendants in March/April of 2009, four were caught by the IRS and identified as frivolous, thus resulting in the denial of defendants’ claimed refunds.  However, defendant’s 2008 income tax return slipped through the IRS review process and resulted in a refund.  On April 17, 2009, the IRS direct deposited $480,322.55 into a joint bank account held by defendants with Bank of America.»

        It avails you nothing to claim that the conspiracy was between your two tax preparers alone, and that you were no part of the conspiracy. Those documents carried your signature and you are legally responsible for them. By these actions and subsequent ones you were not trying to HELP PEOPLE. In fact, you were trying — and succeeding — to swindle people who invested with you. Six million dollars, wasn't it?

        Once again I suggest that you STFU, contemplate your own life of fraud, and serve your time.

Regards,

expat

The wheels of justice grind slow but fine for SDM

        This blog last noted the antics of Sean David Morton on 19th October last year, shortly after the braggart filed an INFORMAL APPEAL RESPONSE TO GOVERNMENT BRIEF from his Texas jail cell. I noted at that time that, of the half-dozen or so points he cited on appeal, denial of counsel without a Faretta hearing was probably his best point.

        Twelve days ago, 2nd June, the Ninth Circuit finally handed down its judgement—thumbs decidedly DOWN on every single point in the appeal. On Faretta, the justices wrote:

« A district court is not required to follow a particular script in the course of a Faretta colloquy, but it “must insure that [the defendant] understands 1) the nature of the charges against him, 2) the possible penalties, and 3) the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation.”  Here, the record indicates that Morton was fully informed about the charges and possible penalties he faced. Morton’s suggestion that the court was required to say more about the elements of each charge, and the government’s burden of proof, is unavailing. See Lopez v. Thompson, 202 F.3d 1110, 1119 (9th Cir. 2000) (“In assessing waiver of counsel, the trial judge is required to focus on the defendant’s understanding of the importance of counsel, not the defendant’s understanding of the substantive law or the procedural details.”); United States v. Robinson, 913 F.2d 712, 715 (9th Cir. 1990) (“[P]erfect comprehension of each element of a criminal charge does not appear to be necessary to a finding of a knowing and intelligent waiver.”). Moreover, the district court warned Morton that it would be “foolish” to proceed without counsel given the complexity of his case, the difficulty he was likely to have observing the Federal Rules of Evidence and presenting his defense, and the experience and skill required to perform effectively at trial.
Morton confirmed that he understood the court’s warning, but nevertheless wished to represent himself at trial. On this record, we conclude that the district court’s Faretta inquiry was constitutionally sufficient and that Morton knowingly, intelligently, and unequivocally waived his right to counsel. See Erskine, 355 F.3d at 1169 (waiver is valid when the record indicates that defendant “knew what he was doing, and his decision was made with eyes open.”) Similarly, the district court did not err by denying as untimely Morton’s motion for appointment of counsel at sentencing. Although “a defendant who has waived his right to counsel may nonetheless re-assert that right for the purposes of a sentencing proceeding,” Robinson v. Ignacio, 360 F.3d 1044, 1059 (9th Cir. 2004), there are “times when the criminal justice system would be poorly served by allowing the defendant to reverse his course at the last minute and insist upon representation by counsel,”  This request was one of those times. Morton did not make his request for counsel until the end of the sentencing hearing, and after the court had heard extensive argument from both parties. His request came just as the court was prepared to announce its sentence. Under these circumstances, we conclude that the district court correctly rejected as untimely Morton’s request for appointment of counsel.»

        The court shot down all Morton's other points of appeal with equal thoroughness, coming down particularly hard on the allegation that the justice system was "out to get" Morton because of his writings and reputation.

        So this arrogant and self-promoting villain, who has said all along that his skill at legal matters would surely defeat the charges against him, is now humiliated and forced to serve out his sentence. He should be in the can until September 2023, unless he's been on good behavior (which is hard to imagine considering his belligerence.)

        Suck it up, Morton. You're a criminal, a con-man and a liar.


Thanks to AE, this blog's legal eagle

Is Richard Hoagland chanelling someone else?

        Just yesterday I was transcribing Richard Hoagland saying this:

"I have sources.I know there's technology to manipulate hurricanes. I know there's technology to provide unlimited energy with no pollution. I know there's technology to provide anti-gravity lift so we can take giga-tons into space."

        It reminded me of somebody else, and when I'd finished the (long) transcript, it came to me.

"They don't want you to know we have anti-gravity.
They don't want you to know we have unlimited power.
They don't want you to know that we have bases on the Moon and possibly bases on Mars.
They don't want you to know they're using HAARP to control the weather.
They don't want you to know what's in Area 51.
They don't want you to know  that there's a small cartel of about 750 people that own everything."

        Who is that a quote from? It's none other than Sean David Morton, speaking on the notorious 2016 Conspira-Sea cruise. You can still see him on YouTube, right at the beginning of Annie Georgia Greenberg's excellent parody video.

         Morton and his wife were arrested as soon as the ship docked in San Pedro and, as I'm sure most readers of this blog are aware, Morton is now rotting away in the SHU of a Texas jail.

Adolescent rage
        In my opinion, these delusions are a symptom of something that's an analogy of the rage and rebellion adolescents experience when they come to realize that the parents have all the power in the family, and own all the toys. I've written about that before, in connection with David Wilcock. In the case of adolescents, their perceptions are generally the truth, but in the case of Hoagland, Morton, Wilcock and all the other conspiradroids, the all-powerful cartels who own all the toys are simply imaginary.

SDM tries it on yet again

        On 4th September, responding to the US Govt Answering Brief that I covered in August, Sean Morton filed a five-page document with the Ninth Circuit titled INFORMAL APPEAL RESPONSE TO GOVERNMENT BRIEF. It was signed by SDM in his jail cell^{note 1} but served by someone called Scott Cartwright. Reading it through, I'm struck by the fact that it lacks SDM's style. For one thing, there are no spellling errors. And then there are no pompous self-justifications or absurd digressions, as for example in this extract from Morton's 2018 Expedited Motion for Summary Disposition:

"Sean has made a showing of exigency. A delay will substantially further harm Sean who claims he is entitled to have his life, property and rights restored. An expedited schedule for briefing an oral argument will be insufficient to prevent that harm. This is especially true because Sean's free speech, media, loss of life and property considerations are at stake. Sean's imprisonment causes an avalanche of irreparable injury including injuring the public right to have Sean be protected media. The longer the delay the more the public has cause to distrust the government and think the IRS targeting scandal is above reproach and the courts are not protecting the peoples rights to be free of oppression. Expediting remedy will restore trust in the courts and government after deep abuse and fractures in the system. "

        So I conclude that somebody else drafted this document. Perhaps Morton finally has the public defender he should have had right from the start of the legal process (and which he did not have, thanks to his own pig-headed stupidity). Or perhaps somebody found some $$$ to pay for a legal service.

        The document may not have SDM's stamp on it, but that does not stop it from advancing some utterly daft arguments. An example:

"The offense Mr. Morton is convicted of is in error because the statute expressly requires the conduct to be in the geographical location of the 10 square miles of United States. By the governments own admission the conduct falls well outside the scope of the statute because the indictment alleges all conduct was expressly in California, a separate sovereignty. Sean is convicted in error because his conduct was not in United States as required by the letter of the law. Statutory authority and Federal jurisdiction is exceeded because the conduct was purely intrastate California conduct and therefore outside the power of Congress to regulate."

I can't imagine that one succeeding.

        There are a few issues that might have a better chance, but since I'm not a legal scholar I can't say how much merit, if any, they have. For example:

• Should a Faretta hearing^{note 2} have been held before the court allowed Morton to act pro se?
• Did the government provide adequate discovery? (There is talk here of 55,000 pages of evidence that should have been provided on CD, but the CDs turned out to be blank)
• Document alleges that the jury instructions did not include willfulness or mens rea^{note 3} as required by common law.
• There's a repeat of the allegation that Sean and Melissa were selected for prosecution because of their political beliefs. The Govt. has already answered that one and it certainly won't fly.

        Nobody knows when the Ninth Circuit will issue a final judgement on appeal. They've certainly now got an avalanche of paperwork to pore over. Morton has served just over two years of his six-year sentence—if the appeal court manages to delay for another two years or so, its judgement may be moot.

Thanks again to AE for monitoring

======================/ \==================
[1] Morton signed it "Dr Sean David Morton." His PhD (in therapeutic psychology) was purchased from the International Institute of Health and Spiritual Sciences in Montreal, Canada

[2] See this for an explanation. This might be his best point.

[3] Mens rea simply means the legal principle of a defendant knowing that his or her behavior is illegal. At least I know that much. I also know another fine latin phrase, Ignorantia legis neminem excusat  (Ignorance of the law excuses nobody).

Bang-bang! DOJ shoots down Sean David Morton

        Government attorneys Hanna, Aull, Makarewicz and Hughes did a first-rate job of answering Sean David Morton's appeal against his conviction and sentencing on fraud charges. On 22nd July, they filed an Answering Brief with the Ninth Circuit. It's 78 pages of enlightenment for everyone, plus amusement for those of us who believe that Morton is a despicable shyster who ought to be in jail for even longer than he already is.

        I got a big kick out of this, from page 53, commenting on what the attorneys wrote were Morton's "self-aggrandizing proclamations":

"On multiple occasions during his closing argument, defendant claimed that he was being persecuted based on his efforts to bring hidden truths to an uninformed populace suffering under the heel of government oppression and a corrupt financial system. Viewed as a whole, the totality of the evidence introduced at trial reveals a much more mundane justification: defendant was selected for prosecution based on his continued pattern of fraudulent behavior in the face of repeated government warnings."

        Can't you just imagine Morton swaggering around the courtroom yelling that he was being unfairly persecuted, utterly disregarding the clearly-stated charges against him?

"The tax returns were all completely false"
        Speaking of which, this brief laid out a clearer version of Sean and Melissa's flagrant cheating than I think we have seen previously:

"Between March and April 2009, defendant and MM submitted a series of federal income tax returns ... claiming false federal tax refunds based on nonexistent income tax withholdings. The returns all followed the same pattern: On each return, the listed defendant would claim that he or she had received interest income from various financial institutions, and that substantially all of this income had been withheld and paid over to the IRS on their behalf. While the income reported by defendants resulted in applicable income taxes, these taxes were dwarfed by the withholdings alleged to have been made by the listed financial institutions. On their returns, defendants requested that the IRS refund the balance of the reported withholdings, net of the reported tax liability. As substantiation for their claimed income and withholdings, defendants included IRS Forms 1099 purportedly issued by the financial institutions listed on defendants’ tax returns. In total, defendant submitted returns for the years 2005 through 2008 claiming refunds of $3,930,811 (2005 - $136,077; 2006 - $1,560,634; 2007 - $1,754,594; 2008 - $479,506). The tax returns were all completely false. ... [N]o withholding payments were ever made to the IRS on their behalf. The Forms 1099-OID submitted by defendants were also utter fabrications, and had never been issued to defendants by the listed financial institutions.
Of the five false tax returns submitted by defendants in March/April of 2009, four were caught by the IRS and identified as frivolous, thus resulting in the denial of defendants’ claimed refunds.  However, defendant’s 2008 income tax return slipped through the IRS review process and resulted in a refund.  On April 17, 2009, the IRS direct deposited $480,322.55 into a joint bank account held by defendants with Bank of America."

         Prior to his conviction, at a time when he was claiming "all this will go away soon," Morton several times stated "It was the IRS's error, not ours." That statement must rate as world-class in the category of disingenuousness.

Estoppel
        The brief did not specifically address Morton's claim of judicial estoppel,^{note 1} other than to remark that Morton had never been portrayed by them as a victim of crimes committed by Brandon Adams and Gordon Hall (Adams and Hall are the villains who originally came up with this scheme to defraud the IRS—they were separately prosecuted in Arizona).^{note 2}

        They were, however, at pains to rebut Morton's claim at appeal that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to be represented by counsel. That wasn't, in fact, very hard—they merely had to cite from the trial transcript (4th April 2017):

DEFENDANT: I knowing and unequivocally wish to represent myself.
THE COURT: I'm sure Ms. Cader has described to you the pitfalls of doing that, haven't you, Ms. Cader?
MS. CADER: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: The case has more than the ordinary complexity for a criminal case. If you're not trained in the law, you'll be up against a prosecutor who is. There are Rules of Evidence that have to be observed, and you may find yourself unable to present your defense effectively because of your lack of knowledge and experience in laying a foundation and presenting evidence. Likewise, you may be at a lost [sic] to prevent evidence that shouldn't be admitted by the government. The trial is an exercise that requires experience and skill, and I can't tell you -- at least in my view -- how foolish your decision is. On the other hand, I can't prevent you from even making a foolish decision.
DEFENDANT: I understand all that, sir.
THE COURT: That is still your wish?
DEFENDANT: Yes, it is.

        It was more than five months later, at the end of the sentencing hearing (18th September 2017), that SDM suddenly realized what a bloody fool he had been.

DEFENDANT: [R]eally at this point, Your Honor, I'm completely loss here, and I'm beginning to realize that in this proceeding, ... I'm not capable of representing myself, and I request either a federal defender – have appointed to review so that I can respond to this, because you've completely lost me. ... So at that this point, I have to represent -- I have to request counsel because I have no idea what you guys are talking about, 91s and 109s^{note 3} and how this comes to that and the other thing, and I think I have a right to presentation. ...
THE COURT: Okay. I'm now going to proceed to sentencing.
DEFENDANT: Even though I've requested counsel, sir?
THE COURT: Too late, Mr. Morton.
DEFENDANT: Too late?
THE COURT: I told you at the outset that you were making among the most foolish decisions you could possibly make by not having a lawyer.

        The Ninth Circuit will, in its plodding way, eventually rule on the appeal. If they find for Morton, I'll eat my hat.

Thanks to AE once again for monitoring

=======================/ \=======================
[1] See "Sean David Morton takes his best shot" 29th November 2018

[2] Morton testified that he paid Adams and Hall $6,000 to concoct the scheme

[3] The judge and the prosecutors had been discussing the admittedly arcane question of sentencing guidelines.

Sean David Morton "Completely incompetent"

        That's his own self-description, taken from the apellant brief filed with the Ninth Circuit US appeals court on May 23rd.

        The 18-page affidavit that I wrote about last November was not an appeal as such, but what he called an expedited motion for summary disposition. It was denied on 12th April this year, so now he has no recourse other than a formal appeal. This document runs to 15 pages, and even a summary of the whole thing would be a trial to read. Here's the opening sentence, word-for-word:

Sean David Morton presented his own defense whilst completely incompetent and unable to properly prepare a defense due to not being informed the nature or having discovery.

        That's his badly-worded argument for appeal, in a nutshell. He writes that he was denied counsel although it was at his own request that he appeared as his own attorney. Basically he's saying the judge erred by allowing him to appear pro se because the judge ought to have recognized that he was incompetent

        This is quite an impressive climb-down for a man who boasted "I'm a legal scholar" during the 2016 Conspira-Sea cruise (YouTube link, quote  at 06:16).

Thanks again to AE for tracking this case

Court of Appeals to Sean David Morton: "F off"

        You might remember from a blogpost of last November, "Sean David Morton takes his best shot," that the self-described legal scholar used a very dodgy version of the doctrine of judicial estoppel to argue that his conviction on 30 counts should be set aside and that he should be released from his cell in the Tucson penitentiary. Well, the wheels of justice grind slowly but they get there in the end. Yesterday the Ninth Circuit gave him the answer, and it's a major slap-down—basically not just "fuck off" but also "If you keep this bullshit up we'll gag you". The full text:

Before: O’SCANNLAIN, W. FLETCHER, and WATFORD, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Sean David Morton’s requests for summary disposition (Docket Entry Nos. 27, 28, 29, 30) and to expedite his appeal (Docket Entry No. 32) are denied. The motion to stay briefing (Docket Entry No. 31) is denied as moot. Further filing of meritless motions may result in the court withdrawing appellant Morton’s leave to represent himself on appeal. See 9th Cir. R. 4(d).
Appellant’s opening brief is due May 20, 2019; appellee’s answering brief is due June 20, 2019; and the optional reply brief is due within 21 days after service of the answering brief. Any further motion for an extension of time to file the opening brief must demonstrate extraordinary and compelling circumstances.

        I'm obliged to The Emoluments' unofficial legal correspondent, A.E., for tracking the case.

Sovereign Citizens? No way
        I'm obliged to ufowatchdog for drawing my attention to a nicely-written piece by Ashley Powers in the 29th March New York Times. The article is headed How Sovereign Citizens Helped Swindle $1 Billion From the Government They Disavow, and it slices SDM into tiny shreds and serves him up for dinner.

« When Mr. Morton reached adulthood, he sold unorthodox beliefs from behind a suburban-dad veneer: a flop of dark hair, a round, clean-shaven face, and a button-down-and-khakis wardrobe. He was charismatic but also childlike, friends said, his ego easily bruised. He branded himself an investigative reporter within the U.F.O. world, and in the 1990s, when Mr. Morton appeared on “The Montel Williams Show,” he made outrageous claims — more than 100 alien species had visited Earth! — with the certainty of a Nobel laureate. “I got close enough to one of these things that was floating around in the desert to actually get my face burned by it,” he said.
Even other U.F.O. enthusiasts considered him a kook, but Mr. Morton’s fans didn’t care. The truth was out there — and Sean David Morton had it. Branding himself a prophet, he plumbed the new-age convention circuit alongside specialists in animal telepathy, chakras, hauntings, angelic gemstone messages and the afterlife. »

        Morton has served 19 months of a six-year sentence. He may get out in another two years, perhaps (his wife Melissa is already in a half-way house). But I hope he's learned from this that his ridiculous posturing as a legal scholar is far from helpful. I'm quite sure he's been telling his fellow-crims "Just watch me, lads, I'll be outta here in next to no time". If he's told them the truth, they must be having a good laugh now.

Mini-update, 15th April
Royce Myers' ufowatchdog blog has posted more on this today: "The Kookiness continues."

Sean David Morton takes his best shot

Which is the odd man out?

• Lloret de Mar
• Tossa de Mar
• Estoril
• Estoppel
• L'Estartit
• Benidorm
• Cambrils

The answer is Estoppel—all the others are Iberian beach resorts.

         Estoppel is the legal doctrine holding that a respondent in court cannot make a proclamation or statement that conflicts with a statement he/she made earlier in the same case. The doctrine extends to the court itself—in other words, a judge may not contradict himself or herself in court.

        Sean David Morton is using the doctrine of judicial estoppel as the cornerstone of his appeal against his conviction, in September 2017, on 28 counts of fraud. Morton, who has claimed to be "a legal scholar," produced an 18-page affidavit from his prison cell (and according to him, got so stressed in the process that he had a heart attack.)

        I make no claim to legal scholarship, in fact my only contact with the law was an arraignment on a charge of "drunk and disorderly" fifty years ago, after I had barked at a police dog in Kentish Town, London. But, reading Morton's tortured prose, I can't see he has the ghost of a chance with this. Stripped down to essentials, his claim is that the court trying his case made a statement that was in conflict with a statement made by a different court in a different case. I don't think that works as judicial estoppel, but I may be corrected.

        The prior case was against a man called Gordon Hall, who was apparently the original theorist of scamming investors out of $millions. Morton testifies that he paid Hall $6,000 for that information. He now says, in the affidavit, that he is as much a victim of Hall as are the investors whose savings he stole, and that accusing him of fraud is in conflict with the earlier accusation of fraud against Hall. He writes:

"Sean testified he felt he was defrauded by Hall. If Sean is considered culpable and not defrauded in this case then Hall's ... conviction in the other case is invalid because the clients are not defrauded by Hall like the government and judges agreed. This case is barred by the doctrine of absurdity, issue preclusion and judicial or equitable estoppel. Sean contends that this manipulation of the evidence deprived him of due process and rendered his trial fundamentally unfair." (Motion for summary disposition, 21 November 2018, pp. 3-4)

        It stands to reason that there's no explicit or implicit conflict in stating that both Hall and Morton are guilty. We may not have to wait too long for the appeals court to tell Morton "Get back to your jail cell, STFU, and serve out your time" (or words very much to that effect).

Sean David Morton: heart attack

This from Sean David Morton's blog on Project Camelot:

"Under the massive stress of finally getting my Appellate Brief in, last Thursday night I suffered a mito cardiac infarction, basically a mild stroke. My heart was racing, a massive stabbing headache, bulging eyes and my left arm and hand went numb. I asked to go to the hospital and was told that I was WELCOME to wait for the DOCTOR to come HERE at 0600 on MONDAY. So I may just die in here, and nobody would care." (emph. added)

        So it seems Morton is as error-prone on medical matters as he is on finance. He means a myocardial infarction, not a mito-. And it isn't a stroke, although a stroke can be one of the worst collateral outcomes. It's a common or garden heart attack, and as a 60-year-old grossly overweight American male, it's not at all a surprise, or shouldn't be. However, he's right to be concerned. He needs angioplasty, and delaying it is extremely unwise, possibly fatal.

There's more:

"It also appears that TIME and NEWSWEEK are going to do stories on our situation and what has been done to us…but I can’t trust them to do anything but amp up the smear and describe us as “DANGEROUS DISSIDENTS” and/or “Crazy SOVEREIGN CITIZENS and TAX PROTESTORS” NONE of which we are or have EVER BEEN! Again, I NEVER taught or spoke about TAXES."

        Excuse me, Sean baby, but what exactly were you lecturing about on the 2016 Conspira-Sea cruise? You remember the one—it was that time when you and your wife were arrested as soon as you stepped off the cruise ship.

Sean David Morton calls in from the slammer

        Well, guess who was on the phone call-in line to Strange Universe radio yesterday. A clue: The call was interrupted by an official voice announcing "This call is from a federal prison." Yes, indeed, it was Mr. Scamalot himself, Sean David Morton, banged up for six years starting last September. Sean and his wife Melissa defrauded around 100 customers of $6 million between 2006 and 2007. According to the SEC, only a fraction of the money received by Morton went into foreign exchange trading accounts and the rest was placed in shell companies run by Morton and his wife. They also scored $480,323 off the IRA [oops, IRS...] with an entirely fraudulent 2008 tax filing.

        Far from being in any way penitent, in his 15-minute phone call SDM maintained that a recent ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court basically negated the entire tax structure of the USA^{Do you believe that?} and thus vindicated he and Melissa. He said he's lost 50lb and is still in business.

10:35 "I've got lines of people every day in the er... you know, in the whole facility. Because I started to do readings for people, I finally got a deck of lightweight Tarot cards. I'm still waiting for somebody to send me a decent book of. er.. of, er.. er, of a.. a set of talk Tarot cards... that actully come with the... the talk book. Ahh... that's what I need to complete the readings. I started getting a reputation as being... you know, I mean, this is a reading I usually charge like $250-300-400 for on the outside. You know, here if I get a bag of granola and [...] some power bars I'm lucky."

        His "readings" apparently include a prediction that California will break into two separate states, and that the "caravan" of Central American refugees marching through Mexico will cause havoc at the US/Mexico border. ^{note 1}

        I suppose Morton's ridiculous optimism is something to be treasured. Just one month before his April 4 trial, he was telling Kerry Cassidy that the charges against him were certain to be dropped because he is "not a 14th Amendment citizen," whatever that means. Even now he's in the pokey, he seems to be looking on the bright side.

11:55 "There's a lot of really interesting guys. We've got one guy who won five superbowls as a running back, another guy was former head of HBO... my bunky is the great grandson of Calvin Coolidge. It's all tragedy, man."

Thanks to UFO Watchdog for the audio.

=================/ \=================
[1] According to this report, the caravan is much reduced and will not attempt to reach the international border.
Update 30 April: In fact, several hundred migrants from Central America have made it to the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing. None has yet been admitted or even processed. CBP says that once their backlog has been cleared, they will be split into small groups for processing, since the border facility has limited room. That does not sound like havoc to me (and California seems to be still in one piece).

Jimmy Church slams Sean David Morton

        Jimmy Church is a four-days-a-week podcaster, and a fairly frequent relief host of Coast-to-Coast AM. As I've written before, I think he's pretty good. His show is called Fade To Black, and many of his guests are the standard pseudoscience mob that this blog exists to mock, and I guess that's who he means when he talks about "our community." Last Monday, he gave his audience a quick update on the fate of Sean David Morton (sentenced that very day to six years in the slammer,) and then editorialized as follows:

18:31: "No matter what you feel about the government, or the IRS—the IRS may be the most evil thing in the history of the known world—and I get that, I understand.. um, but no matter what your feelings are about the feds, and the IRS, if you have a check in your hand for half a million dollars, and you know it ain't your money, you don't cash it. We all know right from wrong. We do. We really, really... if we don't know right from wrong then we shouldn't be out in public. But, if we do know right from wrong, and we have our faculties about us, holding a check for half a million dollars in your hand that you know is not yours—don't cash it. And if you do, that is a decision that you make as an adult. Nobody is forcing you—you make the decision on your own. And he made that decision. The... the complications with the case, and how many charges were there, and... you know, the bottom line is, you don't cash the check. [..?..] Anyway, he got caught. OK? And he and his wife were found guilty. [..?..] He tried to hide the funds—they split it up, and took out $7,000 in cash, kept that, split up the rest of the money, put it in a bunch of different accounts, and [..?..] when the IRS asked for the money back, they said NO. The IRS literally said "we want the money back," and they said "No. come and get us." Well, OK. They did. [...] The bottom line is that they were officially sentenced today and that's it, they're going to prison."

"But, I have been silent on this whole thing. [...] I don't wish prison on anybody—this is a non-violent crime. It's a non-violent crime. And prison sucks. It absolutely sucks. So, I don't wish it on anybody. All I'm saying in this case, is sometimes you bring things onto yourself. You go and cash a check for $500,000 hoping to get away with it, and you don't, well you get caught [and] that's the end of the story. There's a couple of other things about Sean that... that kind of need to be said here. OK, today I went and watched a video on the ConspiraSea Cruise,^{note 1} actually an excellent video by the way. Ahhm... and well presented. But in this video ..ahhm, Sean is sitting there, and this is what he says publicly out of his own mouth. He says that he went to Stanford, that he went to Oxford, and that he was a doctor. [...] And then he says that he's an award-winning director, and a screen writer. And so, I stopped right there and I did just a little personal investigation on the web, just to check the record, the IMDB things. There's no "award-winning director" of anything anywhere, there's no screenwriting credits of anything. ..... So anyway, but then he said this, in this video that he has the largest internet radio station in the world. Now, hold on a minute here. He's in prison, but you can't say things like that ... Ok, fine, I can't change what people think, but me, I'm a black-and-white numbers guy. ... So it's very easy to go and check out a few things. Where is his web site ranking, for his web site? If it is the No. 1 radio show in the world that means it's quite simply that you have revenue that is God-like. You must have in your driveway seven different color Lamborghinis, one for each day of the week. ... That's what that means, and when he says something like that, that is a crazy thing. So you go and you look up... it's easy to check, go look at his web site, go look at the ranking. I don't know what it is. I don't remember—it's something like 12 million. Know what 12 million ranking world-wide is? It means you have maybe one person a day going to that web site. One. The largest internet radio broadcast in the world. Go and look—who's the network, who's the syndication? It's gotta be somebody BIG. It's got to be a household name. .... You must have 5 million,10 million ... All of the things that he has said about himself—and he's turned around and defrauded the government and then convicted of that—what do we depend on here? And what upsets me with all of this is our community is represented by a guy like that ... claiming screen credits, and the largest show in the world, and it's all B.S. And so for us, [..?..] that's what makes me upset, he's never been a guest on this show, so I have that going for me. But it's everybody else.  And it allows them to go 'Look. This is why that community is crazy, because they're represented by this. It's all ficticious, it's not true.'"

[Examples of real research done by the "alternative" community]

"You know, and I do my best every single day to make sure that we... we have fun with this show, that we're honest with this show—anybody can go and check our numbers. When we say something... Go and check, the numbers are all public, they're all there for the world to see. I am proud of what we have done here. ... And that's our community, and it just kills me that this went down. It's unfortunate that he got caught and he went to prison. Melissa got taken down for the count. I doubt that she would have done any of this if it wasn't for his influence, and now she's spending two years in the federal pen. And if they could go back and do it all differently I'm sure that they would. Now they've got time to go and quite frankly think about this, and how they represented all of us. They lied to us and the rest of the world. And that's it—I've held back from speaking about this, but our community just needs everything that it can to be represented correctly."

        It beats me how Jimmy can protest that Morton was giving his "community" a bad rep for saying things that are totally wrong, when at the same time one of his pet guests is Mike Bara. Bara gets everything wrong.

       From the report on ufowatchdog, what made me giggle was that this "Legal scholar," at his sentencing hearing, declared that he had been mistaken in representing himself at trial, and now requested legal representation. Denied. If he behaves himself (unlikely) we may be seeing SDM again in four years or so. Jimmy Church is dead right about one thing—prison sucks.

Thanks to Stuart Robbins for the audio

====================/ \======================
[1] ''One Week on a Cruise for Conspiracy Theorists - ConspiraSea'' --Youtube. Morton (at 06:16) "I'm a legal scholar.. I host the Number #1 radio show on the Internet"

Mike Bara comments on a former "best pal" who's now a convicted felon and in jail

       For any readers totally unfamiliar with the world of conspiracy, here are briefings on the two personalities involved:
Mike Bara
Sean David Morton

        Mike Bara started a Youtube channel about eight years ago--a mixture of his public utterings^{note 1} and diary-type material spoken straight to camera. He really does have a gift for talking to a video camera in a natural and engaging way--such a pity that most of what he actually says is garbage. Well, lately he seems to  have moved the vlog material to the Book of Farces. Yesterday he posted a vlog of general chit-chat, including this:

"In other news, erm; Sean David Morton was picked up this week ..[??] .er,  I don't know if you guys know who Sean was, but he was a very famous...erm, psychic... guest... big star on Coast to Coast in the 90s. Er, he was a close friend of mine for a few years in the 2000s and early 2010s, and erm, kind-of went down a road I couldn't follow him, and I ended up splitting with he and his wife Melissa, and they both got arrested this week. Sean had skipped out on bail.. er, trial..um.. that he was up for... for various different charges by the Government. Ummm, I'm skeptical of the case against him, from what I understand about it--however, I do know that he invited this upon himself, that he fought everything from a very... um, unfortunate perspective, and he.. you know, he basically made things, erm... [unintelligible] ....and kind of got himself into trouble. And got himself arrested this week. As I understand it the cats are fine. um... Melissa raises Norwegian forest cats. Last time I checked, there were several people coming over to the house to take care of them, to move them to other homes. They will eventually find good homes for all of them--I don't think she'll be getting out of jail any time soon. And, um.. I will say this: I am very resentful of the people who are taking great joy in this. Sean could be a bit of a dick, and he's invited this conflict in his life, um.. and I... you know, I'm... I'm sorry that he chose this path, I think he has probably some lessons that he needs to learn, but I don't take any great joy in, erm... in this happening to him and I don't think anybody else should either. I think it's, er.. I think it's er...er... I think it's an unfortunate thing for um.. he and... and his family and Melissa, and I wish that they both could have found a way to learn their lessons in a different manner. It's really too bad. So. And I'm not going to take any joy over him going to jail, like some people are in the UFO community. Some people in the UFO community are dicks, and that's just the way they are. So. Um.. You know my other comments about that are that... that I think that, again, for me truth is more important than unity. And I don't think that there is unity in the UFO community, there's a lot of rivalry... I think it's unfortunate that some people chose this moment to take it out on Sean. Sean was, er,  probably as well known as Georgio [Tsoukalos] is today. Although he didn't really have a TV gig -- So. It's a shame. Erm..And, you know, I mean, Sean's going to have to deal with what he's going to have to deal with. When I get back to California I'll probably ..??? And I hope that.. I hope he survives. I hope he makes it through his.. er, his jail time. And I would encourage him to... to co-operate. Um.. Take his punishment, and... er, try to move on with his life after this. To me it just shows you.. it just shows me that.. that being in conflict with the world does not gain you anything. I've been in conflict.. all the time, I've been in conflict with people telling everyone how bad Mayweather was going to destroy McGregor^{note 2} Um, So, you know, it just doesn't ultimately in the long term [...???...]

        At least he did say that SDM brought this upon himself, and that he "could be a bit of a dick," but where, I wondered, was the acknowledgement that Morton and his wife had literally cheated their clients out of millions of dollars? Where was the sense that Morton's astounding legal incompetence and hubris had exacerbated his situation instead of alleviating it? (see prior blogging). If Bara remains, as he says, "skeptical" about the case against Morton, it's because he just doesn't want to know. The blog ufowatchdog has all the deets.

        Sentencing is now set for Sept. 18th at 11AM with an 87 month prison term requested by the prosecution. I freely admit that I'm one of those who is "taking great joy in this." Screw you, Sean, you arrogant bastard--and especially screw you Melissa, with your "I'm not in prison and never will be."^{note 3}

Update 30 August:

        What's the betting the Feds popped a tracer on Melissa's car, that's how they found the crims at Desert Hot Springs so easily?
===================/ \==================
[1] Interestingly, the channel includes a set of four lectures jointly delivered by Bara and Morton in 2012.

[2] Refers to a boxing match dubbed "The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports History" which had happened the previous day. Mayweather won by a 10th round TKO.

[3] Comment on a Youtube video, quite quickly deleted. The full text was "Screw you. I'm NOT in prison and never will be. You are a jerk just like ALL MEN!! You lie to women, cheat on them and use them. I hope YOU die a very slow and painful death."

A fugitive from justice pops up on the internet

        Sean David Morton, the self-described "America's psychic," "Legal scholar," and "Ph.D theologian," is on the lam, having failed to appear for sentencing on 19 June 2017 in  Federal District Court, Los Angeles. On 4 April Morton and his wife Melissa were found guilty on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, two counts of filing false claims against the United States, and 26 counts of passing false or fictitious financial instruments.

        In a fairly amazing display of chutzpah, Morton showed his face on the net yesterday for a two-hour live interview with Kerry Cassidy, streamed onto her web portal. The background was very different from that before which he appeared when interviewed by Cassidy on June 12th, so he almost certainly wasn't at home, but he looked well settled-in to wherever he was, with the full A-V equipment needed to chat with Cassidy via Skype. However, he didn't look at ease at all-- squirming around in his chair and putting on very false-looking grins.

        I came late to the party, so may have missed important material, but my impression was that SDM was putting on the same old show. Blabbering away at top speed, self-justifying and making outrageous claims of prediction of past events that can never be checked. I honestly couldn't follow much of it (and it was chopped up by Kerry Cassidy's usual technical faults,) but I did get that, speaking of his legal problems, he said he was working on a constitutional law angle, and "all this will be over soon." As far as I heard he didn't have much to say about Melissa, who must be quite busy this week selling up the property in Hermosa Beach. She's up for sentencing on Monday morning and will probably be wearing orange for quite a while. Unless, of course, she "does a flitting" like her husband.

        I'm no legal expert but I'm guessing that Kerry Cassidy has put herself in jeopardy by putting on this show. She may not know exactly where SDM is, but she probably has some information that the District Court would like to get its hands on. If I were the federal marshals, I'd be calling on Kerry with a few questions.

Update:
Sean and Melissa were both re-arrested at a hotel in Desert Hot Springs, California on Monday 21st August.

Update:
On 18th September Sean was sentenced to 6 years in federal jail, Melissa got just 2. In my opinion Melissa got off lightly, considering that she quite clearly had no intention of appearing for sentencing on 21st August.

The Mortons: Recriminations, lies and videotape

        Two days ago now, a video interview with SDM was released onto Youtoob. It was part of a generic called High Strangeness, and the interview was conducted by Sean Paul Ross and Caroline Hill in what looked like some kind of library. The tagline was:

"Sean David Morton gives his side of the story about his court case before disappearing after a warrant is issued for his arrest."

        There was doubt about when and where this interview was conducted, but the story is that it was somewhere in the Los Angeles area, taped before the sentencing hearing although not released until nine days later. It was a 2-camera set-up so it's credible that some post-production was required.

        I couldn't possibly summarize Morton's arguments and self-justifications—they were, I think, purposefully convoluted and the interviewers didn't seem to grasp much more than I did. I do recall that he said very emphatically that the issuance of a refund check in the amount of $480,323 was the IRS's fault, not his or Melissa's. Thus exonerating himself for having fraudulently filed the claim in the first place. There was a lot more in the same vein, just like his performance with Kerry Cassidy.

Lies
        Two things stood out for me. One was an extraordinary caption that popped up at 29:07 (the whole thing ran 31:18.) It read "Cameraman became uncomfortable with the subject matter and left." You've got to love that—the guy holding Sean's close-ups says to himself  "Fuck this, I'm not keeping this camera focused on a bunch of lies one second longer." More cameramen should have the guts to do likewise—many a political interview would be cut very short. In this case, the last few minutes of the video just held the static three-shot.

"Screw you"
        The other thing was a NSFW outburst from Melissa Morton herself in the Youtube comments. Commenter atube4view wrote "SEAN AND HIS WIFE WILL DIE IN PRISON!?" Melissa shot back with "Screw you. I'm NOT in prison and never will be. You are a jerk just like ALL MEN!! You lie to women, cheat on them and use them. I hope YOU die a very slow and painful death."

        By the way, Melissa's avatar is a cute little white pussy-cat. Time will tell whether Melissa puts on the orange jumpsuit when she goes for sentencing on 21st August—the day of the All-American solar eclipse.

Update 1st July
        Melissa's mini-rant has now been deleted, but I swear on my saintly mother's grave that I transcribed it accurately.

 Update 7th July
         Sean Paul Ross has now provided the following information about the walkabout cameraman:

"He's a professional cinematographer that was doing me a favor as a friend (we'll pay people when we have a budget for the show). We talked about it afterwards and his opinion was that SDM was either lying or starting to get into some dangerous territory that could piss the federal government off and he did not want to be associated with SDM at that point and risk any repercussions on himself. It frustrated me because it essentially ended the interview, but everything happens for a reason and I've resolved in my mind that perhaps that was the moment the interview was supposed to end. I don't know that it's right to be worried about the Feds coming after us because if SDM was right that they wanted to make an example of him, we have helped raise awareness of that example. We are not encouraging people to follow SDM's example... just look at how it turned out for him. My takeaway is to be sure to pay your taxes and use a good CPA to make sure you do them right, however most definitely do NOT use the one SDM used."

Sean David Morton, sociopath?

Some of the classic symptoms of sociopathy are:

1. Superficial charm and good intelligence
2. Untruthfulness and insincerity
3. Poor judgment and failure to learn by experience 
4. Lack of conscience
5. Pathological egocentricity

        I'm no psychiatrist, but even I can see that SDM checks all those boxes You only have to take a short look at that "interview" with Kerry Cassidy from 12th June to see more than sufficient confirmation of #1 and #2. #3 is illustrated by the fact that, having been successfully sued for civil securities fraud  by the SEC in March 2010, he nevertheless continued to attempt fraud on the US Government in the belief that he would never be caught--or, if caught, that he had a cast-iron defense. The fact that he is now on the lam having failed to appear for sentencing in US District Court yesterday makes a sad joke of that self-analysis.

        #4 is easily covered by  his willingness to invite investors to give him money which he then (allegedly) spent instead of investing. Even friends, such as Kerry Cassidy, were bled by this scam.

        As for that pathological egocentricity--how about this for a transcript of part of the video covering the 2016 Conspira-Sea cruise. Morton is sitting at a dining table being interviewed by Annie Georgia Greenberg, an attractive blonde who's pretty much the host of this video.

06:16 SDM: "Hello, I'm Dr Sean David Morton, I went to Oxford, and Stanford, and USC. My Ph.D. is in psychology--I'm a best-selling author. I've been a screen writer... I'm a legal scholar, I'm a pioneer of the system we call remote viewing.  I also host the Number One radio show on the internet--Strange Universe Radio."^{note 1}

        At that, Annie made a gesture more eloquent than mere words. She blew out her cheeks in frank disbelief and looked away. Brilliant.

        Curiously enough, another checkbox for sociopathy is "absence of delusions." That doesn't quite jive with other excerpts from the Conspira-Sea video. Morton is with Annie again, a day later.

SDM: "They don't want you to know we have anti-gravity.
"They don't want you to know we have unlimited power.
"They don't want you to know that we have bases on the Moon and possibly bases on Mars.
"They don't want you to know they're using HAARP to control the weather.
"They don't want you to know what's in Area 51.
"They don't want you to know  that there's a small cartel of about 750 people that own everything."
AGG: "And who are 'they' in this case?"
SDM: "We're talking about an extraterrestrial species called the Nephilim--the sons of God. Somehow they inter-mate with human beings, and their sons and daughters became the kings and queens--which is the aristocracy, which is the government."
AGG: "Sooo... what does your T-shirt say?"
SDM: "It says 'To save time, let's just assume I know everything.'"

        Sean David Morton and his wife Melissa were arrested as they stepped off that cruise ship in San Pedro. Morton surrendered his passport and put up a $10,000 bond--which will now, of course, be forfeit.

The supreme court got my case, man
        To the symptoms of insincerity and delusion we should perhaps now add monumental hubris, as ufowatchdog reports that Morton actually delivered his internet radio show yesterday from his cell-phone, allegedly in a car roaming the L.A. freeways.

"Morton stated he filed an appeal with the United States Supreme Court earlier in the morning and intends to get a response from the Supreme Court [today], though even an emergency appeal could take weeks for the courts to consider.  The U.S. Attorney General's office appears unaware of any appeal and prosecutors are generally notified if an appeal in their case has been filed.

        I'd say that heat Morton is feeling is not merely the summer weather that has hit Southern California this week, but the Federal Marshals breathing down his neck.

====================/ \======================
[1] I've been to Oxford too. I had a nice tea and went back to London on the 6:00 train.
If Morton means he was enrolled at the famous University, he's lying. It's also extremely hard to believe he's a "best-selling" author. His trilogy The Sands of Time is self-published, and it would be extraordinary for such books to be genuine best-sellers. As for "I'm a legal scholar," can I just say LOL?

SDM explains himself to KLC

Basic facts: On 7 April 2017, Sean David Morton and his wife Melissa were found guilty in Federal District Court of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, two counts of filing false claims against the United States, and 26 counts of passing false or fictitious financial instruments. Morton is due for sentencing on 19th June, with the prosecution recommending 87 months in federal prison plus a restitution payment to the IRS of $480,322.55.

The Mortons are alleged to have defrauded around 100 customers of $6 million between 2006 and 2007. According to the SEC, only a fraction of the investments received by them went into foreign exchange trading accounts and the rest was placed in shell companies run by them for their own benefit.^{note 1}

========================================

        Yesterday, SDM sat down for a nearly two-hour skype chat with Kerry Cassidy. Much of it was sheer bullshit about UFO bases in Antarctica, but Kerry did want an update on the legal situation--in the circumstances, who would not? Morton, of course, said that it was all the fault of everybody except he and Melissa. "The attacks on Melissa and I are just so outrageous," he said. Here's his explanation of the missing six million spondulicks.

50:51 SDM: "Eight years ago we were working with Alexander Adams. Alexander Adams was a CPA. And what we did is, we had a ... we were dealing with foreign exchange trading, and I had a trader that didn't do what I told him to do, and basically we turned about $525,000.. almost... almost $6 million, and the trader tanked the accounts... he just did the exact opposite of everything I told him to do, and, er... lost the money."^{note 2}

        Well, what are we to make of that strange "$525,000.. almost $6 million"? Could that be a slip of the tongue, unintentionally revealing how much of the $6 million was actually invested in the market, leaving $5,475,000 to find its way into the pockets of the Mortons? If I had been Kerry Cassidy I'd have asked about that. I'd also have asked how either sum could have completely disappeared in currency trading. I mean, if you trade on the NYSE or NASDAQ there's always the possibility that you'll back a company that literally ceases to exist--but with currency, your assets may diminish because of bad luck or bad judgement, but it's hard to see how they could vanish outright. Unless some unbelievable nincompoop bought $525,000 worth of Zimbabwe dollars, I guess.

Kerry conned
        Kerry, however, let SDM completely off the hook. And that's the more strange since according to Bill Ryan (Kerry's ex) she personally lost $116,000 invested with Morton. This was money inherited from her mother, which she had intended to use to start Project Camelot. Ryan says he himself lost about $25,000.^{note 3} To me, it's a bit surprising that Kerry and Sean are even on speaking terms, let alone good friends.^note4

        In yesterday's interview, Morton then launched into a 15-minute self-justifying tirade, accusing the IRS of entrapment and of violating the statute of limitations for tax crime. He explained that the core of the case is a tax refund of  $480,323 which was erroneously paid to the Mortons on their 2008 tax filing. He pleaded that he submitted bonds as repayment of the sum, and acted in good faith. What he didn't say, of course, was that the IRS says $480,323 was the amount the Mortons had fraudulently claimed as rebates due on non-existent overpayments. What Morton called an "IRS computer error" did not come out of the blue sky--it had to have been the result of a claim, didn't it?

        In a news release after the Mortons' conviction in April, Sandra R. Brown, Acting U.S. attorney, Central District of California, wrote this:^{note 5}

"On the same day the refund was deposited into the Mortons’ joint bank account, the couple took immediate steps to conceal the money, which included opening two new accounts, transferring over $360,000 to the two new accounts, and withdrawing $70,000 in cash.

"When the IRS attempted to collect the erroneous refund from the Mortons, the Mortons presented to the IRS various “coupons” and “bonds” that purported to pay off their debt with the IRS. The Mortons created and submitted these bogus documents to the IRS, instructing the agency to draw upon funds with the United States Treasury to satisfy their debt"

They're out to get you
        At the end of this tirade, Kerry showed no sign of comprehending, instead complaining of legal troubles of her own (something about Youtube enabling piracy of her 600 videos and taking a cut itself.) Then, she connected this whole thing to her well-known theory that the gubbmint is out to get you.

1:06:02 KC: "I do want to say the real reason you're being targeted is because of the work you do. Had you not written [the] Sands of Time book, I think they would leave you alone. But as it is now, umm...it  being a best-seller and all of that, and also revealing quite a bit about the Secret Space Program... ehm... you know, this is... this is their issue, I guess they're trying to shut you up, basically."

        I have to laugh when I recall that Morton, on the 2016 Conspira-sea cruise, declared "I'm a legal scholar." Next Monday we'll know how long his scholarship is going to be available to a jail full of convicts---all of whom maintain, naturally, that they're innocent.

Update 15th June
        Today ufowatchdog reports that Morton filed an appeal with the 9th Circuit Court claiming he had not been given a fair trial.  Morton's motion was again denied and the court also ordered all future motions filed by Morton would be considered "moot" and "No further filings will be entertained in this closed case." Looks like the technique of motion-flooding the court simply gets them pissed off.

Update 19th June
        Morton did a bunk and made himself unavailable for sentencing today. When the feds catch him--as they surely will--I imagine that'll be good for a few extra years on his jail time. I also imagine the marshals will be knocking on Kerry Cassidy's door any minute now...

Check ufowatchdog for many more deets, docs....


=======================/ \=======================
[1] Psychic Sean David Morton scammed $6M convincing people he could predict stocks' fortune, SEC claims --New York Daily News, 5 March 2010

[2] The trader was Daryl Weber, who Morton described in the prospectus for Delphi Associates as "A mathematical genius, FX trader, statistical analyst, and computer software engineer."

[3]  Project Avalon Forum, 7 February 2010

[4] In the same Project Avalon forum, Bill Ryan wrote this: "Astonishingly for me, as an aside that really does say something about Kerry, she has completely let that go and appears to bear Sean no ill-will of any kind. I don't know many people who could do that, and I have been unable to do that myself. "

[5] Hermosa Beach Couple Found Guilty in Tax Scam and Passing Fraudulent Financial Instruments to Pay Off Debts --US Attorney's Office, Central District of California, 7 April 2017

Sean and Melissa try crowdfunding their legal predicament

        This is scarcely believable. The Mortons have turned to Indiegogo for funding.

The pitch is as follows:

"Sean is getting ground by the gears of the Department of Justice! Help Sean lawfully stop the DoJ in their tracks and reverse the VOID unconstitutional 650 year sentence! "

        This went up on Friday, and it's attracted two donations totaling $120 so far. Quite how money is going to help is not clear. They face a possible 650 and 625 years in jail when sentenced on 19th June. Perhaps Sean thinks everyone is as corrupt as he is, and a little silver in the judge's palm will make all this go away. Lots of luck with that.

As UFOwatchdog quite rightly says:

"How about raising money for all the people these convicted felons defrauded? Don't give these wanna' be martyrs a penny. This isn't about government tyranny or freedom, this is about two people who ripped off others for countless thousands, got caught, and now they don't want to pay the price for their misdeeds.

I'm sure the people who paid Morton and his wife $10,000 or the person who paid $2500 for bogus bonds and empty promises of resolving their financial problems would like their money back.  Or how about the elderly lady who lost her entire life saving in their psychic investment scheme?  These two have sadly left a path of human wreckage in their wake."

        The rational wikipedia article on SDM has been updated, and is now a readable primer on the whole mess, for those who haven't been tracking this fraud.

Update Shrout:
        Winston Shrout, that other tax protestor  and also a taxation lecturer on the ConspiraSea cruise,  was found guilty in Federal court in Oregon of 13 counts of issuing false financial statements and 6 counts of willful failure to file a tax return. Sentencing is set for 1 August, so the Mortons will go to jail first.

Update Morton:
        ufowatchdog reports that Morton has filed a motion to change his plea from "not guilty" to "no plea." If this is the best "the guy who knows how to get the verdict vacated" can come up with, he's as hopeless at law as Morton himself. You can't change a plea once you're convicted.

        Meanwhile, the crowdfunding total stands at $1,030--$320 from Indiegogo and $710 from Gofundme. A Gofundme donor named "Dominique A" wrote this:

"Dear Sean, I have been listening to you for years and when it comes to the legal stuff clearly you know your stuff. I see you have an exceptionally good heart, and are kind. Do not falter, and please ask for help on your radio show. You are both in my prayers as are all the cats. This craziness will pass."

No he doesn't. No he hasn't. No he isn't. No it won't. Sean and Melissa are going down.

Update Morton 30 May
        The text at Indiegogo has been amended to include this:

"By raising the funds that Sean promised every week for 2 months to pay Zeeka Hu, she can finish the legal work needed to correctly use the appellate court and help undo Sean's nonsensical statutory papers he wasted valuable time and money on."

        So maybe this Zeeka is "the guy who knows how to get this vacated."  It's slow work--ufowatchdog now reports that Federal prosecutors have recommended an 87 month prison sentence. The Indiegogo total remains at $320. The Gofundme campaign seems to have timed out.

Sean and Melissa Morton have a court date

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

        The above text is Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted on July 9, 1868. Sean David Morton was born in Texas and accordingly his citizenship is established by that law. Yet, when interviewed by Kerry Cassidy a year ago Morton maintained that the charges against him were sure to be dropped because he is "not a 14th amendment citizen."

        Tell that to the judge, as they say. Morton will have his chance to do just that on 4th April, when he and Melissa come up in the Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles on 56 counts including conspiring to defraud the United States, filing false claims against the United States, passing/presenting and/or offering false or fictitious financial instruments.^{note 1} I hope to blog more on this when the time comes. I also hope on behalf of the Mortons' financial victims that they lose in court and both go up the river.

Update
        Morton has filed 22 pre-trial motions  to dismiss the charges against him, allof which have been denied.

Update: Day 1 of the trial
        A jury was empaneled and both sides made opening statements. ufowatchdog has all the details but here's the nub of SDM's testimony:

During his discursive opening statement, Sean Morton told the court that he was being falsely accused of doing something wrong when he did nothing more than “follow the advice of people I respected, who had a deep understanding about the financial system.” He also lauded the first Americans, who wished to “live free from the burdens of the crown” and who wrote the Constitution; said that he and Melissa Morton were not married by law because “that puts more than one person in bed with you”; and exclaimed he’s a film producer and investigative reporter, “who exposed Area 51,” the military site where there’s been claims of UFO sightings.

The government wants to throw the couple in jail for the rest of their lives, he said, “for filing paperwork that didn’t harm anybody,” he said.

Here's the statement on behalf of Melissa:

An attorney for Melissa Morton, Steven Brody of the Law Offices of Steven A. Brody, told the jury that the government has no evidence that his client set out to defraud the IRS or that she “didn’t believe 100 percent in the legitimacy” of the documents she filed. The government has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Mortons acted in bad faith, he added.

“They have to prove to you that they set out to lie, cheat and steal,” Brody said. “And you’re not going to see that evidence.”

Update: Days 2 & 3
ufowatchdog reports that the prosecution case is rested. SDM made a motion to dismiss, which was denied.

Update: GUILTY on 51 counts
Details at ufowatchdog. Sentencing 19 June. Bye Sean, bye Melissa.

Thanks to ufowatchdog for the information.

==========================/ \=====================
[1] Here's the full Grand Jury indictment

Sean and Melissa Morton arrested

        Passing on gossip is not the most noble of this blog's raisons d'être to be sure, but this is too good to pass up. Yesterday, an anonymous Wikipedia editor using the name "Nofway" added the following content to Sean David Morton's article. The text was sourced as copied from http://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/hermosa-beach-couple-arrested-federal-charges-related-tax-scam-and-passing-false-checks, which looks authentic but it is just possible that it's spoofed.

        So I make no claim to the authenticity of this information, but enjoy it anyway. It's plausible because the Mortons are known to be in deep shit with both IRS and SEC^{note 1} (read the the article if you need to know why.) Bear in mind that the Mortons are very good pals of both Mike Bara and Kerry Cassidy. Remember this pic from the Summer of 2012? Sean and Kerry swanning around Europe, leaving Melissa to interview Mike on the Internet radio.

photo credit: Project Camelot

        Strange synchronicity -- that four year old interview also covered Ken Johnston's accusation of Apollo negative tampering, that I wrote about again yesterday. But I digress — here's the dirt.

Two Hermosa Beach residents were taken into custody yesterday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on a host of charges related to a scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, which included passing bogus checks and bonds as a way to pay off debt for themselves and others.

On February 1, 2016 Sean David Morton, 58, and his wife, Melissa Ann Morton, 50, were expected to be arraigned in federal court in Los Angeles on a 56-count superseding indictment that was returned by a grand jury on January 27. The couple was arrested by special agents with IRS - Criminal Investigation in San Pedro Sunday morning after disembarking from a “Conspira-Sea Cruise.” According to the superseding indictment, Sean David Morton filed a series of false income tax returns for the years 2005 and 2010 that sought millions of dollars in refunds. Melissa Morton allegedly filed several false tax returns for the year 2007. The couple “caused multiple copies and multiple versions of their income tax returns to be submitted to various IRS service centers throughout the United States in 2009 and 2010,” according to the indictment, which alleges they attached false Forms 1099-OID to support their claims for refunds. The indictment specifically alleges that Sean David Morton filed a false 2006 income tax return 2010 that requested a refund of $2,809,921, and that in 2012 he filed a document that sought a tax refund of $1,560,634 for 2006.

In relation to the scheme, the indictment alleges that Sean David Morton on multiple occasions submitted to the IRS documents he called “Coupon for Setoff, Settlement, and Closure” in the amounts of $5,286,867 and $8,429,763. “These fictitious financial instruments were a purported bond in exchange for the refunds they sought from the IRS,” according to the indictment.

Melissa Morton allegedly presented to the IRS in 2010 a “Coupon for Setoff, Settlement, and Closure” in the amount of $44,450 as a purported bond in exchange for a $14,450 refund that she sought. And, in 2013, both defendants allegedly presented to the IRS two “Non-Negotiable Discharging Bond and Indemnity” in the amounts of $10 million for Sean David Morton and $600,000 for Melissa Morton.

If they are convicted of the charges in the superseding indictment, Sean David Morton would face a statutory maximum sentence of 650 years in federal prison, and Melissa Morton would face a statutory maximum sentence of 625 years.

Update 1:
The story is now confirmed.

Here's the full 56-count indictment.

Update 2:
        A reporter who is legally trained has now reported from the ConspiraSea cruise, and it's well worth reading. An excerpt:

"Winston Shrout and Sean David Morton were the subjects of my Day 2 post. That post was much more critical and aggressive than I expected any of my writing to be. To the extent that it earned me a little browbeating from a Shrout fan who was upset that I criticized him....I couldn’t hold back. As I’ve said I’m a lawyer, and I know that what Shrout and Morton were teaching was absolute crap. It wasn’t arguably right. It wasn’t thinking outside the box. It wasn’t creative reinterpretation of the law. It was complete nonsense, in that it literally did not make any sense."

============================
[1] See the SEC's 4 March 2010 complaint filed in US District Court, and the judgement issued on 15 February 2013.

Robert Morningstar has his little joke

        Robert Morningstar, the "civilian intelligence analyst," is one of the darlings of internet woo-woo radio. Why? It's simple -- like Hoagland, Bara, Icke, Hancock, Morton etc., you push his button and away he goes. The interviewer doesn't have to think much or even bother to read the trash these clowns write.

        In a recent outing on OffPlanet radio, hosted by Randy Maugans and Chris Holly, Morningstar was off and running with a strange mixture of humor and error. He surely must have been having a little joke when he told us, very early on, that there was more than one space station in orbit. The other one, he explained, belongs to THE SEEKRIT SPACE PROGRAM^{note 1}. It's HUGE, he said, and his mate in Hoboken got a great photo of it just the other day. Why haven't the tens of thousands of other amateur astronomers ever seen this? THAT'S THE JOKE, duhhhhh. He suggested it was actually Black Knight, the well-known hoax story that's been around since 1899.

        There were more jokes to come. The US Army moonbase. The story, attributed to Clark McClelland, about a Nordic alien conferring with astronauts in the Shuttle cargo bay, while a massive Black Triangle mothership hovers in the background. Very funny, Robert. I'm sure NASA would have been thoroughly amused as a massive hazard approached the Shuttle dangerously close. Oh yeah.

Planetary astronomy revised
        Then came the errors. This blog has already reported Morningstar's track record of error in respect of the crashed spaceship on the Moon, the dire prediction of city-destroying earthquakes, and the "hangers" [sic] in some Apollo 17 mapping camera frames. Now this genius of our age gave us the pseudo-fact that Jupiter and Saturn used to be stars, but then lost their fusion reactions and devolved into gas giants. He talked himself into that one because he was developing the theory that the Gray aliens came from Titan, so he needed to warm Titan up a bit. Just to get life started, don'cha know. He says the US Gubbmint has an alliance with the Nordics against the Grays. He wrapped that in with Felisa Wolfe-Simon's arsenic-tolerant extremophile bacteria GFAJ-1 -- managing to misunderstand Wolfe-Simon's research very thoroughly^{note 2}. Oh, maybe this was more joking, come to think of it.

        Then we were off to Mars, with a bullshit notion that the Tharsis Montes are an exact representation of the layout of the pyramids of Giza (they are not), and the pseudo-fact that the very word Cairo means Mars (it does not, it means The Conqueror. A word for Egypt is Mas'r, which has nothing to do with the Red Planet).

        OffPlanet radio's promo described Morningstar as...

"A man you can truly learn from. Men like Morningstar are the men who will reignite our brains in to [sic] finding answers by way of knowledge and great thinking."

        I can only assume that was their little joke. And oh, by the way, this hour of fun-and-games was only Part 1. There's another whole hour to come, but I'm not sure I can stand to listen.

Update:
        In e-mail, Chris Holly questions my credentials and expresses flagrant disgust:

"I ... want nothing to do with whoever this expat jerk is and do find him a hate filled arrogant fool who really thinks he knows what he is talking about but is very mis informed.  Expat needs a name and a punch in his nasty mouth   .  I doubt he has any personal experience at all in any of these subjects much less information that is not soaked in mean spirited rejection of things he knows nothing about due to the fact those things may frighten him poop less."

        I reiterate what I have written previously: I'm an acknowledged expert in the history of Apollo and Shuttle, plus to a lesser extent NASA's Mars and Lunar orbiters. I have met and interviewed key figures in the space programs of the USA and Russia. Contemplating the errors of amateur observers like Robert AM* does not frighten me in the slightest.

        Holly also implies that "Bigelows space station" is the space station AM* was referring to. If so, that is manifestly absurd. How can a Bigelow-designed orbiter belong to the SECRET space program???? Genesis II is not a space station, it's an experimental habitat. It is not, and never could have been, peopled. In addition, AM* specifically referred to something very large, and Bigelow is not Big. Genesis II's pressurized volume is 11.5 m³ (cf. 837 m³ for the ISS). Nice try, Chris Holly. Your pal is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Update 2:
        In a further brief e-mail, I asked Chris Holly how such a small orbiter, with no facilities for human crew, could be classified as a space station. I got this answer:

"Look Expat , go get a life and do not annoy me with your hate and denail of things you can not deal with. How about this , man to woman, get lost I think your a jerk and a loser who I want no part of and do not care about at all what you think, do , go  none of it. I am busy and have no time for you, dime a dozen downers... lets just call you not in my life so  end it now and leave me alone please, I  have a big life with lots going on and really think you should think what you want, and I will do things my way.  Your a NASA bleiver which is hilarious , I bet you love your government and think our fighting men are fools, go away please."

I presume that could all be summed up as "Gee...I don't know."

Update 3:
        Well, I did in fact listen to the second AM* interview, which went way over an hour. As it turned out, there wasn't much of my type of material in it -- other than a reiteration of the obviously false claim that the voice recording equipment in the Apollo Command Module was installed without the astronauts' knowledge. For it to do its job effectively--reporting some terrible accident behind the Moon--they had to know it was there. ^{note 3}

        Almost all of the interview was mythology, UFOs, abductions -- not my area of expertise at all. What stuck in my mind was that AM* claims personal experience of alien encounters. He related how he successfully thwarted an attack by an alien monster reaching a "three-fingered claw" towards him in a bid to steal his soul.

I believe Robert AM* practices psychiatry.
 

==============================

1] He was promoting the Secret Space Program conference, coming to an astonished San Mateo Event Center this summer.
2] He added that Felisa Wolfe-Simon is an example of someone who got slapped down by the "establishment" for daring to suggest there was evidence for extraterrestrial life. The facts are that "Iron Lisa" never said any such thing, and she was slapped down because her research was faulty.
3] Here's the CM instrument panel. If, as AM* claims,  the astronauts didn't know about the voice recorder, they sure must have wondered WTF that switch labeled TAPE RECORDER was down in the bottom row of Panel C.