The man accused of using a fake identity to set up a bogus Navy Veterans charity (and then pocket millions in donations) has been captured, but authorities still have no idea who he is.

In interviews with investigators, the fugitive who was captured in Portland, Oregon this week has refused to answer questions. His fingerprints yielded no matches. And when handed documents to sign, he scrawls only "X," according to U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott.

"He's not giving up anything," Elliott said. "Nothing. Nada."

As detailed in an ABC News investigation, the mustachioed man was charged in Ohio in 2010 on counts of identity theft, fraud, and money laundering in connection with a bogus charity called the U.S. Navy Veterans Association that raised more than $100 million from unsuspecting donors around the country.

As questions began to swirl about the charity, Thompson abandoned his residence in Florida. He was spotted in a New York City hotel lobby. And then he vanished. Over the next two years, authorities believe he lived in Arizona, New Mexico, and near Boston and Providence. After a two year manhunt, the U.S. Marshals caught up with him outside a Portland bar. His moustache was gone, he walked with a cane, and was carrying a backpack filled with cash.

When Marshals were handcuffing him, he told them: "It's my right under the U.S. Constitution not to make any statements." Those are the last words he has spoken, Elliott said.

While they have few clues about his identity, investigators say, there are some details emerging about his life on the run. Late Tuesday, when they opened the locker, U.S. Marshals say they found two suitcases filled with $1 million in cash, as well as birth certificates, lists of social security numbers and other public records that authorities believe were intended to help Thompson manufacture new identities.

"It appears he's had numerous names," Elliott said.

The man rented the storage locker in December under the name Alan Lacey.

The same name was on a fake Canadian resident alien card that the fugitive had on him at the time of his capture, according Elliott, who headed a three-member fugitive task force that spent years on the case.

Investigators also now believe he attempted to start another charity while in the Boston area, called the Plymouth Rock Society of Christian Pilgrims. Elliott said investigators believe that when a story about the man known as Thompson appeared on "America's Most Wanted," he fled Boston and moved to Portland.

Sounds to me that by refusing to identify himself he is therefore claiming to not be a US citizen and revokes all rights bestowed. Fire up the waterboards!

Those rights are not limited to Citizens. They apply to anyone and everyone, equally, regardless of nationality or even legal immigration status.

Wether intentional or not, it's fun...

Correct to a point, there are limitations and provisos for rights and illegals, it is a difference between the constitution and the bill of rights however. it gets iffy. Waterboarding, however, I believe is covored under the Geneva Conventions

The Bill of Rights is the Constitution. There's no "iffy" about it.

So, by your definition the entirety of the constitution applies to everyone in the united states, where Legal Citizen or Illegal Immigrant?


Edit: dont get me wrong, I agree with you that Waterboarding would not be allowed regardless, however its the broadness of the scope that i had to argue.

How does the shadowrunner protect himself by not revealing his identity? Seems more like its the measure one takes if they want to protect someone else, I was under the impression, at least in Canada, its illegal to not produce ID when asked for it. Hmm, they seem to have ID from him, so what more could they expect?

Yes, the whole thing applies to everyone within U.S. jurisdiction. Do note that some parts of it specify beneits or requirements for citizens. But where not specified, there is no such restriction. Everyone, regardless of origin, has a right to Due Process, for example.


The 5th Amendment to the United States says, emphasis mine:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

If a person can reasonably conclude that identifying themselves might incriminate them, then they are not required to do so (except in a very narrow range of circumstances - the only one that comes to mind right now is, if a motor vehicle is stopped, the police CAN require identification of the Driver, and possibly the passengers as well - since your ID is often your proof of License to drive).

But, just walking down the street? The police can ask "can I see some ID?" ... but most of the time you are wholly within your rights to say "no, Sir/Ma'am, you may not". And they can't arrest you for that answer.

Except in Arizona, if you're not white. >_<;;

See...thats all I was digging for But it would have been to easy just to say it

Interesting little discussion that came up from this.

I'm no lawyer or any sort of official voice on the respect of the law. There appears to be evidence of multiple counts of identity theft as well as scamming. The individual chooses to not identify themselves.

Part of my comment was coming from the SR side where if the Star picks you up and you don't have a sin, or worse yet have only one or more fake sins.... you might just never get heard from again. Pretty much they are free to do whatever they want to you.

As for now, they could just make it a homeland security issue and process him as a terrorist.

How does having faked documents from multiple countries play into it? Does it make it an international incident?

They don't need a name in order to toss him in the slammer. At best, he can avoid being attached to some other crimes (although if he's not on record, I doubt that's a real concern).

And while there are many cases where I root for the bad guy, this is certainly not one of them. Scamming people of money meant for people in need? If he were a shadowrunner, he's the sort of scum I'd burn.

So, who did we catch? Kane or Clockwork?

Not enough bodies and explosions for it to be Kane.

And scamming charities doesn't seem like Clockwork's M.O.

I wouldn't put it past Clockwork he seems the type who will do anything for money. An example is how he was complaining in his post about Slamm-O!.

He may have stored away a nice set of investments with his real identity. If they don't know who he is, they can't touch his money. Then when he gets out, he still has resources.

There's also the option that he has a lot of other identities they haven't touched that he also has access to. Or a family that's connected to things like this as well, and by refusing to give up his ID, he's refusing to snitch them out.

Or he just wants to sit back, laughing, as the officials drive themselves insane trying to figure out how to file the paperwork with no known name.

Lots of reasons, lots of possibilities.

Me, I suggest they let the Navy Veterans sort it out. They're the ones out the money after all, right?

It is important to realize the mindset of the framers of the Constitution at the time they wrote it. Which is to say, they had a deep distrust of authority, given they'd just been fighting a war to free themselves from what they considered to be an unjust authority.

So the Constitution mostly reads as a list of "stuff Government is not allowed to do". There's some bits outlining duties of the Government needed to keep a nation running, and the rest is largely an exercise on limiting power.

One of the things governments use to oppress, is identity papers. They can be used to classify people, restrict movement, track activity, and so on. So those were very much "out" for the newly created nation. If you said you were Joe Bob, that's who you were. No papers needed.

If you were later proven to be lying, well that's fraud, and that can be prosecuted.

Technically, when folks ask to see "identification, like a Driver's License", this is incorrect terminology. A Driver's License isn't identification, it's a license to operate relevant motor vehicles. But it's government-issued, so people mostly trust it AS IF it were identification. Perception equals reality, so even if a Driver's License is not technically an ID, it's effectively become one.


-k

Actually, many states actually issue Identification Cards which are drivers' licenses, but they say on them "not a driver's license". Here in CT there's no difference, except those words, between "a License" and "a State ID".

Yes, this is kind of an example of the blurring, weakening of the original concept.

People in this day and age are mostly comfortable with the idea of a driver's license being a form of official identification. So much so that many states can issue a "non-driver's license". Which, technically, is just a card saying you don't have the authority to drive a motor vehicle. So on the face of it, it's a pretty useless license. It's used really as a form of government-issued ID.

Even the Social Security Number is not supposed to be a form of identification, but everyone uses it as such. Even the Department of Motor Vehicles.

I have to imagine that at least some of the founding fathers would be kinda disturbed at finding out how easily the modern American accepts being leashed to identity papers. But the practical truth is that we've reached a point where NOT having an independent verifiable means of establishing identity is just damned inconvenient.


-k

CT's DMV won't use SS#'s for IDs anymore. Neither will MA's DMV, I believe.

And to get that "non-driver's ID", I had to bring in quite a bit of documentation - proof of current address, proof of birth / citizenship, a witness, and a couple other things. That's how it went in MA, too, IIRC.

So really, it's a card saying "The person in this little picture, proved that he (a) exists, (b) has the legal right to use the nameprinted on this card, and (b) at the time the card was issued, proved he lived at the address printed on this card. All these proofs are on record in our database, referenced by the ID number printed on this card".

Pretty much ... "identification".

Ah. New York DMV still accepts the SS# as identification, at least as of last month.

I suppose the fact that both drivers licenses and non-drivers licenses are entirely voluntary makes it more acceptable as a government-issued ID.

In contrast, the SS#, being kinda non-voluntary, has a lot of associated text insisting it is NOT an identification.



-k

Arriving late in the topic, but that would a truly monty python sketch situation.

Cop: "Sir, you are under arrest. I want your I.D. Now."
Perp: "I am not under any obligation to give it to you."
Cop sighs, looks to partner: "Hey tom! We got another guy, trying to pull an Osama on us! <turns to Perp> On your head then, Osama. Guantanamo Bay it is!"

Monty Python didn't do real life.

Hence why SSN# are used for tracking people's credit ratings-everyone has one. But as pointed out, some form of ID is needed. Your first form of ID in the US is your birth certificate. Your second form is your SSN#, and then if you want to get anywhere outside of a major metropolitan area anymore your drivers liscense.

BTW-Anybody relying on just one form of ID anymore is asking to get frauded.

Back to SR--Imagine the Star's reaction when they find out that the SIN you're using belonged to somebody else. I.E. a duplicate person, some guy who should be 130 years old and dead etc etc.

"Hey, we get to beat this guy his rights!"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-574343...rport-security/
Look at this guy. It took the cops twenty years to figure out that the chief of security at Newark Airport was an illegal immigrant using stolen papers from a guy killed in 1992. How well are LS guys paid?