Draft Indictment of Chris Simcox, et al. Part I

[Jim Campbell]

I am Jim Campbell, the 66-year-old retired home builder who donated $100,000. to Chris Simcox's Minuteman Fence Project back in May, 2006. Representing myself, I sued Chris Simcox and the other participants in May, 2007, alleging the fraudulent inducement of my donation. Shortly thereafter, I dismissed my civil lawsuit and then "left the scene". Chris Simcox exploited this dismissal as evidence that my case was "meritless". Well, since then I have been assisting federal criminal investigators. I can't disclose anything more than this, but this PDF "speaks quite loudly". Please take the time to read it. Thank you.

Jim Campbell
jimhcampbell@msn.com

************************************************** ************************************************** ****************

Draft Indictment naming those individuals who
participated in the MCDC Fence Project

Revision dated November 29, 2009

************************************************** ************************************************** **

The following draft indictment is based solely on prosecution under:

CHAPTER TWO - Offense Conduct, Part B- Basic Economic Offenses, §2B1.1. Fraud & Deceit and/or 18 U.S.C. § 1341 for fraud involving the deprivation of the intangible right of honest services.

All of the necessary elements are included. Many of these elements were included in my Arizona state court civil complaint which I drafted and filed pro se back in May, 2007. If I were able to file a criminal complaint, this is how I would do it. I don’t believe that I have left out anything nor would anyone responsible for the drafting of an indictment have to struggle to get through the myriads of documents which I have submitted thus far. I have done this person’s work for them! It’s just a matter of putting things in good order.

-Jim Campbell, $100K donor to MCDC Fence Project May, 2006.

************************************************** ************************************************** ****************

At all times relevant hereto:

1. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps ("MCDC") was established in 2005, by Defendant CHRIS SIMCOX and its headquarters were located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Defendant SIMCOX became its self-appointed leader and has remained in that capacity up to the present, and had a fiduciary duty to provide honest services to not only the members of the MCDC, but to the General Public (from whom donations to the MCDC Border Fence Project were solicited), as well. The MCDC became a project of Declaration Alliance in or about, April, 2005.

2. Declaration Alliance, doing business out of Reston, VA, took over the control of the MCDC (i.e.: The MCDC became a “project” of Declaration Alliance.) and provided, among other things, oversight, public relations, the public solicitation and the receipt of donations, and the accounting thereof, etc. for the MCDC.

3. Defendant CARMEN MERCER was the Vice President of the MCDC and the President of a non-profit entity identified as the Minuteman Foundation, Inc. This entity was created by both Defendants MERCER and LEWIS in December, 2005. At all times relevant hereto, Defendant MERCER acted as President and Defendant LEWIS acted as Treasurer of said entity. In addition, Defendant MERCER took on the responsibility of helping to coordinate day-to-day fence- building efforts as well.

4. Defendant MARY PARKER LEWIS was President of Declaration Alliance, Secretary of Declaration Foundation and Treasurer of the Minuteman Foundation, Inc. Defendant LEWIS had responsibility for the oversight of the MCDC, Diener Consultants, and the border fence project.

5. Defendant PHILLIP SHELDON was President of Diener Consultants and worked out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Diener Consultants contracted with Declaration Alliance to do public relations work for the MCDC.

6. Defendant PETER KUNZ, as an independent contractor, worked under the supervision of Defendant PHILLIP SHELDON out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and has (at all times relevant here to) been the “MCDC Fence Project Manager”.

************************************************** ************************************************** ****************

Between in or about December 30, 2005, and continuing to at least June, 2008, at Scottsdale, Arizona, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Reston, Virginia in the District of Arizona, and elsewhere,

CHRIS SIMCOX,
CARMEN MERCER,
MARY PARKER LEWIS,
PHILLIP SHELDON,
and
PETER KUNZ,

the defendants herein, together and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury (collectively the "co-conspirators"), knowingly devised, intended to devise, and participated in a scheme to defraud the General Public of money and property and of the intangible right to the honest services of the General Public, and to obtain money and property from the General Public by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises and material omissions, which scheme is further described below.

It was part of the scheme that:

1.-----On April 19, 2006, via electronic media transmission from Minuteman Headquarters, Defendant SIMCOX publicly announced that the MCDC would begin construction of a border fence to be entitled: “Minuteman Border Fence”. There then began the solicitation of donations from the General Public. Defendant SIMCOX further stated that all fence-funds would be caged in a designated “571” account. Thereafter, as donations began to come in, the MCDC Media Director made frequent public announcements of the amounts brought in. This continued up until on, or about, May 27, 2006, when a donor identified as Mr. Jim Campbell formalized his previously-announced $100,000. donation at a ground breaking ceremony. Thereafter, despite numerous requests for a fence accounting there have never been any announcements, explanations, or accounting of donations received or their disposition, nor has there ever been any disclosure of the amounts serving to offset these donations.

2.-----It has been determined that fence donations have been directed to at least two different entities: Declaration Foundation and the Minuteman Foundation, Inc. It was disclosed to the General Public that certain fence donations in this “571” account would be directed to Declaration Foundation. As to the Minuteman Foundation, Inc., the existence of that entity has remained a secret, thereby ruling out any public inquiry as to fence funds directed to that organization. All of the defendants identified herein have known about the existence of this entity, but have remained silent as to its existence.

3.-----Upon discovery of the existence of the Minuteman Foundation, Inc. and the financial documents required to be submitted to the IRS by it and Declaration Foundation as well, it has been determined that these financial documents revealed that only a small portion of the donation amounts revealed in these financial documents went towards direct, fence-related construction expenses. This, despite the promotion of this fraudulent scheme through frequent public announcements which conveyed the false impression to the General Public of only gross donation figures while failing to mention the fact that these gross figures would be offset by excessive expenses directly benefiting the fraudulent scheme promoters. In large measure, these excessive expenses, plus the public controversy surrounding the lack of transparency of fence financials, led directly to the ultimate failure and abandonment of this border fence project in February, 2007.

4.-----On April 24, 2006, Defendant KUNZ (with or without the knowledge and/or cooperation of the other named defendants) caused to be established a domain and an active, public website entitled "Minuteman Border Fence Scheme". (This website included as its homepage the same colorful homepage of, as well as an active “donation” link to the donation page of, the “designated” MCDC Border Fence Project website.) By Defendant KUNZ’s decision to effectively characterize the just-announced border fence project as a “scheme”, the defendant effectively trivialized and brought into question the legitimacy of this border fence project. This creation represented a conscious, pre-meditated, contemplation of actual or foreseeable harm to, and a contempt for, his intended victims: members of the General Public from which donations were to be solicited. Defendant Kunz’s decision to create a domain so entitled clearly and undeniably demonstrates a malice aforethought, a thought and intention to commit a crime well in advance of the crime, which goes to show criminal intent to expose his contemplated victims to reasonably foreseeable economic harm.

5.------On April 23, 2006, Defendant KUNZ caused to be established an active, public website entitled “Minuteman Fence Fund” (use “Minuteman Fence Fund” to find the site.). The existence of this website has never before been revealed by any of the defendants named herein. The domain for #2 below (Minutemanborderfenceproject.com) was caused to be established by Diener Consultants, Inc. on April 24, 2006. The home page of the Minuteman Fence Fund website contains a left-hand “index” column. By selecting each option below, the following individual page titles are revealed:

1. Home:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Minuteman Border Fence Fund
2. Border Fence Project: . . . Minuteman Border Fence Project
3. Security Donations: . . . . .Minuteman Project Fence Donations
4. Contact Us:. . . . . . . . . . Minuteman Border Security Fence
5. Fax Blast Capitol Hill:. . . . Minuteman Security Fence Fund
6. Site Map: . . . . . . . . . . . Minuteman Fence Fund Project
7. Site Map: . . . . . . . . . . . Border Security Fence Project

On May 3, 2008, Defendant KUNZ, (disguised as “MMTruth”), via electronic media (i.e.: the MCDC Forum, which was owned and operated by Diener Consultants) publicly asserted that:

“ 1) No one knows who MMTruth is. Many think they have some sort of clairvoyant ability to divine who I am however I think they should stick to looking for water with a forked stick. I am here to correct lies, innuendo and nutty conclusions. . . . .

2) minutemanfencefund.com is not owned by Diener Consultants or anyone associated with MCDC. It does not collect donations for MCDC or the Minuteman Border Fence.”

These were false exculpatory statements as well as a breach of Defendant KUNZ's fiduciary duty as the Fence Project Manager to acknowledge his true identity and provide truthful replies to those forum members who were asking legitimate questions of him in his capacity as the Fence Project Manager. Thereafter, Defendant KUNZ no longer attempted to respond to further questions/challenges posed by MCDC Forum members, and on May 5, 2008, Defendant KUNZ “locked” the thread, and immediately deleted every post on that thread which dealt with challenges to his personal integrity and/or the legitimacy of the border fence project. Defendant Kunz’s last statement to all of the Forum members was: “One final answer. MMTruth is not Peter Kunz.”

6.-----At sometime between April 24, 2006, and May 4, 2008, Defendant KUNZ caused the appearance of the Minuteman Fence Fund website to be altered. One of the purposes for so doing was to hide the fact that it once contained the following information excerpted from the website description: "Donate to the Minuteman Fence Fund, it was established as a non-profit organization to help stop Mexican illegal immigration into the united states to help secure and protect U.S. Mexico border from criminals and terrorists”. (aboutus.org/MinutemanFenceFund.com) Neither the existence of the Minuteman Fence Fund, nor its status as a non-profit organization, have ever been revealed or acknowledged by any of the defendants identified herein.

7.-----In three separate, public pronouncements between April 19, 2006, and April 28, 2006, Defendant SIMCOX caused to be stated via electronic media transmissions from Minuteman Headquarters (in effect) that “six” or a “half-dozen” landowners along the Arizona-Mexico border had said that they will allow fencing to be placed on their borderlands or that six private landowners had partnered with the Minutemen. Every donor thereafter would then have reason to place detrimental reliance on these various statements in their decisions to donate to the border fence project. (Until such date as it finally became apparent that Defendant SIMCOX had merely been lying to everyone in a effort to gain financial support for the fraudulent scheme.)