The FBI last night arrested a Queens man who’s described as an adherent of the “sovereign citizen movement” after he threatened to launch an armed attack on a bank facility in Pennsylvania, The Post has learned.
The FBI’s New York office is investigating the reported plan as a possible domestic terrorism threat, although the incident is linked to a business dispute.
Michael Chung was arrested by agents at his home in Bayside, Queens, after he faxed a threat to a bank facility in Pottsville, Pa. – which lies roughly 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Chung “threatened to kill employees of Sovereign Bank,” including an attorney and a loss prevention officer, according to a federal complaint filed by an FBI agent.
“The 2nd Amendment to the National Constitution authorizes the use of force to protect my interests as a national citizen. I believe I have a basis to act in that manner,” the fax said, according to the federal complaint.
A source noted that authorities believe that Chung owns a legally registered shotgun.
Law enforcement officials were particularly concerned about the threat in the wake of mass shooting incidents at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis.
The FBI believes that Chung belongs to a self-styled movement centering on the philosophy that members are only answerable to common law – and not subject to the jurisdiction of the US federal government.
“He claims to be a ‘sovereign citizen,'” the person told The Post.
Authorities believe that Chung focused on the bank because he’s was engaged in a business dispute with the institution regarding a loan had a taken out and was also linked to his efforts to sell his home, the person said.
Chung was trying to sell his house, which he still owed $179,000 to the bank on. Authorities say that Chung was attempting to force the bank to cancel the oustanding balance on the home.
He is scheduled to be arraigned later today in Brooklyn federal court.
Adherents of the sovereign citizen movement – sometimes loosely referred to as “constitutionals” or “freeman” – occasionally challenge government authority in symbolic acts of defiance, experts say.
“The FBI considers sovereign-citizen extremists as comprising a domestic terrorist movement, which, scattered across the United States, has existed for decades,” a report by the agency published last year said.
Among those notable adherents were Terry Nichols, who helped plan the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla.
“Since 2000, lone-offender sovereign-citizen extremists have killed six law enforcement officers,” said the report, which was prepared by the FBI’s Counterterrorism Analysis Section.
Movement adherents have been involved in past disputes with financial institutions and the Internal Revenue Service over issues of authority and beliefs connected to the historical linking of US currency to the “gold standard,” experts say.
mmaddux@nypost.com
