After Individual Objects to Unreasonable Attorney Fees, All of His Possessions Seized and He is Forced into Involuntary Servitude.
I know this sounds crazy, but it is not. My friend Jeff Baron was a successful, high-tech entrepreneur that created and pioneered innovative software during the early days of the Internet. Until about four months ago, Jeff owned a successful multi-million dollar business and a multi-million dollar trust that he established to fund research for a cure to insulin dependent diabetes, an illness that has afflicted Jeff since very early childhood.
In July 2010, Jeff settled a lawsuit that had forced one of his companies into bankruptcy (Jeff, himself, has never been in bankruptcy). Upon settlement, the bankruptcy was funded with almost two million dollars so that all the creditors would be paid in full and his company would be returned to him.
After the settlement, one of the lawyers filed a request to be paid over $300,000.00 in addition to the over $600,000.00 that he had already been paid. Jeff filed an objection to the additional fee, which triggered unimaginable acts of retribution.
Three business days later, without any notice or hearing, Jeff was involuntarily placed in 'receivership' and forced to be a servant to a lawyer/judge in the case, who was now adverse to Jeff . The receivership stripped Jeff of 100% of his property and possessions (everything from his checking account to his car keys and his telephone) and suspended most of his constitutional rights (the lawyer whose fees Jeff objected to is the lawyer that filed the request for the 'receivership' ).
Excerpts from the Official Court TranscriptsTHE COURT: Apparrently, there is a lot of money to be had here. (See Motion for Reconsideration ) THE COURT: You realize that order is an order of the Court. So any failure to comply with that order is contempt, punishable by lots of dollars, punishable by possible jail, death . MR BELL: And death (See Motion for Reconsideration ) THE COURT: They do and I have jurisdiction, too. So I'll tell you what.... You want to challenge the court order, I have the marshals behind me. I can come to your house, pick you up, put you in jail. I can seize your property, do anything I need to do to enforce my orders. I'm telling you don't screw with me. You are a fool, a fool, a fool, a fool to screw with a federal judge, and if you don't understand that, I can make you understand it. I have the force of the Navy, Army, Marines and Navy behind me. (See Motion for Reconsideration ) THE COURT: We do have marshals that walk around here and people that can take control if a judge is unable to convince people of the judge's jurisdiction. (See Motion for Reconsideration ) THE COURT: This is going on and on and on until Mr. Baron has nothing. I mean actually everything is depleted. I gather that Mr. Baron is worth lots of money. But it may be that we sell all the domain names. We may sell all of his stock. We may cash in all of his CD's, and we may seize all of his bank accounts (See Motion for Reconsideration ) |
Vogel Given Exclusive Control over Jeff.
Unimaginably, the receivership gives the receiver, Mr. Peter Vogel, the "exclusive control" over Jeff, personally.The stated reason for this invasion of Jeff's freedom and rights (and this is not made up) was to prevent Jeff from having a lawyer to represent him. click here to view lawyer prohibition letter.
Jeff is a U.S. citizen, never been convicted of any crime, never lost at any trial and have no judgments against him. ALL of his property rights and most of his civil rights have been stripped from him(without any hearing).He is prohibited from managing his own affairs, from owning anything, from traveling outside of his local area, from engaging in any transaction, from owning ANY possessions, etc... His personal life savings has all been taken from him and 'redistributed' to two law firms that are on good terms with the US District Judge who entered the receivership order.
Now these lawyers are attempting to strip the assets from the trust Jeff set up to fund diabetes research. To do so, these lawyers are attempting a fire sale liquidation to sell the assets in the trust in private, secret sales in order to pay themselves more. Importantly, there is no judgment or lawsuit against the trust.
It is hard to imagine that this is occurring in America. If this can happen to Jeff Baron, it can happen to any American.
For background, downloadable copies of many of the court documents are available by clicking on the tab at the top of this site. In reading them, it is important to understand that Jeff did not violate any court order--there was not even a hearing accusing Jeff of doing so. The court order Jeff is alleged now to have violated was a supposed order entered prohibiting Jeff from hiring any lawyers. If that itself sounds odd, there is a full docket of the case available on-line (PACER), and everything written here can be confirmed (some of these documents are included at the bottom of this page). For a more detailed explanation of events, please click here .
Unprecedented in American History
The actions taken by this court are unusual and unprecedented in American History. Since Slavery was abolished in 1865, this is the first instance in American history of an individual, himself, being given to the possession and control of a receiver(based on extensive research of U.S. case history).
- There are no reported cases in history in which a judge attempted to place an individual into receivership to stop them him from hiring lawyers.
- There are no reported cases in history in which a judge attempted to order that an individual was under the possession and control of a receiver.
- There are no reported cases in history in which a judge placed an individual in receivership to investigate potential claims against him.
*A facebook group page has just been established for supporters of this case. To show you support, visit Save Jeff Baron and join the group.