Man accused of trying to scam car dealerships

A man who claimed to be a sovereign citizen has been arrested by Las Vegas police who said he tried to carry out a vehicle lien scam targeting Las Vegas Valley car dealerships over the summer.

Robert Gober III, 44, of Las Vegas is charged in Las Vegas Justice Court with eight counts of burglary, four counts of obtaining money under false pretenses, theft and two counts of attempted swindling of credit by false representation.

Police said their investigation started after they received several reports of Gober going into valley car dealerships and demanding employees turn over new vehicles that he said belonged to him. Police said Gober would provide a flurry of paperwork to the dealerships claiming that he was the owner of the new vehicles and that he had liens on them.

One dealership on Centennial Center Boulevard said Gober showed up on multiple days, provided paperwork for a GMC Sierra valued at $104,000 and demanded the keys “without financing through a bank or paying with either check or cash,” the arrest report for Gober states.

Gober also told employees “he is an agent for ‘Sovereign Nation,’” and that “his stamp” is sufficient in exchange for the vehicle, the arrest report said.

“After (an employee) advised Gober that it does not work like that, Gober started to demand his vehicle and threatened to bring a tow truck and take it from the business,” police said.

Employees at another dealership told police Gober did the same thing at their business, demanding they turn over a $70,000 Dodge Challenger Hellcat that he provided paperwork for but had not paid for. Gober insisted the vehicle was his.

Police then contacted a dealership on Drexel Road, which reported Gober came in on two days in June and provided paperwork aimed at securing a 2020 Corvette worth $108,000 that was already sold.

“(The manager) stated that Gober made multiple threats to have the business shut down and that he was going to put liens on vehicles that were already sold and threatened placing a lien on (the manager’s) personal home,” police said.

The manager said at one point Gober said he was going to return to the dealership “with an Army and an AK-47 and shoot everyone.”

Detectives assigned to the case said in Gober’s arrest report that they suspected his activities were attributable to the “sovereign citizen movement,” which a detective described as individuals who believe “the government is essentially defunct,” and said that sovereigns believe only one law, the Uniform Commercial Code, or UCC, applies to them.

“Most sovereigns will not claim to be sovereign as they have become aware of the negative law enforcement connotation with such a term,” the detective wrote. “Instead, they will often vary their name to include an all lower-case version (and) file paperwork to have them listed as a foreign agent, foreign entity or place a lien.”

When the detective examined paperwork produced by Gober at the dealerships, he found paperwork and tactics used by Gober “to be symptomatic of sovereign citizen illegality.”

“This consisted of a review of several UCC financing statements and addendums for the dealerships, and listing the respective vehicles involved as ‘real estate’ and listing the secured party creditor as Robert M. Gober III LLC,” a detective wrote.

The detective said Gober even obtained Geico insurance cards, then would provide documentation to the dealership saying he had a lien on a vehicle and “would pick this up tomorrow.”

“The inundating of paperwork, with various legalese, and official appearing documents is often used to cloud and obfuscate the intent of the paperwork, the criminality of the ‘secure party,’ and convince the debtor to acquiesce to the demands of the ‘sovereign individual,’” the detective wrote. “It is clear, based on your affiant’s training, education and experience, that Gober was attempting to do just that.”

While police were investigating Gober for the episodes at the dealerships, they learned he was also under investigation for the theft of a $45,000 BMW from a Las Vegas rental car company in January. Gober was arrested in that case.

Police also wrote in an arrest report that Gober had threatened police, attorneys and judicial officers involved in his case with committing “paperwork terrorism.”

“Gober continually asserts he is not under the jurisdiction of the government as he is operating as an LLC and not a person,” police wrote.

Court records do not list an attorney for Gober. He remained in custody as of Thursday morning.

Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0390. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.