Former NBA Player Alan Anderson Declared Himself A “Free Sovereign,” Sought To Change Name

Back in October 2021, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, announced a series of indictments of former NBA players. For their participation in a scheme said in the announcement to have been organised by former New Jersey Nets, Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets forward Terrence Williams, the indictments charged 18 veterans (and one spouse) for taking part in a widespread scheme to defraud the NBA Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit Plan, by submitting fraudulent claims for reimbursement of medical and dental services that were not actually rendered.

The players in the indictment read like a Who’s Who of turn-of-the-century role players. In total, Williams, Alan Anderson, Tony Allen, Shannon Brown, Will Bynum, Glen Davis, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Melvin Ely, Jamario Moon, Darius Miles, Milt Palacio, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Greg Smith, Sebastian Telfair, C.J. Watson, Antoine Wright and Tony Wroten were all charged; two and a half years later, their cases remain at various stages of completion.

Curiously, though, the report of the indictment listed Douglas-Roberts’s name alongside the disclaimer ‘A.K.a “supreme Bey”’ [sic]. Douglas-Roberts’s intent to reinvent and rebrand himself under this new name had been documented in profile pieces about his career going back to at least 2017, yet the inclusion of this soubriquet in a formal release about his indictment suggests he had taken (or wanted to take) the steps to make the change a legal one, rather than merely anecdotal.

If so, it seems as though another defendant in the case decided to join him in that quest, with some extra sauce on top.

In October 2022, Anderson filed a document with the court, in which he claimed immunity from prosecution due to his “sovereign citizenship”. In addition to someone (presumably Anderson himself) quite literally scrawling over a scan of a previous court investigation report phrases such as “REFUSED FOR FRAUD!” and “CLEARFIELD DOCTRINE”, an extra document was attached in which Anderson claimed to be a sovereign citizen of the Moorish Nation of North America and the Moroccan Empire of North America, exempt from US law, as well further paperwork requesting that he hereafter be known as “Alan Anderson-Bey”.

“Sovereign citizenry” is a largely internet-driven phenomenon in which defendants try to finagle their way out of legal proceedings through obfuscation and confusing verbiage that invariably seem to hinge on the idea that the United States is a corporation, rather than a country. Those seeking to invoke sovereign citizenship operate as though the right combination of words, citations and capital letters will carve out a remedy for their situation, simultaneously claiming exemption from any legal framework while also trying to show mastery of it.

In a 2012 ruling in Canada, Meads vs Meads, Associate Chief Justice J.D. Rooke went into forensic, textbook-level detail in repudiating a sovereign citizen defence by the respondent, painstakingly dismantling the faulty reasoning, circular logic and deliberately baffling positions so often brought to the court in such cases. Sovereign citizen defences are often seen, but not successfully. Nonetheless, Anderson filed his documents.

Anderson’s specific rational – that of being a Moorish American – is a derivative function of the sovereign citizen idea. As explained by Rachel Goldwasser, research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center and an expert on the sovereign citizen movement, via an interview with David Steele of Law360:

_{In the Moorish American movement, she said, they claim their exemption is based on several historical treaties agreed between the U.S. and Morocco since 1786 — Anderson’s filing referred to an 1836 treaty.}

_{However, Goldwasser said, “That’s a generally sovereign argument, that you don’t have authority over me.” Among those characteristics is the claim that law enforcement or court officers are trying to “kidnap” them. In his filing, Anderson claimed that the pre-sentencing report was an attempt “to kidnap me, denationalize me and hold me hostage for profit.”}

_{“That’s very problematic because they believe they have taken themselves out of the legal system,” Goldwasser said of those sovereign citizenship members who make such claims in court. Some members commit to the movement because they are “opportunists,” who will embrace the beliefs when facing legal accountability “because they realize there are no avenues, there are no outs,” she added.}

Anderson’s filings are entertaining, up to a point, in the sense of quite how convoluted the language in these things can be. Seemingly, though, it did not work. After Anderson/Anderson-Bey pled guilty in a plea agreement back in August – even before the Moorish American filings and name change requests took place – he was sentenced in January to two years in prison.