COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County man claims he can save your home from foreclosure, if you just sign over your house to him. Then Joseph Jones III prints his own bank notes to pay off the debt.
Channel 2 Action News investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer spoke with Jones outside one of the homes he said he now owns.
Fleischer Jones asked why would anyone willingly sign their house over to him.
"They don't know how to save it. I know how to save it ... that's an easy answer. The banks are stealing," Jones said.
Fleischer found deeds for 13 homes in Clayton, Cobb, Fulton and Henry counties, where the homeowners appear to have signed their property over to Jones to try and avoid foreclosure.
"What the banks are doing is called fraud. And that's what I'm charging them with and that's how I'm taking these houses cause they're stealing them from the American people," said Jones.
Jones posted a deed in the window of an Acworth home to show that he owns it because the bank kept sending people to change the locks.
Once Jones gets the deeds from the homeowners, he prints his own promissory notes -- essentially a bank guarantee for the debt.
"Once payment is tendered, the debt is discharged whether they accept it or not," said Jones. "What's the difference in the federal reserve creating a 100 dollar bill promissory note that you choose to use and me creating one?" he added.
Jones said it isn't counterfeiting because he isn't copying anything. He's creating his own debt relief and helping homeowners in the process.
"Everything I do is according to law, and if I'm not doing anything according to law, then call the police and have them come arrest me," he said.
Just last week Rockdale County deputies arrested Princess and Ivan Taylor who printed their own promissory notes to try and pay off their own mortgage.
Last month, a Channel 2 investigation exposed an anti-government group called sovereign citizens who were caught deeding million dollar mansions to themselves, then moving in. Several are already under arrest.
Jones said he is not a sovereign citizen, nor is he stealing houses.
"I'm not going to just come up with some half-baked scheme, walk into some vacant house and just move in it haphazardly. I'm going to do things the right way. This has nothing to do with sovereignty, it has everything to do with law and banking and fraud."
Thursday evening, Jones faced representatives from Citibank in a Fulton County courtroom as he tried to keep one of his properties. The judge ruled that the foreclosure action can move forward.
Jones has not been charged with a crime, however, police confirm they are investigating.
WSBTV
