An Alabama appeals court has upheld the conviction and sentence of a man linked to the Sovereign Citizen Movement who was found guilty last year on charges that he filed fraudulent documents seeking $89.2 million in silver coins from judges and other public officials.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday upheld the conviction of William Peter Witwicki, 71, of Slocomb. The court's memorandum was not available in online court records until this week.

Witwicki had been convicted in Covington County on four counts of offering a false instrument for recording against a public servant. He was sentenced to serve concurrent 10-year sentences, but split to serve 10 months in jail. The judge then suspended the remainder of the sentence and ordered Witwicki to serve 5 years on supervised probation.

According to the appeals court memorandum:

Witwicki had defaulted on a loan for property he owned. The bank foreclosed and the property was sold at a courthouse auction. Witwicki refused to vacate the property and claimed he was still the rightful owner. A circuit judge found in favor of the buyers and ultimately law enforcement had to remove him from the property.

Witwicki filed a federal lawsuit against those involved in the foreclosure and his ejectment from the property, including judges, lawyers, and the buyers. He alleged larceny, theft of property "and other acts of malfeasance," according to the memorandum.

A federal judge dismissed Witwicki's lawsuit.

Witwicki then filed and had recorded in the Covington County Probate Judge's Office a document styled "Notice of Default Notice of Final Determination and Judgement in NIHIL DICIT Silence Is Acquiescence, Agreement and Dishonor," the appeals court memorandum states.

The document was made to appear as if it was an order from the federal case Witwicki had filed, according to the memorandum. The probated document listed the names of "wrongdoers" as three judges (Shannon R. Clark, Thomas Head, and John McLean), Coffee County Sheriff David Sutton, the Houston County SWAT team, the memorandum states. Witwicki claimed the "wrongdoers" had been indicted for larceny, theft and other crimes.

The indictment against Witwicki also lists Circuit Clerk David Counts as someone named in the probated document.

When naming each of the judges and the sheriff in the probate document, Witwicki also wrote "D.B.A. Judge" or "D.B.A. Sheriff," according to the memorandum. The D.B.A. stands for "doing business as" and according to testimony at Witwicki's trial is used by the Sovereign Citizen Movement "as a way of saying that the judge does not have jurisdiction over the sovereign citizen."

The purported order also claimed to assess a penalty and punitive damages against the "wrongdoers" in the amount of $89.2 million to be paid in silver coins (99.9 percent pure).

A Covington County recorded the document under each of the public officials' names. She testified that anyone looking in probate court for things such as a title search or credit report would find the document under the public officials' names. The judges testified they successfully petitioned to have the probate judge expunge the document filed by Witwicki.

"Each of the alleged 'wrongdoers' testified as to the damages, prejudice, and harassment suffered as a result of the recordation of Witwicki's document," the appeals court memorandum states.

An FBI agent also testified at Witwicki's trial that members of the Sovereign Citizen Movement claim they are separate from the U.S. and state governments "and that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution turned everyone into federal citizens and made them slaves to a corporate government."

Sovereign citizens also dispute the legitimacy of courts.

The FBI agent testified that sovereign citizens engage in tactics such as filing frivolous lawsuits or liens against a public officials' property to intimidate them and cause problems such as delays in selling a house, which requires the public officials to take legal action to get the lawsuits and liens expunged, according to the memorandum.

Travis Lambert, of Covington County, also was convicted on the same charges as Witwicki in the case, but the appeals court stated it was only dealing with Witwicki's appeal at this time. Lambert had certified Witwicki's signature and mailed the documents to the parties named in the probate document.

"The actions of these men were an attempt to intimidate and defraud public officials and to interfere with their carrying out their sworn duties," Attorney General Luther Strange stated in a press release issued Thursday. "These are serious crimes that warrant a stern penalty. The State of Alabama will not allow so-called 'sovereign citizens' to impede our lawful government."

Strange also commended Assistant Attorney General Robin Scales of the Attorney General's Criminal Appeals Section, as well as Assistant Attorneys General Ternisha Miles Jones and John Hensley of the Criminal Trials Division, for their work in the case.