By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 22, 2005

Gregory I. Armstrong, a 42-year-old Prince George's postal worker, doesn't bear much resemblance to countries like Singapore or Brazil or even tiny Luxembourg.

But, according to a federal indictment, that didn't stop him from repeatedly claiming in bankruptcy proceedings that he was a self-ruling sovereign nation and therefore entitled to collect $1 million against his boss for using his name, which he said had been copyrighted.

"It was sort of nightmarish," said Odell Johnson, Armstrong's supervisor at a U.S. Postal Service center in Capitol Heights. "They were threatening to foreclose my home."

A federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on Monday indicted Armstrong on charges of bankruptcy fraud and false declarations in bankruptcy.

The conflict began in August 2004, when Johnson sent Armstrong a letter warning disciplinary action if Armstrong did not improve his attendance at work, the indictment says.

Armstrong, of the 1800 block of Long Leaf Way in Severn, responded with a letter that forbade his boss to use his name without prior consent because he said the name "Gregory Ignatius Armstrong" had been copyrighted.

The following month, after Johnson suspended him for continued absences from work, Armstrong said he was a self-ruling sovereign whose "power to contract is unlimited," the indictment said.

He then said -- falsely, according to the indictment -- that Johnson had agreed to pay him $1 million for using his name without permission and initiated involuntary bankruptcy proceedings against him. Armstrong could not be reached for comment.

"Originally, I didn't take him seriously," said Johnson, 57, of Clinton. "But then he filed a bankruptcy filing, and it started affecting my credit rating." Johnson said the bankruptcy proceedings were closed after it became clear that Armstrong is not his own country. Armstrong, as the indictment says, "was not a member of the United Nations."