Business Law and the Legal Environment 7th Edition by Jeffrey Beatty,Susan Samuelson

Exercise 7

After a federal judge refused to dismiss criminal charges against him, Michael Reed took revenge by electronically filing a UCC financing statement listing the judge, the prosecuting attorney, and former Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner as $3.4 million debtors. Reed himself was listed as the secured party. The lien became part of the public record. When Reed was later prosecuted for violating a statute intended to prevent harassment of public officials, he argued that he was innocent because the financing statement listed no real or personal property as collateral-and would never have succeeded in perfecting a claim. What should the judge rule?