A former criminal turned Instagram influencer has his encouraged followers to pledge $10k each so they can join him on a self-governing project somewhere in remote Australia.
Nathan “King AK” Richards attracted a cult following online in 2018, sharing his seemingly glamorous life with his followers, while also promoting guns, crime, women and luxury cars.
He has now revealed his plan to purchase a remote property to live away from traditional society to live by “the laws of the land, as God intended”.
“I could sell one acre plots starting at $10,000,” the 30-year-old posted to his 53,000 Instagram followers this week.
“I’ve got another 4,000 acre property I’m looking at this week in Kilkivan (in the Gympie Region of Queensland).”
Richards, who is covered head to toe in tattoos, says he was “born to be a conqueror” and “could never see eye-to-eye with the average man”.
“Greatness is all I’ve ever been after and before I die it’s all I’ll accept,” he said in a recent string of Instagram stories.
Richards put forward a plan to launch a “Not For Profit” with a board of directors who “all put in $100,000 to buy 1,000 acres of geographically strategic land”.
As per his proposal, the property would be held in the company’s name to “establish a sovereign territory”.
“We grow fields of our own organic fruits, vegetables, nuts legumes grain and roots,” he said, detailing a plan to also farm animals.
Richards said no cars or combustion engines would be allowed, with residents using electric vehicles or horses to get around.
“Nobody pays rent or bills, everyone has assigned roles to work on the territory,” he continued. “Away from the bulls*** media, poisoned food, water, pharmaceuticals and problems of our society.”
Richards first made headlines in 2015 for a one-punch attack on an unsuspecting shopping centre security guard.
The incident saw him sentenced to 18 months in jail with immediate parole, with the judge allowing him to stay on the street because he did not continue the attack after throwing the punch.
CCTV footage showed Richards punch the security guard, who was knocked into a woman walking beside him, pushing her into a bathroom door.
The guard remained unconscious for about five minutes, with Richards turning and walking away immediately after the attack.
When walking free from court, Richards showed little remorse for his crime, giving a statement to waiting media. “Poke the lion, get bit,” he said at the time.
Interestingly, Richards posted another Instagram story on January 25 wading into the Australia Day debate, insisting that he “couldn’t wait to celebrate”.
“Can’t wait to celebrate loud and proud tomorrow,” he wrote.
“So grateful to live in this amazing country that has provided so much for me and my family.
“If I see any of these leftist sooks disrespecting our flag by flying it upside down youl (sic) be picking your teeth up out of the dirt.
“God bless Australia! God bless all Australians!”
It remains to be seen whether Richards’ plan to go off the grid with his followers will gain traction and attract enough people to form a functional community. But the idea of a breakaway society, or “sovereign citizens”, has been slowly building traction across Australia in recent months.
While the sovereign citizen movement has existed for many years, it had a resurgence in Australia during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, which were among the toughest on earth.
Initially, anti-lockdown and sovereign citizen groups merged together through Facebook groups formed to organise Covid protests, where a range of conspiracy theories were shared widely.
But in late 2020, Facebook began cracking down on Covid disinformation, and many individuals and groups were barred from the platform, instead fleeing to alternatives like Telegram.
Today, there are countless sovereign citizen accounts and groups on Telegram, providing a frightening insight into members’ beliefs and state of mind.
While at first the movement appears odd yet harmless, Professor Greg Barton told news.com.au that conspiracy theories tended to snowball, and at the extreme end, adherents can come to think of taking and losing life as “some sort of crowning achievement” instead of a failure.
Prof Barton said Australia and the wider world was now past the “tipping point”, with more than half of counter-terrorism measures now focused on battling far-right conspiracy ideologies.
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