IMMEDIATE RELEASE — ‘Eye of Sauron’ fraud case demands ‘house cleaning’
Case seeking overthrow of program appeals to tax boss, who’s targeted in a separate lawsuit in federal court
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Thursday, March 6, 2025 – A radio reporter suing to overthrow the department of revenue’s “Eye of Sauron” program is demanding commissioner of revenue David Gerregano begin “a house cleaning” by halting use of the agency’s auto insurance surveillance system “until it becomes compliant” with state law.
A filing Monday caps 18 months of litigation within the agency over whether the program to compel all motorists to buy auto insurance meets statutory muster.
David Tulis of Eagle Radio network says that Gerregano “forces people to buy insurance they cannot afford to obtain policies that are insufficient legally and are part of a system of oppression by state government.”
“My appeals by personal letters to the governor and repeated correspondence with AG [Jonathan] Skrmetti and comptroller [of the treasury Jason] Mumpower have gone nowhere – they’ve abdicated their duty to protect the public. My cases in state and federal court make no impression in halting this intractable grift oppressing the poor and stealing their cars from them and their livelihoods.”
The appeal to Gerregano goes over the head of a hearing officer who on Feb. 14 issued a 62-page order against Tulis, fighting for the tag on a 300,000-mile Honda Odyssey minivan.
Tulis says he has a right to use the public road without being “coerced into becoming a customer of the insurance industry when I am not under suspension for a motor vehicle violation and didn’t have a qualifying accident.” The “Sauron” project, launched Jan. 1, 2017, is a “picture perfect example of rogue bureaucracy under corporate capture,” Tulis says. The insurance industry gets $2 billion a year in “free premiums” while many among 1 million uninsured registrants are poor and subject to criminal prosecution, with an average of 40,800 convictions a year, he says in legal filings.
The litigation says the law focuses solely on the certified “motor vehicle liability policy” that is required of a person under suspension. The SR-22 certificate is issued by the insurer and filed with the department of safety. The law regulates high-risk drivers who violate the rules of the road in disregard of public safety.
