Erstwhile sports betting tout Adam Meyer (pictured) has come up with a surefire two-pronged strategy to battle his federal extortion, fraud and weapons charges: I’m a secret government agent, and I’m batshit insane.

Meyer, who formally headed up the Real Money Sports prediction service, was arrested in December after a client claimed Meyer had threatened him with a gun if he didn’t give Meyer more money. Meyer reportedly extorted over $25m from the victim, since identified as Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin businessman Gary Sadoff, who owns the Badger Liquor Company.

In documents filed with federal prosecutors on Tuesday, first assistant US Attorney Greg Haanstad detailed how Meyer plans to employ the “public authority” defense. Basically, Meyer is claiming that his illegal actions were performed at the behest of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, with whom Meyer claims to have been cooperating.

According to the documents obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Meyer also claims to have been cooperating with illegal sports betting investigations launched by Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and a NCAA Division 1 football team. The feds have rejected Meyer’s claims and demanded that he disclose the names of witnesses he plans to call to testify in his defense.