OREGON MAN CONVICTED OF TAX FRAUD

Oregon man convicted of tax fraud. From Lebanon, Oregon, Robert Lund, a former computer consultant who had previously worked at Hewlett Packard, was sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison after a very complex and decades long effort to avoid paying his taxes. He owned millions of dollars worth of property and businesses and was finally caught. He had gone to extraordinary lengths to hide his income from his own computer company, rental properties, health food store, bookstore and scuba diving business, that he even collected food stamps and Medicaid benefits. He plead guilty to charges of Tax Evasion, failure to file personal income taxes and stealing government benefits. He was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison. Oregon man convicted of tax fraud.

Lund's tax evasion odyssey dates back to the mid-1990's, when he was convicted of illegally structuring his computer consultancy through a trust in an effort to avoid paying the IRS, and was ordered to pay $444,000 in back taxes. Instead of paying what he owed, Lund appealed the ruling and simply stopped filing taxes altogether. He then engaged in a long running letter writing campaign with the IRS which he claimed he wasn't a U.S. citizen and that the tax agency had no authority over him--language consistent with the sovereign citizens movement. Looks like he should have consulted with IRS Wage Garnishment Experts.

Members of the movement deny the legitimacy of the U.S. government and often refuse to pay taxes and gum up the legal system through endless and obstructive court filings. During this time, Lund had retained a tax protestor attorney, who was later convicted of tax evasion and disbarred. Prosecutors say Lund moved many of his assets--including his computer business, a 90 acre compound with a seven bedroom house and airstrip, the former city hall and post office buildings he owned in Albany, Oregon, and a trailer park, into multiple layers of corporate entities controlled by others.