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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT GOES AFTER 'TAX DEFIERS'

April 08, 2008

The Department of Justice has moved to shut down "Pinnacle Quest International," a multi-level marketing "tax defier" outfit. From the press release:

WASHINGTON- The United States has filed civil injunction complaints in three federal courts on the east and west coasts, seeking to bar promotions of alleged tax-fraud schemes, the Justice Department announced today. The government complaints and other court papers allege that a multi-level marketing organization called Pinnacle Quest International (PQI) and a number of individuals and organizations currently or formerly affiliated with it are promoting a variety of fraudulent tax defier schemes.

The complaint filed against PQI alleges that the organization has 830 salespeople, thousands of customers, and gross sales from 2002 through 2006 of approximately $54 millions. During the same period, PQI’s leaders allegedly received commissions from sales of PQI products of approximately $8.8 million.

Court papers allege the defendants have sold tax-fraud and other schemes through vendors at trade-show-like conferences at resorts around the world and—in one instance—at a 400-person conference on the Celebrity Cruise Line ship Galaxy in the Mediterranean Sea in May of 2007.

If the press release is accurate, this shows that old scams never die - they just get new names:

The suits allege that PQI, based in Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., is a successor to Institute of Global Prosperity, a business that sold tax-fraud schemes until law-enforcement actions caused it to shut down. Daniel Andersen, a co-founder of Global Prosperity, pleaded guilty in 2004 to a federal felony tax charge. Last November another Global Prosperity co-founder, David Alan Struckman, was found guilty of tax evasion and conspiracy in a federal court in Seattle. According to the PQI injunction complaint, PQI took up where Global Prosperity left off, and has been promoting tax-fraud schemes similar to those that Global Prosperity formerly promoted.

The complaint says PQI has been operating since 2002. It's amazing how long it takes to shut these things down.

Note how the complaint calls these people "tax defiers,' rather than "tax protesters."

Links:

Casternovia complaint
Kukhahn Complaint
Pinnacle Quest Complaint

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