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Protestors > EXHIBIT:
Tax Protestor Dummies > Christian
Patriot Assoc
("Damn, We Lost Again! And why is it
that people who sell
tax protestor materials file their tax returns anyway . . .")
Christian Patriot Association
NEWS FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
June 7, 2002
Assistant Attorney General Eileen J. O'Connor and United States Attorney
Michael W. Mosman announced today that a federal jury in Portland, Oregon,
convicted six defendants, Richard George Flowers, Dorothy Lenore Flowers,
Jeffrey Allen Weakley, John David Anderson, Ronald William Stacey, and Dan
Romaine Kirkham, of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
All defendants were associated with the Christian Patriot Association, a
warehouse bank located in Boring, Oregon, which provided anonymous banking
for 900 members nationwide. According to proof at trial. this warehouse bank
was operated for the purpose of impeding and impairing the Internal Revenue
Service and bad deposits totaling $186 million during the 14-year span of
the conspiracy. The jury also found Richard George Flowers guilty of failure
to file federal income tax returns for 1995 and 1996 and found Anderson,
Ronald and Elecia Stacey, and Dan Romaine Kirkham guilty of tax evasion.
The indictment alleged a conspiracy that involved a nationwide web of financial
transactions from March 1986 until July 2000. The scheme was designed to
enable members to conduct banking transactions anonymously by using numbered
accounts that were come singled in a single comercial bank account.
"The jury's verdict sends a clear message that criminals who hide
income and assets to evade payment of taxes and who willfully fail to file
income tax returns will be held accountable," said Deputy Assistant Attorney
General Rod J. Rosenstein. "People who commit tax fraud are not patriots."
Evidence presented to the jury showed that defendants Richard Flowers and
Dorothy Flowers founded the Christian Patriot Association (CPA), and along
with Jeff Weakley, operated it from its headquarters in Boring, Oregon. Identifying
customers by numbers rather than names, CPA conducted anonymous banking transactions
for over 900 customers nationwide, including defendants John Anderson, Ronald
Stacey and Elecia Stacey of Oregon, and Dr. Dan Romaine Kirkham of California.
Christian Patriot Association members would send deposits of checks, cash,
money orders, and cashiers checks to CPA. The deposits of all members were
commingled into commercial bank accounts held in the name of CPA Services
in Oregon and Arizona. CPA would then pay bills for and mail cash to CPA
members. As a result, the banking transactions of CPA members were virtually
untraceable.
Testimony established that CPA mailed over $10 million in cash to its
members. The defendants used multiple alias names and false social security
numbers to facilitate the scheme. Defendant Jeff Weakley admitted at trial
that he forged the family tree in a Bible he bought at a second-hand bookstore
as proof of identity in order to get a false social security number in an
alias name. Defendant John Anderson testified that he stopped filing federal
income tax returns in 1982 because he resented paying taxes. He used at least
six alias names. Dan Romaine Kirkham, a medical doctor and lawyer from California,
used one alias and at least five social security numbers, and testified that
be made them up when he needed one. Ronald and Elecia Stacey titled their
vehicles in an alias name in order to hide them from the IRS.
John Anderson, Ronald and Elecia Stacey, and Dan Romaine Kirkham, were
convicted of evading the payment of over $1,448,657 in federal taxes, penalties,
and interest. The evidence showed that Dorothy Flowers notarized the alias
names of several defendants, including her husband, Richard Flowers, who
used an alias to open bank accounts, title vehicles and create trusts. Anderson
used the CPA warehouse bank services, multiple aliases and post office boxes,
sham trusts and a false social security number to hide his assets from the
IRS. He also used $81,000 in cash to purchase a helicopter, which he titled
in the name of his 10-year old son. The Staceys, former owners of the Tickle
Your Fancy Florist Shop in Clackamas, Oregon, used multiple business names
and the CPA warehouse bank services to conceal their income and assets from
the IRS.
When IRS employees attempted to collect outstanding taxes owed by the Staceys,
the Staceys filed a "common law" criminal complaint against them.
Dr. Kirkham counseled Dorothy and Arnold Mitchell to hide their income at
CPA.
The evidence established that the Flowers, who reside in Sandy, Oregon,
and John Anderson have not filed federal income tax returns since 1982; Jeff
Weakley, a resident of Portland, Oregon, has not filed income tax returns
since 1985. Ronald and Elecia Stacey, residents of Milwaukee, Oregon, did
not file timely federal income tax returns between 1991 and 1996. Dr. Kirkham,
a resident of Orange County, California, has not filed an income tax return
since 1992.
Each defendant faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for
each of the conspiracy and tax evasion convictions. The failure to file charges
against Richard Flowers carry a penalty of up to one year imprisonment for
each count and a fine of up to $100,000. Jeff Weakley was acquitted of the
two charges of failing to file his federal income tax returns for 1995 and
1996.
This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Jen E. Ihlo, Melissa Schraibman,
and Amanda Cruser of the United States Department of Justice, Tax Division,
Criminal Enforcement Section. Special Agents with the Internal Revenue Service,
Criminal Investigation, conducted the investigation.
