Quatloos! > Investment Fraud > Multi-Level Marketing > EXHIBIT: Global Prosperity Group > IRS Codebusters

IRS Codebusters Scam

The IRS Codebusters scam is yet another tax protestor scam, this time brought to you by Robbie Struckman, the brother of Dave Struckman of Global Prosperity fame. For those of you who don’t know, Global Prosperity was one of the worst scams of the 1990s, defrauding literally tens of thousands of people into buying worthless tapes and seminars purporting to tell them how to avoid federal income taxes. The only way that Global Prosperity could sell any of this useless junk was to wrap it into a multi-level selling program so suckers were rewarded for selling other suckers into the system. The last word we heard about Global Prosperity was the Ninth Circuit throwing out a bogus appeal by the Global Prosperity promoters which attempted to get thrown out evidence gathered during the execution of search warrants by federal investigators.

Oh, and Global Prosperity has a bunch of Cease-and-Desist orders entered against it by a bunch of states. Just thought we’d throw that in to give you a real flavor of the sordid nature of the scheme. See related stories at http://www.quatloos.com/groups/gpg.htm

IRS Codebusters claim that they use the research of “Judge” John Rizzo. In actuality, “Judge” Rizzo has no formal legal education, has never been admitted to the bar of any state, has never had any formal training in federal income taxation, and in fact was just a non-attorney who heard traffic ticket disputes and small claims matters in some small town in Arizona. Although “Judge” Rizzo is quick to comment on federal income taxation, the truth is that he never heard a federal income tax matter during all his time on the bench and isn’t even legally qualified to help people fill out a Form 1040-EZ.

In fact, NOBODY associated with IRS Codebusters has any kind of formal legal education or other legal credentials. These are just scam artists who are making it up as they go along, usually picking up the “theory” from the books and materials of other tax scam artists, such as Lynne Meredith who is currently under indictment for tax fraud in California. Because none of the IRS Codebusters team are admitted to practice in any courts, it means that when (not if) you get picked up by the IRS Criminal Investigative Division and referred to the U.S. Attorney’s office for prosecution, you are “On Your Own.”

One of the recent bogus tactics of IRS Codebusters is to file bogus lawsuits against websites that reveal the truth of their scamming activities. One such bogus lawsuit was brought against the taxes.com website run by Steve Kassel. The lawsuit was brought “pro se”, meaning that no real attorney would add his name to it. The lawsuit has a zero chance of success (those who brought it will probably be sanctioned), but the scam artists use the filing of the lawsuit to try to discredit their critics. In fact, these scam artists have a pattern of filing bogus lawsuits and then not even serving them on the defendants -- just to say that they have sued (although they have a 0% chance of winning).

The only thing that IRS Codebusters seem to do well is high-pressure market. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 PM EST they have a conference call (which are a real riot to listen to) where they make all sorts of claims about what they can do to save taxes. They say they have all this great research and all sorts of great forms and that they have won all sorts of cases.

In truth, IRS Codebusters have never won a single case (as noted, they can’t even appear in court to represent someone), and their research and forms have all the validity of used Charmin. But although they have never tested their own theories in court, others have previously tested these same theories – and have been variously fined, sanctioned, and convicted of felony tax fraud and spent time in jail. None of this deters IRS Codebusters, because of course they aren’t going to go anywhere near a court if you get into trouble.

For IRS Codebusters, it is a “no lose” situation: They get your money now, they aren’t required to represent you, and when you lose you’ll either be in jail or won’t have the money to hire an attorney to chase them (and you really get the feeling that this is a “Here today, Belize tomorrow” sort of planning group). If they really believed in their own junk, they would wait until after the Statute of Limitations for tax fraud expired before taking your money. But they want their money "up front" of course.

We’re not going to go into the specifics of their legal theories, such as they are, because their arguments are just a typical re-hash of the tried-and-lost tax protestor arguments that we deflate at http://www.quatloos.com/taxscams/taxprot.htm Suffice it to say, that even among tax protestor theories, the stuff pitched by IRS Codebusters is, in the words of Rodney Dangerfield, “low grade dog food” with doesn’t even give tax protestors even the statistical 1 in 200 chance of winning like they would get by trying to assert the so-called “Cheek defense” (a/k/a the “I’m too stupid to understand that I have to pay taxes” defense).

IRS Codebusters is just another marketing front for Pinnacle Quest International, Inc. ("PQI") -- the latest incarnation of the failed Global Prosperity scam. If you listen to the (hilarious) taped "conference calls" referenced from IRS Codebusters' website, you will hear Robbie Struckman and several other tax scam artists try about a half-dozen times to get you to buy the totally worthless PQI tapes and materials. Keep your money -- this stuff will only land you in prison. Even if you decided that you were going to try to get away with not filing (which is openly encouraged by IRS Codebusters) the LAST thing that you would want to do is to buy these tapes and thus be on their customer list which the IRS and Department of Justice will undoubtedly seize, just like they did with other of the Global Prosperity Group and more recently with Lynne Meredith's/We the People's members' lists and the JoY Foundation's membership lists. Being on these lists -- and especially highly disreputable scammers like PQI -- means that you WILL be audited and prosecuted for non-filing (sort of defeats the entire purpose of non-filing to be on their lists).

So, just say “No” to IRS Codebusters.

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Update 19 November 2002 -- "Judge" John Rizzo
Denounces IRS Codebusters as a Scam!

"Judge" John Rizzo has written the following to us by e-mail:

I have nothing to do with Robbie Struckman or IRS Code Busters. In fact I warn people all the time about this scam. You know this bad rumor about me started with Mr. Bill Benson about me two years ago when I began to expose the truth about false statements he had and was making about himself and his alleged discovery. I have done everything to encourage people to stay away from both the Struckman's and that program. If you read their website they credit their work on Wayne Bentsen not me. Wayne is presently on trial on Federal Charges which they forget to mention in their website. If you are truly searching for the truth about a lot of these rip off groups out there then perhaps you need to have a conversation with me I will provide you with documented evidence which you can verify not just some rumor floating around. You have only scratched the surface in your reporting. I don't go to their calls for obvious reasons. I want nothing to do with them. Thank you for alerting me to the fact that someone is saying that I have "reviewed and approved" their program. perhaps you would be so kind as to identify those individuals that are making that statement and I will take affirmative action to make sure that stops. It sometimes amazes me to what extent some people will go to in order to sell something like Codebusters. Do not associate me in any way with Codebusters. That is an absolute lie and will not be tolerated. I am doing what I can to help the victims of Codebusters and IGP.

JOHN RIZZO