Coin fraudster Convicted

[Number Six]

DENVER – James P. Burg, age 62, formerly of Fairplay, Colorado, pled guilty before U.S. District Court Judge John L. Kane today to one count of mail fraud and one count of failing to file an income tax return, federal law enforcement authorities announced. Burg, who is free on bond, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Kane on December 17, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. Burg was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on November 5, 2012. The indictment remained sealed until his arrest in California on November 29, 2012.

According to the indictment as well as the plea agreement, beginning on or about October 1, 2007, and continuing through and including on or about January 12, 2012, in Colorado and elsewhere, James P. Burg devised and intended to devise a scheme to defraud customers that ordered coins from a business known as Superior Discount Coins and Gold Run Investments and for obtaining money from those customers by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises. Burg took and received $2,464,099 from customers that ordered coins and he failed to deliver the coins as promised.


http://www.justice.gov/usao/co/news/201 ... 2b-13.html

[Quixote]

What is the tax denier connection?

[Number Six]

He was a non-filer. I'm not sure what the reason was, but it looks like this is quite common, I would like to see the statistics on various income levels of tax non-filers. When I was doing a search on tax non-filers a while back, I was shocked how little data there is on that. The collectors were wondering why he was only convicted on one count on the tax charge, not for every year? Move this one with my blessing.

[The Observer]

He was a non-filer.

There a lots of non-filers who end up facing time in a courtroom, but that does not make them a tax denier or a tax scammer, which is what this forum is about.

When I was doing a search on tax non-filers a while back, I was shocked how little data there is on that. The collectors were wondering why he was only convicted on one count on the tax charge, not for every year?

There could have been a number of reasons for that. It simply could have been that the government lacked evidence to show that he had enough income for any particular year that would have triggered the requirement to file. Also, the government must prove that his failure to file was willful in order to get a felony conviction.

Moving this thread to the Tax Policy Thread.