http://tucson.com/news/blogs/sovereign- ... 47673.html
The sentencing of man who claims to be a "sovereign citizen" was postponed on Monday.
http://tucson.com/news/blogs/police-bea ... eeae7.htmlIn keeping with his anti-government view, Marrufo initially refused to speak with probation services for purposes of writing a pre-sentence report the judge would use to inform his imposition of sentence. Marrufo has now apparently agreed to speak with the pre-sentence author.
Alberto Gonzalez Marrufo was convicted on Wednesday of two counts of fraud and one count of theft in Pima County Superior Court. He did not have a lawyer, did not present evidence or cross-examine the state’s witnesses, and did nothing to aid in his own defense.
In fact, Marrufo refused to even sit at the defendant’s table, choosing instead to watch like a spectator from the gallery as the prosecutor made a case against him.
“A lot of times, you have people who are simply fraudsters,” said Joshua M. Robbins, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. “Mr. Marrufo, from our perspective, is simply one of those people.”
Robbins helped prosecute Marrufo and dozens of other people who were previously involved in a large-scale tax fraud in California.
Federal investigators say a scam operated by a group called the Old Quest Foundation held seminars purporting to teach attendees how to void debts, prevent home foreclosures and access potentially millions of dollars the government held in their names in secret trusts.
Marrufo worked with Old Quest instructing people on ways to file fraudulent tax and court documents, Robbins said, calling it the largest tax-return fraud in the country’s history.
