Rebuck Sentenced (Commonwealth Trust)

[Judge Roy Bean]

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/2 ... onths.html

Tax protester who aided feds gets 14 months
By MICHAEL HINKELMAN
Philadelphia Daily News

hinkelm@phillynews.com 215-854-2656
A former tax protester turned government cooperator who helped the feds dismantle an organization that sold bogus tax trusts was sentenced yesterday to 14 months in a federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the IRS.

Wayne Rebuck, 59, of central Pennsylvania, was director of operations for the Texas-based Commonwealth Trust Co.

The company encouraged clients to hide income and assets in sham trusts to avoid paying taxes. Many of its clients did not file tax returns or filed false returns. (Commonwealth is not affiliated with a Wilmington, Del., firm by the same name.)

Federal prosecutors recommended leniency for Rebuck.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Vineet Gauri said that Rebuck began cooperating in December 2004, and had taken federal investigators "inside the Commonwealth conspiracy" at its highest levels.

U.S. District Judge Anita Brody said Rebuck's cooperation was "absolutely indispensable" to the government's case, but said that Rebuck should still serve time in prison to punish him and to deter others.

Rebuck's attorney, James J. West, had argued for a period of house arrest or confinement in a community corrections center.

West said in court papers that Rebuck had met with 15 federal agents around the country and cooperated on 19 investigations involving more than 40 defendants.

One investigation involved actor Wesley Snipes, star of "White Men Can't Jump." Rebuck testified at the 2006 tax-evasion trial of Bucks County tax protester Arthur Farnsworth that Snipes had bought a Commonwealth trust.

Rebuck was subpoenaed in the Snipes case, but did not testify at the actor's trial, his lawyer said.

Snipes was convicted in February by a federal jury in Florida of willfully failing to file tax returns and was sentenced to three years in federal prison in April. He remains free pending appeal.

Rebuck was the feds' star witness in the trial here of Commonwealth's mastermind, John Michael "Red" Crim.

Crim and two others were convicted by a jury in January of conspiracy to defraud the IRS.

Crim was sentenced last month to eight years in prison.

Rebuck's cooperation has taken a heavy toll on him, but West said that Rebuck felt that it was the "right thing" to do.

He said that Rebuck has become a pariah in the tax-protester community, that he had received threatening phone calls and that IRS agents had installed surveillance cameras around his home to deter unwelcome visitors.

Brody ordered Rebuck to report to prison Oct. 10. *

[Demosthenes]

The promoter Rebuck gets 14 months while the client Snipes get 3 years. Ouch.

[wserra]

The promoter Rebuck gets 14 months while the client Snipes get 3 years. Ouch.

And Rebuck is convicted of felony conspiracy to defraud, while Snipes is convicted of misdemeanor failures to file.

Cooperation - the be-all and end-all of federal sentencing. I had a client who pleaded to killing someone, and was out in about four years. He did major heavy lifting. And don't forget Mickey Featherstone - a stone killer if there ever was one - who is now Joe Smith, living next to some unsuspecting families courtesy of Witness Protection.

I do not miss that part of federal criminal practice - the parade (frequently "rush" is a better term) to the U.S. Attorney's office.

[grixit]

Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. Laid a whole mafia on the table, in return was allowed to skate on multiple murders and keep the legitimate businesses he'd bought into with the money from his other businesses. Of course he was only able to give the feds everything because he was number 2 in that mafia and the feds really wanted numgber one, John Gotti. I think the Justice Department violated the separation of church and state in that one-- it's a clear case of selling indulgences.

Anyway, it wasn't too long before Gravano surfaced again. Local cops in the community he'd been relocated to, arrested him in the center of a scheme to make drugs (ecstacy, iirc) and sell them in schools. So-- back to prison with no more slack from the feds, and no friends left in the mob. Time to test that tough guy reputation.