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Morans’
64 Felony Charges Beaten
Team
Minns Levels IRS - DOJ
By
Tedd Peck Investigative Reporter
Investigative
Reporter Edward Snook Contributing
Seattle,
Washington –
Two innocent and patriotic citizens dodge
64 IRS lethal bullets in a triumph for justice
and the American way.
Last
Christmas, the spirit of the season bestowed
upon a Montrose, CO couple the greatest gift
of all, freedom! James and Pamela Moran,
facing a possible 180 combined years of
incarceration were found not guilty by a jury
of their peers on all 64 charges of an
indictment in a Federal Courtroom. This
victory defied all odds because the Moran’s
were convicted of the same charges in December
of 2004. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
overturned the Moran’s 2004 convictions,
granting them the new trial.
Staying
true to form the government once again
indicted the Moran’s and a court date was
set for early December of 2007. The government
expected the same outcome from this trial as
they experienced in the first one in 2004. Now
enters a ringer for the Moran’s, a Texas
attorney, and former Golden Gloves Champion,
Michael Minns. So it was back to Sleepless In
Seattle for round two.
This
time the Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSA’s)
would draw the darling of both the right wing
and left wing, with G. Gordon Liddy on the
right endorsing Minns as America's top
criminal tax defense lawyer on his top-rated
national radio show. Liddy also plugged Minns’
book, "How to Survive the IRS" in
2001. On the left wing, Geraldo Rivera based
two shows in 1991 and 1992 on innocent clients
freed by Minns' remarkable legal skills, while
endorsing Minns' best seller, "The
Underground Lawyer.” Minns’ thirty year
career has been noted for his envelope pushing
defenses of citizens against what he calls,
"The American Gestapo" and "The
Tax Terrorists" - The IRS!
Mickey
Brown, the former Texas middle weight
champion, who trained Minns and worked his
corner when he won the 1969 Golden Gloves
Boxing Championship Title remarked that, “In
boxing you wear a cup to protect you from the
low blows. I taught Mike to avoid low blows
and he has made a career out of stopping
lawyers and the IRS from landing them. Pound
for pound he's the best Tax Defense lawyer and
the Best Legal Malpractice lawyer in the
country. And you need both to fight these
unscrupulous terrorists."
It’s
true that Minns’ unblemished string of
acquittals for clients and reversals on
appeal have won him widespread acclaim, but
his combination of skills in which he
maintained a practice suing bad lawyers and
accountants led to his most unusual
conquest; that of winning the largest Test
Case Petitioner reversal and tax refund case
in United States history. This accomplishment
entailed obtaining a circuit court finding
that the IRS had indeed committed a fraud in
court against 1300 airline pilots during a
2003 tax case. Without missing a jab or
combination flurry, Minns dismantled the
careers of two corrupt IRS lawyers who
promoted the fraud for fun, profit and self
aggrandizement. Mr. Kenneth W. McWade and his
superior William A. Sims were subsequently
suspended from their respective state bars and
lost their privilege to practice law before
the Tax Court due to Minns’ efforts. This
was the first time in history that IRS lawyers
were publicly and thoroughly punished for
their fraud, all the while on the
taxpayers’ payroll. With that said, the IRS
agents treat citizens with complete abuse, yet
if we treat
the IRS code with that much irreverence, you
and I would end up in a jail cell. ??
The
Morans, sitting at the same table, in the same
court room where they had been convicted and
sentenced to serve hard time in prison nearly three
years earlier, were of course concerned.
They had nothing more than their innocence,
their faith, and Michael Minns' team to
support them. While each of the counts had
been won (often by Minns in previous trials)
by themselves, no one had won a dozen straight
counts, on offshore tax counts, coupled with
money laundering accounts, and wire fraud
counts, since a New York lawyer in the 60's,
straight across the board.
While
some lawyers brag about winning a few of the
counts (forgetting to talk about losing a few
counts too), in today's
sentence-guidelines-directed Federal system,
each count is like a bullet...one guilty count
means time in prison. Minns counts each
bullet as a defeat. The government had
indicted the Morans with 64 counts, 64
bullets, and the first time they had fired
their machine gun, all 64 bullets had stolen
blood from the Morans.
While
the appellate court removed all 64 bullets,
the emotional scars were still there on this
Minister and his Sunday school teacher, Church
organist wife, who had, three years earlier,
listened as the Judge read the verdicts of
guilty one after the other, and then ordered
them to prison if they lost their appeal. So
they faced the same table prepared before them
in the presence of their enemies, but also in
the presence of an American Jury sworn to
presume innocence.
History
On
February 28, 2001, the IRS conducted the
largest raid in its history covering three
countries, Canada , Costa Rica and the United
States , leading to the indictments of dozens
of people across the country that worked for
or purchased products from an organization
called Anderson Ark and Associates ( AAA )
based in Costa Rica .
Armed
searches and arrests took place coast to coast
stretching from Boston to Sacramento and
Fresno , California and from Seattle to South
Carolina and Texas . At the time, this police
action was referred to as, “stopping the
largest tax scam in history.”
During
the next six years, indictments rained down
from Washington targeting nearly everyone who
participated in the organization, either as a
developer, unsuspecting promoter, or trusting
client. From February 2001 until November
2007, the IRS had a 100% conviction rate. That
on the surface may be an impressive record.
But when the truth is finally revealed, their
success is not unlike a ballplayer’s stats
while on steroids. If someone was one of the
25,000 participants, the odds were very high
that that person would be indicted,
prosecuted, tried and convicted. What was
their offense? – Actually, it was following
the Internal Revenue Tax Code.
James
and Pamela Moran became involved in AAA
through a professional relationship with
Roosevelt Drummer, a former IRS agent who
rendered them tax accounting assistance years
earlier. Mr. Moran, a Viet Nam veteran and
minister, who, along with Pamela a church
organist truly believed in the AAA mission of
ridding people of debt and creating wealth.
Their passion for this program led them to a
leadership position within the organization,
assisting others in marketing various products
and opportunities. For their efforts in
helping others, they were subjected to
humiliation through investigations,
indictments, arrest and two Federal trials
that drew national exposure in Seattle , WA .
Included in this Federal travesty was
confiscation of their worldly possessions,
including their home and new Jeep.
The
charges included alleged charges of wire
fraud, money laundering and assisting in the
preparation of false tax returns. This form of
incrimination is particularly odd since the
Moran’s were not privy to the clients’ tax
returns, nor did they suspect that they were
doing anything unlawful or illegal. The money
they were accused of defrauding people out of
included their own money which they never got
back. The Morans were literally accused of
being involved in a conspiracy to steal money
from themselves.
Nevertheless,
they were put on trial in late 2004 along with
four Certified Public Accountants/IRS enrolled
agents, the alleged ring leaders of the
organization, Keith Anderson of Costa Rica and
Wayne Anderson from Central California, as
well as the head of United States operations
Richard Marks.
The
first trial lasted for more than a month
ending with guilty verdicts for the Andersons
, Marks and James and Pamela. The CPA’s
verdicts were hung and the government
agents’ threats to pursue them with another
trial eventually led to their capitulation,
because of the stress and financial ruin to
which they were being subjected. The mighty
Department of Justice got their marks and all
was well with the world.
Not
quite, ruled the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals. Much to the chagrin of the Assistant
United States Attorneys, it appears the over
zealous prosecutors and judge in the 2004
trial failed to allow Pamela’s testimony
regarding her state of mind as to her intent
to break the law to be heard during the trial.
As has happened in other AAA trials the
government, and in some cases the defense
attorneys, took all precautions to keep the
defendants from telling their story. It
appears this inconvenient truth threatened
their desired outcome, for if the juries were
allowed to hear defendants argue that there
was no willfulness or knowledge of breaking
any law, they would be found not guilty.
The
Morans being good law abiding folk, only
wanted to help others less fortunate than
themselves or help those more fortunate to
find tax deferment advice from the CPA staff.
Tax avoidance is not the same as tax evasion.
Tax avoidance is an acceptable practice
sought out by people every day all over this
country.
Unlike
those victims/defendants that were tried
before them, the Morans, with the assistance
of Michael Minns, his daughter Attorney Rain
Minns, Peter Mair and John Zulauf, heard
angels singing when all counts of the
indictment received a not guilty verdict. The
IRS skein of convictions stopped when the Jury
of 12 citizens heard the truth and exposed the
callous disregard the tax enforcers have for
honest people looking for investment
advantages. More importantly the acquittals
proved that everyone in the organization below
the Moran’s level, including those that
promoted the program never had any knowledge
that the program was anywhere near illegal, a
point that the IRS or the DOJ has not bothered
to prove. In fact, the prosecutions
occurred because the people involved did not
hold elite status as determined by government
bureaucrats.
Hundreds
of lives have been damaged and some destroyed
because of run amuck government agents and
deceitful prosecutors and in most cases
compliant judges. For the Morans these
verdicts ended nearly seven years of horror as
they lived with the fear of being separated if
imprisoned, loss of their assets, reputations
and alienation of friends and neighbors.
Paul
DeFosses, former IRS revenue agent and founder
of the Whistle Blowers Association of former
IRS employees has declared that the
organization for which they once worked has
gotten out of control and violates American
principles of justice. DeFosses is reported to
have said: "Minns is
so far above the pack there is no number
“Two.” He is the top tax defense lawyer in
the country." DeFosses has testified
about IRS atrocities several times before the
U.S. Congress and helped draft the TaxPayers
Bill of Rights. Rights, that seem to have
vanished through the unbridled ambition of
bottom dwellers working with a badge, under
the color of law.
Enrolled
Agent Collis Redd, reviewing the cases
remarked, "If you can't hire Minns or get
a lawyer willing to study his books and
techniques, pack your tooth brush. You are
going to jail. No one else knows how to defend
the innocent taxpayer in court. Minns wrote
the book, actually, both of them."
Congressman
and Presidential contender Ron Paul said,
"Working in the tradition of the framers
of the Constitution, is attorney Michael Louis
Minns. He has defended many Americans against
the depredations of the tax police, and argued
for a fair and constitutional system in place
of the personal income tax." Congressman
Ron Paul also wrote the introduction to Minns’
second book.
John
Berthound, President of the National Taxpayers
Union said, "Tax-and-Spend Members of
Congress and their shrill media allies
proclaim that 'tax cheating' is rampant and on
the rise because of recent IRS reforms.
Michael Minns provides prima facie evidence
against those who would like to make us think
we've gone 'too far' in trying to rein in IRS
abuse and change the way we tax our
citizens."
So
it is said that behind every successful man
there stands a strong capable woman and in
this case she is Minns' daughter Rain, who
volunteered to act as co-counsel with her
Father. With a successful career helping bring
justice to people harmed in senior housing
facilities behind her, she answered the call
to pitch in and got the defense team ready for
trial. This was a daunting task as the Minns
team had all of three months to un-track the
U.S. Government team of prosecutors.
Rain
Minns, a long-time advocate for tax justice
will continue as a partner in her Father’s
firm to help people like the Morans and other
investors in AAA, or victims of malicious
prosecution everywhere who didn't get their
fair day in court.
What
follows are vignettes portraying some of the
tactics used by the men in black.
During
the recent trial one witness spoke about the
government asking her to lie about the Morans
and make them out to be at the top of the AAA
organization. What is astounding is that she
was asked this question by the prosecutor
after Minns question was objected to and
sustained.
Probably
the person in charge of the attack on the
Morans, that did the most damage to these two
innocent people, was CID (IRS) agent Michelle
Hagemann, known for her shoot-from-the-hip and
asks-questions-later style of investigation.
CPA Joseph Moschetti of Grand Junction , CO
took it upon himself to personally destroy the
Morans. Moschetti, who may have been concerned
about losing a client to AAA took it upon
himself to act as an investigating agent and
recorded phone calls with the intent to entrap
the Morans. These tapes were handed over to
CID agent Hagemann, who under oath admitted
she had a professional relationship with
Moschetti, who swore to bring the Morans down.
Hagemann also admitted, “The tax code can be
complex depending upon which section you are
looking at.”
Minns
had trouble understanding the relationship
between Hageman and Moschetti, who Hageman
called the most honorable and honest of
individuals. On the stand, Hageman
avoided answering this question ten ways from
Sunday, until finally, under Minns' polite but
persistent questioning, she admitted that
there was more to her relationship with
Moschetti than simply an IRS agent to an
informant. Minns kept asking: "How
is it that this CPA has the phone number of an
IRS Special Agent? Isn't that
unusual?" And the truth finally
came out. Not only did Hageman accompany
Moschetti personally to an Anderson Ark
meeting where the Moran's were speaking, she
finally admitted, he also prepared her
personal tax returns. "Will Moshetti
get a reward for turning these people
in?" Minns asked her. And again, she
avoided the straight answer saying: "I
know nothing about it," until
finally she admitted it was possible that a
request would possibly come to her when all
the trials were over.
To
this day the IRS has never proven the AAA
program illegal. In fact, the US Observer
legal publication reported over 18 months ago
that the IRS auditors did not consider the
program illegal, but the Department of Justice
attorneys were prosecuting participants as if
it were the largest tax scam in history. Presumption
trumps reality every time.
The Morans stated, “We were humbled by our
seven year ordeal, but left our fate in the
hands of the Lord.”
Now
let’s get the Moran’s Jeep back.
Editor’s
Note -
Look for more in-depth information in future
editions concerning the collusion, fraud and
conspiracy against innocent victims of the
government’s attack on AAA participants…
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