A reader submits... For Your Review
http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/usaopress/2008/txdv08_2008-11-12_phendrickson.pdf
U.S. Department of Justice
Terrence Berg United States Attorney Eastern District of Michigan
Suite 2001 211 West Fort Street Detroit, Michigan 48226-3277
For Immediate Release: Contact: Gina Balaya (313) 226-9758
Nov 12, 2008
EVENT: Indictment Defendant: Peter Hendrickson
Man Indicted for Submitting False Documents With the Internal Revenue Service
Peter Hendrickson, 53, was arraigned today in federal court in Detroit on an indictment charging him with submitting several false documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Acting United States Attorney Terrence Berg announced today.
The 10-count indictment charges that for the calendar years 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 Hendrickson filed IRS Forms 1040 (income tax returns) and/or IRS Forms 4852 (Substitute for Form W-2) stating under penalties of perjury that he had received no wages in those years. The indictment indicates that he had in fact received wages in those years in varying amounts.
In May 2007, a federal court in Detroit permanently enjoined Peter Hendrickson from filing tax returns and forms on which he falsely reported his income as zero. The injunction order, signed by U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds, also required Hendrickson and his wife to repay more than $20,000 in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes that they had obtained by filing false tax returns with the IRS.
According to information in the May 2007 court order, Hendrickson based his improper conduct on a book he wrote called "Cracking the Code." The book states that federal tax withholding and income taxes on wages are applicable only for a limited class of people, primarily government employees. The court found that position to be "false and frivolous," and cited an earlier court decision holding the position to be "preposterous."
Peter Hendrickson was convicted in 1992 on federal criminal charges for failing to file a federal income tax return and for a conspiracy involving a firebomb placed in a bin at a U.S. Post Office in Royal Oak, Mich. on April 16, 1990, the last day on which tax returns could be postmarked that year.
Acting United States Attorney Berg said, "The right to protest cannot cross the line into unlawful conduct. Although our system depends on the voluntary compliance of citizens, no one is exempt from paying taxes or following federal tax laws."
"This is yet another example of the Justice Department's commitment, under the National Tax Defier Initiative, to use off all of its tools - both civil and criminal - to stop tax defier conduct throughout the nation," said Nathan J. Hochman, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Tax Division. "Hendrickson, if convicted, faces years in prison, steep fines, and paying back all taxes with penalties and interest."
"The Internal Revenue Code has no hidden secrets and applies to all taxpayers," said Eileen Mayer, Chief, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. "Today's indictment signals the IRS' determination to ensure that all taxpayers abide by the tax laws and pay their fair share of taxes."
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case was investigated by special agents of the IRS. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Leibson and Department of Justice Tax Division attorney Mark Daly.
More information about the Justice Department's efforts to stop tax fraud promoters and preparers through civil and criminal actions is available on the Tax Division's website.
Pete Hendrickson responds to most recent DOJ attack on him and his book Cracking the Code.
Pete's Comments……
They're Gluttons For Punishment...
Six years or so ago, some IRS flunky made the mistake of his or her career in refusing to accept the return filed by my wife and me, leading to my uncovering the liberating truth about the income tax. A year later, some higher-level IRS stooge did it again, taking me into court with allegations of "promoting an abusive tax shelter" by way of CtC, and promptly losing three quick cases and killing that issue permanently.
Two years after that, a still-higher-level thug pushed the agency and the DoJ to try to slow the spread of the truth about the tax by filing a "lawsuit" against my wife and me, in which the federal courts are asked to order us to testify to the government's specifications in order to create a pretense under which we could be held liable for taxes which even the Treasury Department's own internal records admit that we don't owe. This has proven to be a sustained, still-ongoing embarrassment to the agency, the DoJ, and the courts (and yet another definitive affirmation of the accuracy of what is revealed in CtC).
Now, as I got word on Wednesday, another batch of these folks is daring another, and more significant, embarrassment, by charging me with allegedly having "Willfully [made] and [subscribed] any return, statement, or other document, which contains or is verified by a written declaration that it is made under the penalties of perjury, and which he does not believe to be true and correct as to every material matter." (The details can be seen here.)
I look forward with great interest to the government's attempts to carry its burden of proving that I'm wrong about the law, and what's more, that I don't (and didn't) believe what I said in my filings to be true and correct as to every material matter...
The realities of both fact and law that are involved here mean that competent management of this trial will result in a just outcome, and a really serious bloody nose for a couple of agencies whose efforts the evade the law are increasingly desperate, and erratic.
That kind of management requires some specialized skills, though, and getting them will cost a lot of money. I hope all of you will participate. Donations for that purpose can be made here, or by mail to Pete Hendrickson, 232 Oriole Rd., Commerce Twp., MI 48382.
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P. S. If you see posts about this subject in newsgroups, forums, etc., please do me the favor of posting my comments above in response (with links active), or, better still, post, "Pete has posted comments about this latest attack on the truth about the tax-- along with some important links-- at www.losthorizons.com/Newsletter.htm#IRSAttack".
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