Marcia Predmore, Tax Evasion, Colorado 2018

A superseding indictment was returned this week by a federal grand jury in Denver charging four people with conspiring with Larry Conner and Timothy McPhee to defraud the IRS in a nationwide abusive-trust tax shelter scheme.

The indictment alleges that from February 2018 until September 2023, Marcia Predmore, 59, of Colorado, Roderick Prescott, 62, of Colorado, Suzanne Thompson, 56, of Colorado, and Weldon Wulstein, 65, of Colorado, conspired with Conner, McPhee, and others to promote, sell, and implement the abusive-trust tax shelter scheme.

Thompson and Wulstein are also charged with assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns on behalf of clients who used the shelter. Predmore and McPhee had previously been charged with tax evasion related to their use of the tax shelter to conceal their own income from the IRS. Conner and McPhee had also previously been charged with assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns on behalf of clients who used the shelter.

According to the superseding indictment, the shelter was marketed as a way for business owners to avoid paying federal income taxes on nearly all of their business income. Conner and McPhee allegedly instructed clients to use the fraudulent tax shelter by assigning nearly all of their business income to a series of sham trusts and a purported ‘private family foundation’ to create the illusion that the income did not belong to the client.

Prescott allegedly promoted the ‘private family foundation’ through his business, The Stewardship Institute, and taught clients how to spend the funds ‘donated’ to their private family foundations for their own personal use and to disguise the transactions to make them appear charitable. Thompson allegedly operated a bookkeeping firm called The CFO Agency, while Wulstein allegedly operated a return preparation firm called Wulstein Financial Services.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States. Conner, McPhee, Thompson, and Wulstein also face a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each count of assisting in the preparation of a false tax return. McPhee and Predmore face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement. IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.