Harvey Douglas Goff Sentenced to 36 Months for Tax Court Obstructio…

SALT LAKE CITY – Harvey Douglas Goff, 55, of Ogden, is headed to federal prison after being sentenced to 36 months for a brazen attempt to obstruct justice in a U.S. Tax Court case. Goff pleaded guilty in December, admitting he flooded the court system with bogus filings in a desperate bid to derail proceedings.

U.S. District Judge David Nuffer handed down the sentence Monday afternoon, also tacking on 36 months of supervised release. Goff, already released from custody, must self-surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons by May 30, 2013. The sentence accounts for a broader pattern of misconduct, despite the dismissal of 13 counts from a 14-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in May 2011. Charges included obstruction of justice, impeding internal revenue laws, fictitious obligations, and attempted mail fraud.

According to court documents, between April and July 2010, Goff repeatedly filed false and fictitious forms asserting that the Tax Court judge had provided him with “tens of millions of dollars” in suspicious cash transactions. He didn’t stop there, sending copies of these fabricated documents directly to the judge – a calculated effort to intimidate and derail the legal process. The initial spark for this escalation came from traffic stops in Ogden, where Goff claimed diplomatic immunity and challenged the authority of the Weber County court.

But the obstruction didn’t stop at the Tax Court. Goff filed liens totaling over $53 trillion against employees and entities of the State of Utah, Weber County, Ogden City, and the Ogden Police Department. These liens were slapped on 77 parcels within Weber County, including municipal property and private residences. It was a wide-ranging, financially ruinous attempt to retaliate against those he perceived as adversaries.

This case isn’t an isolated incident. In a related case, Randy Merrill Huffaker, 60, of Taylorsville, received time served (approximately three days) and 12 months of supervised release in late March for impeding the IRS and filing false liens against government officials. He was also ordered to pay $33,996 in restitution. Huffaker admitted to filing bogus liens against the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and the Comptroller of the Currency in 2011, and mailing harassing documents to the Commissioner’s home.

The investigation was a joint effort by special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI, with the prosecution handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Salt Lake City. While 13 counts were dropped against Goff, the 36-month sentence serves as a warning: attempts to obstruct justice, particularly those involving fabricated financial claims and harassment of public officials, will be met with serious consequences. The feds are clearly cracking down on these ‘sovereign citizen’-inspired schemes.”