Rodney K. Justin, Tax Evasion, North Carolina 2009

North Carolina doctor Rodney K. Justin is heading to prison for three years after a federal jury convicted him of tax evasion. The 61-year-old Woodleaf resident was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay over $600,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for obstructing the internal revenue laws and for failing to file tax returns for several years.

The sentence was imposed by Chief Judge James A. Beaty Jr. in Winston-Salem, N.C. on January 8, 2009. A federal jury had convicted Justin of four felony counts of corruptly obstructing the administration of the internal revenue laws by sending fake financial instruments called ‘Bills of Exchange’ to the Secretary of the Treasury in Washington, D.C., in purported payment of over $350,000 in taxes.

Justin was also found guilty of willful failure to file tax returns for the tax years 2001 through 2004. According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, Justin had not filed a valid tax return since 1997. However, Justin earned in excess of $200,000 each year from 2001 through 2004.

A thorough investigation by the IRS revealed that Justin sent letters and bogus returns to the IRS advancing false and frivolous tax defier claims purporting to set forth reasons why he was not required to pay taxes. The IRS repeatedly warned Justin that his positions were frivolous and advised him of his legal duty to file returns and pay taxes.

Justin’s troubles began when he became a client at Guiding Light of God Ministries, also known as American Rights Litigators (ARL), formerly of Mount Dora, Fla. The evidence showed that Justin purchased the four fictitious ‘Bills of Exchange’ he submitted in purported payment of income taxes from ARL.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John A. DiCicco commended the IRS special agents who investigated the case, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Chut and Tax Division Trial Attorney Jeffrey McLellan, who prosecuted the case.

The case is not an isolated incident. In 2004, a federal district judge permanently enjoined ARL and two of its promoters from the sale of a nationwide tax scam. In 2008, a federal court in Florida sentenced two promoters of ARL, as well as ARL client Wesley Snipes, to prison for tax offenses. In 2010, three promoters of ARL were sentenced in the District of Columbia to ten years’ imprisonment each along with ARL founder Eddie Ray Kahn, who received a twenty-year sentence.

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