FEDERAL COURT HALTS WASHINGTON STATE TAX-FRAUD SCAM

Edmonds Man Uses Sham Corporation, Trusts, And “Churches”
To Help Customers Evade Taxes

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Seattle has barred Glen Stoll, of Edmonds, Washington, from promoting a tax-fraud scheme using sham trusts and a corporation to help customers evade federal taxes. The preliminary injunction order, entered yesterday by Judge Ricardo S. Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, states that Stoll continued to promote the fraudulent scheme after the Justice Department filed the suit earlier this year to stop it.

The court found that Stoll sold a fraudulent “corporation sole” and “ministerial trust” scheme, falsely telling customers that conducting their personal and business activities through a corporation sole and ministerial trusts, and treating them as churches, eliminates obligations to file federal tax returns and pay federal tax. The court stated that the ministerial trusts Stoll created for his customers were not created for religious reasons, but were instead used to operate secular businesses, such as pest-control and carpet-cleaning firms. The order states that Stoll sells the scheme through a website and falsely claims to be a lawyer.

“People who buy into tax-fraud schemes are buying nothing but trouble-past due tax bills with interest and penalties and the possibility of criminal prosecution,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division. “The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service are committed to stopping the promotion of tax fraud.”

The court’s order also requires Stoll to give the government his customers’ names, mailing and e-mail addresses, and Social Security and telephone numbers. The court also ordered Stoll to notify customers of the injunction, remove materials about the banned promotions from his website, and post a copy of the injunction on that site for the duration of the case.

More information about this case is available at <http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv05065.htm>. This case is part of an ongoing Justice Department crackdown on promoters of tax-fraud schemes. More information about the Justice Department’s efforts against tax-scam promoters can be found at <http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2005.htm>. Information about the Justice Department's Tax Division can be found at <http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.>

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