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Little Rock - Christopher R. Thyer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced Fred Neal, Jr., age 80, of Marshall, Texas pled guilty before United States District Judge Billy Roy Wilson to Counts Two and Three in a federal Indictment charging he corruptly interfered with the Internal Revenue Laws and filed false liens against government employees. Count One of the Indictment charging conspiracy to defraud the United States was dismissed. He was not detained.
Neal was indicted on February 2, 2011. The Indictment alleged that Neal and his now deceased wife, Doris, owed over $860,000 in federal income taxes for tax years 1987 to 1994. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) initiated legal action to collect the taxes owed. In response, Neal and Doris were alleged to have conspired together to file repeated false and fraudulent tax forms to impede the IRS from collecting the debt. The Neals mailed false IRS 1099 tax forms, misrepresenting that the IRS officials, court and other individuals had each received personal income of $7 to $210 million. The letters were sent to targeted "recipients" in Little Rock, in Texas and in the District of Columbia.
The Indictment alleged in Count Two that the Neals attempted to intimidate, harass and attack the financial integrity of government employees and other officials they believed to be party to the legal actions taken to collect the tax debt they owed. This harassment included filing numerous fictitious legal and tax documents meant to attack the personal financial integrity of their targets. These fictitious documents were filed against employees of the IRS, Department of Justice tax attorneys, Arkansas federal judges, a United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas and the Secretary of the United States Treasury. Mr. Neal filed fictitious IRS 1099 tax forms affecting more than twenty people. By filing these forms, he misrepresented that the government employees had received personal income reportable to the IRS totaling more than one billion dollars. In addition, Mr. Neal filed false non-performance liens and false Maritime liens against officials totaling more than one billion dollars.
Count Three of the Indictment alleged slander of title against a federal official by filing false liens. Starting in May 2008, the Neals filed in the public record of Arkansas false liens and encumbrances against the real and personal property of officers and employees of the United States on account of their performance of their official duties. The Neals also filed liens against county officials, an insurance executive, banks, and attorneys in Arkansas, Georgia and Texas. Mr. Neal's filing of non-performance liens and fraudulent Maritime liens against 17 federal employees totaled more than one billion dollars.
Neal faces a statutory penalty for corrupt interference of not more than three years imprisonment with a possible fine of up to $250,000 and not more than one year supervised release. The statutory penalty for filing false liens is not more than 10 years imprisonment and a fine of not more than $250,000 or both, followed by not more than three years supervised release.
The investigation was conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.