Wednesday, July 21, 1999
Attempt to evade IRS 'misguided'
Member of anti-tax group found guilty
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A federal judge has sentenced a Kenwood insurance salesman to two years in prison for trying to “untax” himself because he believed the tax system was improper.
James C. Morris, 67, who sold untaxing packages, or “illusory” arrangements that tax foes hoped or thought would put them beyond the reach of the IRS, was ordered to:
• Serve two concurrent 24-month sentences.
• Pay restitution of more than 40,000 to the Internal Revenue Service for the amount of his personal tax liability.
• Pay a $5,000 fine and $100 in special assessments.
• Perform at least 100 hours of community service, which must include lectures on “misguided attempts to evade the payment of income taxes with an emphasis on the foolishness of such efforts,” U.S. District Court Judge Sandra S. Beckwith said.
He was sentenced Monday. A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Morris in February 1998, and he pleaded guilty in October to failing to file his taxes for 1992 and trying to impede tax collections. Mr. Morris, who is in the Hamilton County Justice Center, will be sent to a federal prison camp within 30 days, said W. Kelly Johnson, an assistant federal public defender who represented him during the sentencing.
Mr. Morris, who was the owner of Excellence in Planning Associates, said he will appeal the sentence.
He was active in the Pilot Connection Society, later the Liberty Foundation, a national group that told hundreds of Tristate residents that they could “untax” themselves.
The society — which took in millions — folded after its founders and some members were convicted of tax-related crimes.
More than 50 people connected to Pilot Connection have been convicted nationally, including several Tristate residents, of such offenses as failure to file tax returns, tax evasion, conspiracy to impede tax collections and mail fraud.
Several Cincinnati-area cases are pending.
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