PROMOTER OF FRAUDULENT TAX DEFIANCE SCHEME PLEADS GUILTY TO MAIL FRAUD

WASHINGTON – Jerry R. Williamson, a promoter of the American Rights Litigators/Guiding Light of God Ministries (ARL) formerly based in Florida, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Williamson appeared today before Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. in Washington, D.C., and admitted that he that he sent a fictitious “Bill of Exchange” purporting to be drawn upon the U.S. Treasury to the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior.

In September 2008, Williamson and four co-defendants, Eddie Ray Kahn, Stephen C. Hunter, Danny True and Allan J. Tanguay, were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and mail fraud. According to the indictment, the defendants sold worthless “Bills of Exchange” and promoted other schemes to orchestrate tax fraud.

The indictment further alleges that Kahn founded and led ARL from 1996 through 2004. During that time period, ARL enrolled more than 4,000 customers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several foreign countries. Defendants Hunter, True, Williamson and Tanguay allegedly worked at ARL with Kahn to develop and sell tax defiance schemes based on deliberate misrepresentations of the legal foundation of the tax system.

Judge Kennedy scheduled Williamson’s sentencing for Sept. 18, 2009. The trial for Kahn, Hunter, True and Tanguay is scheduled to begin in November 2009.

Acting Assistant Attorney General DiCicco of the Justice Department’s Tax Division commended the investigative efforts of the IRS agents involved in this case, as well as Tax Division attorneys Jeffrey McLellan, Kenneth Vert and Tino Lisella, who are prosecuting the case.

More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.

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09-391