Tennessee Man Indicted For Filing False Retaliatory Liens And Committing Tax Crimes
A federal grand jury has returned an indictment, which was unsealed on May 16, against a Rogersville, Tennessee resident charging him with obstruction of the internal revenue laws, filing fraudulent multi-million dollar liens against government employees, and filing false claims for tax refunds, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.
According to the indictment, Brian Leo Snow obstructed the internal revenue laws over a period of at least nine years by, among other things, filing false tax returns; filing false UCC Financing Statements against individuals seeking to collect his back taxes; and by filing a document with Hawkins County Register of Deeds in an attempt to terminate tax liens filed against him by the IRS.
The indictment further alleges that Snow has not filed timely and accurate income tax returns in almost two decades and owes the IRS over $150,000 in taxes. In response to IRS collection efforts, Snow allegedly filed false retaliatory liens worth millions of dollars against government officials including an IRS revenue officer, an Assistant United States Attorney, and a federal judge.
The indictment also charges that Snow filed three false claims with the IRS claiming over $144 million in tax refunds to which he was not entitled.
If convicted, Snow faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on the tax obstruction charge, 10 years in prison on each of the false retaliatory lien counts, and five years in prison on each of the false claims counts. In addition, he faces a period of supervised release and monetary penalties. An indictment is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
- 262 reads
