Have I got a deal for you! (It is, after all, the Holiday Season where we’re all looking for deals, right?) I can take your assets and hide them from anyone and everyone! Simply form one of my special Nevada Corporations, and, well:
Camouflaging your assets is the first step in implementing any asset protection plan. Remember, if a federal judge can find an asset, he can seize it. Conversely what he can’t find, or doesn’t know about, he can’t touch. Although I enjoy advertising bulletproof asset protection, the prescription for making an asset bulletproof is first to make it invisible.
And I also offer a hidden bank account program! With my new vanishing bank accounts, you have access to your money but nobody else does! No more worries from the government, or anyone else. The whole program retails for just under $10,000, and there are multi-level marketing opportunities, too! Who can refuse?
All of the above is what one Las Vegas man, Richard Neiswonger, offered through his Asset Protection Group, Inc. Back in 2011 he was indicted on various tax fraud charges. He was sentenced last week to 22 months at ClubFed and must make restitution to the IRS of $3,212,078.
This wasn’t Mr. Neiswonger’s first brush with the US government. The FTC had obtained an injunction against Asset Protection Group, but that didn’t stop them. The US Attorney’s office had requested another injunction in 2007. The sentencing press release details Mr. Neiswonger’s activities:
From 1999 to mid-2006, Neiswonger, who was imprisoned, and his business partner, formed Asset Protection Group, Inc. (APG) in Nevada in late 1998. Neiswonger, along with his business partner and a certified public accountant, conspired to promote false and misleading business information. Consumers would purchase the APG “asset protection” program for typically $9,800 and become APG “consultants,” who would sell “asset protection” services to clients who wished to conceal assets from potential litigants and creditors, as well as government agencies. The service allowed clients to place funds in bank accounts in the name of nominee entities that could never be traced back to the clients themselves. In turn, APG “consultants” received a portion of the client’s fees. These nominee entity accounts and other fraudulent conveyances, such as so called “friendly liens,” were used to divert and hide income from the IRS. Over 70 APG clients using the APG system had collective IRS liabilities totaling approximately $14 million.
Mr. Neiswonger not only hid others from the IRS, he hid $1 million through his attorney from the IRS.
A helpful hint to those reading this: It’s far, far simpler and easier to simply pay what you owe to the IRS. The scheme that Asset Protection Group offered was just that: an illegal scheme. Mr. Neiswonger did enjoy the fruits of his labors for a few years, but in the end he has to disgorge what he made and gets an almost two-year trip to ClubFed.
A helpful hint to those reading this: Don’t do this!