Off the Farm

There’s tax evasion, and there’s big-time tax evasion. Bill Melot, of Hobbs, New Mexico, committed really big-time evasion.

Mr. Melot had a farm near Hobbs. The news report doesn’t indicate what he grew, but he did get farm subsidies from the US Department of Agriculture.

But Mr. Melot didn’t want to pay taxes. And he didn’t–the last tax return he filed was in 1986. He used a false social security number and a phony Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) with the USDA. Among his other crimes, he got $225,000 of farm subsidies illegally.

That, though, is the least of Mr. Melot’s troubles. His back tax bill totals $18 million. He neglected to report a bank account with Nordfinanz Zurich in the Bahamas. And he was convicted on Friday of tax evasion, failure to file tax returns, impeding the IRS, and making false statement to the USDA.

Mr. Melot will be sentenced in May, and he’ll be spending years at ClubFed.