Last week we wrote about an encounter with a homeless man, one Viktor Maelvikoff, that showed up on our doorstep a couple of weeks ago to tell us his IRS story. He sought us out because he had read several of our articles about the IRS and new we did not fear them and in fact had successfully beat them on at least five occasions. You can access Part 1 of his story HERE. We ended Part 1, before he retired for the night, with his last words repeated below.
“Roughly six months after the audit, I received a Notice of Lien stating that if the company didn’t pay up, the government would seize bank accounts and other assets because my time to file an appeal with the Tax Court had run out. Additional penalties and interest had been added to the original amount. However, there was nothing attached to the Notice of Lien indicating that they had acknowledged my dispute of the charges, or recognized my FOIA request. I was devastated. The IRS could literally put us out of business. I had to act immediately, but I didn’t know what I should do next. It is what I did next that started a parade of events over which I had no control.”
I went to bed that night thinking that “what he did next” somehow led to his becoming homeless and my mind imagined all sorts of possible scenarios, all of which turned out to be wrong. I begin Part 2 of his story the next morning, as he descended the stairs from the upstairs bedroom, looking much fresher than he did the night before, even though still sporting a full beard and wearing his somewhat disheveled clothing. Perhaps it was the positive look in his eyes that made me think he was somewhat rested.
“Good morning Viktor, I said, as he came down the stairs, “hopefully you slept well.”
Viktor replied with, “I haven’t had that good of a night’s sleep in several months, having spent most of my nights in homeless shelters from Texas to Washington State, on my way to Canada. I’ve been traveling from shelter to shelter for two and a half years in order to avoid the IRS. Believe me, that is no existence for a once-moderate wealthy and educated man who isn’t plagued with mental health or drug issues. I was forced to feign such conditions in order not to be attacked by the occupants of the shelter. I also laid pretty low when the occasional police officer would show up.”
I asked Viktor if he would like some breakfast and he nodded his head in agreement. Once again, I invited Viktor to sit at our kitchen table.
My wife was already in the kitchen fixing some eggs, bacon and toast and put a large plate on the table for the three of us. Viktor didn’t seem ready to talk yet and set about finishing his breakfast and drinking his coffee. He almost seemed at home in what should have been a strange setting for him, given what he has had to endure over the last several months living as he was.
Finally, he put down his coffee cup and began to speak as if eager to finish his story.
He started with, “Let’s see, where did I leave off last night? Oh that’s rights, I think I said that what I did next led to my being in this condition.”“As it turns out, it wasn’t only what I did next that started an IRS avalanche I couldn’t stop, it was what the IRS did.”
“Out of fear of exhausting the company of its cash resources and ending up broke, I started funneling cash out of the company. Fearing what the IRS might do to us and in anticipation of the possible outcome, I mailed some of that cash to people I knew around the West, providing a lame excuse on why I was doing it. What is in my pocket right now came from one of those stashes. None of the people I mailed cash to, knew each other.”
“What I did was bad enough, but what the IRS did to me and my company was far worse.”
“Since I had no knowledge of how the IRS came up with the tax due amount, as there still was no answer to my FOIA request, I had no tools to fight back. How could I argue against what I didn’t know?”
“I was totally unaware of what was going on behind the scenes at the IRS and only partially became aware of it when the company received a court summons from the IRS with documents charging us with money laundering and other crimes. The charging documents were short on details. I suddenly realized as the responsible corporate officer, that I could go to jail and I hadn’t the slightest idea of what legal lines I had crossed to end up on what could very well be the working end of an IRS witch hunt ….. or not.”
“I called our corporate attorney about the IRS summons and he said he handles only civil matters and recommended I contact an attorney that practices criminal law. Criminal law!!! You mean now I’m a criminal? This isn’t happening, but it was.”
“As I was dialing the ‘phone to reach an attorney that practices criminal law, the IRS had drained our corporate bank account and filed liens on other corporate assets. My company was now in grave peril and we could not meet contractual obligations that could trigger significant penalty clauses. But worse than that, we could not meet payroll and payroll taxes, or pay suppliers. Material deliveries would soon be cut off. Before my eyes I was literally watching the overnight disintegration of my company that I had put my heart and soul into for well over a decade, with the prospects of being incarcerated for a crime I was alleged to have committed, about which I knew nothing.”
“I finally retained an attorney to present my case in court but it would be several months before the case would go to trial. I had to sell my car to obtain the $10,000 retainer for the attorney. Fortunately, my car missed the probing eyes of the IRS. The attorney told me to sit back and wait until he had a chance to research the case and request and then review documents from the IRS.”
“As instructed I waited while my company was in a death spiral and Chapter 7 bankruptcy loomed on the near horizon. Bills mounted dramatically and our manufacturing contracts were being canceled one by one. My credit was shot and the only thing that sustained me was the cash I had salted away.”
“In the interim there were some pre-trial motions, a motion to delay and a request for a jury trial filed by my attorney, but the motion to delay and jury trial motion were denied by the judge. It seems that when you are dealing with the IRS, you are not entitled to a jury trial. The trial was set for 60 days after the pre-trial proceedings.”
“On the day of the trial, I got an education in how the IRS vigorously prosecutes its cases against taxpayers. As the Department of Justice prosecutor read the charges and presented evidence from the audit, I began to realize that I was never going to come out of that courtroom unscathed. The serious charges against me personally and the company, could easily lead to a 10-year prison sentence. Part of the problem arose because I had sent some significant wire transfers to a Russian bank on behalf of my aging grandparents who were still alive. The IRS determined those deposits to be illegal international transfers, raising the charge of money laundering. The money transfers raised red flags at the IRS and they proceeded to ‘invent’ irregularities in the audit. Although my attorney attempted to refute all the charges with powerful evidence, the judge denied the admission of most of that evidence. I was going down and there was nothing I could do to stop it.”
“Determined not to got to jail, I bolted. In the early morning hours of the following day, I boarded a bus for a small town in New Mexico and headed straight for the nearest homeless encampment. I burrowed into the homeless shelter with the sole purpose of melting into the background. I had enough cash to last me for awhile until I could reach my next stash.”
“I let my beard grow and allowed my clothes to become warned and tattered. I moved from homeless shelter to homeless shelter as I headed west and north. Occasionally, I would drop into a local library and search the net for possible fugitive notices about me. That is where I ran into your articles about the IRS and I was determined to reach you to tell my story in the hopes you would publish it for all Americans to see what the IRS has become and how they destroy law abiding citizens. I have been on the run for two and a half years now with my goal to pass undetected into Canada and hopefully freedom. I’m only a little over 100 miles away from reaching that goal.”
“I sincerely want to thank you for listening to my story and welcoming me into your home. Once again, I would be more than happy to pay for your hospitality but my guess is you wouldn’t accept it. Nevertheless, I cannot not stay in one place for any length of time for fear of being apprehended. For that reason I must move on.”
Viktor suddenly got up from the table and headed for the door like a man on a mission. My wife and I followed him. We asked if we could drive him somewhere but he said no. He opened the door and moved quickly onto the porch and down the walkway, but turned around once to wave at us. We waved back and wished him well. He walked down the street and turned at the corner, still under the cover of his homeless man disguise. We can only hope he passed quietly into Canada where he could find peace and freedom from a rogue, out-of-control, grossly negligent, inept and corrupt American federal bureaucracy whose collection policies seem to be patterned after the Nazi Gestapo.
It is our firm wish that the reader will begin to understand why we have taken a very dangerous stand against the IRS and why we are calling for it to be abolished. This is not just because of Viktor’s story. There are thousands of Viktor stories all over America, which no one ever hears, like this story we received in response to Part 1.
“I read your account with interest as my adventure with the IRS has some similarities. I didn’t lose my business, home, or entire fortune, but ended up with tax liens and a six-figure tax bill (including a $10k penalty for frivolously wasting the court’s time) after losing in tax court, with the judge colluding with the IRS commissioner’s attorney to conceal the identity of a material witness in order to prevent me from questioning him/her about the facts of the case. However, at that point the writing on the wall was clear: I was dealing with a criminal syndicate, not a system based on law, and so would never be allowed to win. Although I’ve paid off the entire amount and the liens have been removed, I’m still trying to clear my credit rating.”
But it is also because of our fight with the IRS and what we have come to learn about this agency that has no master.
It is for these reasons we have taken on the IRS. For those readers who still care about America and where it is headed and aren’t paralyzed by fear, we ask that you explore our efforts at our “SAVE THE USA” website. Learn about our six ways with which we intend to challenge the IRS. One of those ways is a powerful petition which is available on the website. One of the other ways is providing effective tools on how to fight the IRS and win, based on actual experiences.
We’d also like to encourage you to view our new 3-minute video, “The IRS Blows My Mind.” You’ll get a kick out of it.
America is free falling into the abyss of socialism, totalitarianism and one-world government, unless we act by the millions, united against government tyranny and globalism. If people don’t support our efforts in significant numbers, we could very easily become another ….. Viktor Maelvikoff! We wonder if anyone would care?
Click here for part —–> 1,
© 2017 Ron Eward – All Rights Reserved
