KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Schemes to defraud the Internal Revenue Service out of millions of dollars in inflated tax refunds was alleged Thursday as authorities announced charges against 16 defendants from around the United States.
U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips described it as the largest false tax claims case ever prosecuted in Missouri. "Kansas City was the hub of a nationwide conspiracy that attempted to receive nearly $100 million in fraudulent tax refunds," Phillips said. The defendants from eight states include five from the Kansas City area, most notably alleged ringleader, Gerald A. Poynter II. Poynter also went by the name "Brother Jerry Love," the indictment alleged. At his initial court appearance Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Nelson described the 46-year-old Poynter—who also ran a karate studio in Blue Springs, Mo.—as the center of a "hub and spoke" conspiracy spanning the nation. Poynter and his partners allegedly enticed clients into the scheme by promising them they could "recoup" their debts by allowing the conspirators to prepare their tax returns. After gathering records of the clients’ debts, the conspirators purportedly prepared tax returns showing that they were owed enormous refunds—in some cases almost $1 million—from taxes withheld from interest income. According to the indictment, the returns then were filed as if the clients themselves had prepared them, while the conspirators separately filed false documentation backing up the false claims. "They made the tax returns appear as if they were entitled to larger refunds than they were entitled to," Nelson said. Once the IRS made the refunds, each of the "branch managers"—as Poynter allegedly called his partners—kept some of the money and then shared it with Jerry Love Ministries as a "love donation," the indictment alleged. He also maintained a website, called "Luckytown," to promote the scheme, prosecutors said. Poynter filed more than 80 such returns for his direct clients, claiming about $25 million in refunds, they said. While the conspiracy allegedly attempted to obtain about $96 million in refunds, the IRS denied most of the claims and paid only about $3.5 million. In addition to Poynter, others charged in the 72-count indictment: Shirley J. Oyer, 70, of Overland Park, Kan.; Kristi L. Jones, 38, of Riverside, Mo; Earl Lee Davis, 52, of Monroe, La.; Nkosi Gray, 38, of New Fairfield, Conn.; Billy Ray Hall, 72, of Newton, Ala.; Kimberly Johnson, 41, of Chickamauga, Ga.; Darryl E. Larkins, 49, of Chicago.; Robert E. Morris, 65, of Rocklin, Calif.; Mark J. Murray, 49, of Newton, Ala.; Jeffrey and Karen Olson, both 40, of Wood Dale, Ill.; John V. Perdido, 55, of Temecula, Calif.; and Jennifer S. Wilson, 34, of Cumming, Ga. Joshua Michael Simonson, 33, and his wife, Kristen Loree Simonson, 34, of Oak Grove, Mo., were charged in a second indictment alleging a similar scheme. None of those indicted is yet represented by lawyers. Oyer was a promoter and branch manager for the scheme, according to the indictment, and received money which she deposited into the business account of her company, ABC Seamless Siding. In March, a federal judge permanently barred Poynter from preparing tax returns after the government filed a civil suit against him. Though prosecutors Thursday didn’t identify Poynter as a tax protester, documents filed in the civil proceedings suggest similarities in the cases. Poynter represented himself in the civil action, demanding that the court explain its "constitutional convening authority" in a document labeled "Deed of Ecclesiastical Dishonor." A Justice Department lawyer asked a judge to strike Poynter’s initial response to the civil suit, a document entitled "Ecclesiastical Deed Poll" and signed with a fingerprint, complaining that it contained "sections of nonsensical words strung together in the shapes of paragraphs." (c)2011 The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) Visit The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) at www.kansascity.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
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