Oklahoma Businessman Gets 15-Years for Tax Fraud

Associated Press

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A businessman and his lawyer were sentenced by a federal judge on Friday to each serve 15 years in prison for a tax-avoidance conspiracy.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot labeled 44-year-old Lindsey Springer of Kellyville and 46-year-old Oscar Stilley of Fort Smith, Ark., "frauds and predators" as he sentenced them. The judge also ordered them to pay almost $700,000 each in restitution to the federal Internal Revenue Service.

Friot ordered both to be taken into immediate custody at the conclusion of a 2 1/2-day sentencing hearing. They had been convicted by a jury Nov. 16.

Stilley is known in Arkansas for his anti-tax actions. U.S. Attorney Thomas Woodward said Springer, with Stilley's help, set up the Bondage Breakers Ministry to solicit and receive money.

"His stated purpose for Bondage Breakers Ministry was 'to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service,"' Woodward said.

Stilley helped Springer's tax evasion scheme in several ways, Woodward said. Stilley set up an interest-bearing account, called an Arkansas IOLTA Foundation Trust account, normally used by lawyers to hold client funds.

Prosecutors said the pair used the IOLTA account and other methods -- including cashier's checks, check-cashing services, money orders and cash transactions -- to conceal Springer's actual income and avoid creating the usual records at financial institutions.

Springer told IRS employees that all the funds he received were gifts and donations to his ministry, and that he had no income. He also said he provided no services in return for the money.

But evidence at the trial showed much of the money deposited in the IOLTA account eventually went to benefit Springer, including $166,000 paid out in August 2005 to buy a motor home for him and his wife, and a September 2005 payment of $25,813 to buy a Lexus automobile for him.

Stilley has had four proposed anti-tax amendments to the Arkansas constitution thrown out by the state Supreme Court in recent years. In 2001, the high court's professional conduct committee voted to suspend his license for 30 days. In 2006, the committee voted to suspend his license for six months.