Most tax protesters are barely scraping by. But not this time...
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
Ex-executive found guilty of aiding tax evasion
And the Comtrol CEO, still a fugitive, was supposed to have stood trial with his former coworkerSeptember 21, 2006 – 10:29 PM
A former executive of a small Maple Grove computer firm was found guilty Thursday by a federal jury in Minneapolis of five counts of aiding and abetting the tax evasion of fugitive millionaire tax protester Robert Beale.
The jury convicted Lee Stagni, former president and chief operating officer of Comtrol, of conspiring with Beale to defraud the federal government.
Beale, Comtrol's CEO, was scheduled to stand trial with Stagni on the same charges, but a warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to show up Aug. 14, the day the trial was scheduled to begin. His whereabouts remain unknown. U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery postponed Stagni's trial until this month in hopes that Beale would turn up or be captured.
After the jury verdicts were read Thursday afternoon, federal prosecutor Timothy Rank asked Montgomery to detain Stagni until he is sentenced, but Montgomery denied the motion. However, she noted that she had been "burned" once, a reference to Beale.
After court was adjourned, Stagni's attorney, Don Lewis, said, "We've very disappointed" by the verdict. He added that "there was no evidence presented that Mr. Stagni was a tax protester" and that Stagni and Beale had disagreed "very frequently."
Asked what the verdict might mean for Beale should he eventually be brought to trial, Lewis said, "I'm not here to comment on Mr. Beale's prospects." He said no one knows where Beale is.
Rank and Michael Cheever, another assistant U.S. attorney, declined to comment on the case. "We have a codefendant so we can't react," Cheever explained as he hurried with Rank onto a courthouse elevator.
To read more about the boss on the lam and his wacky tax protest beliefs, go here.
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