When Your Business is Teaching Tax Fraud, the IRS Will Surely Find You!

Winston Shrout, of Hillsboro, OR, was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of filing fraudulent financial documents to financial institutions and the US Treasury, and for failing to file tax returns.

Shrout held seminars and private meetings to promote and market the use of the fraudulent financial documents to pay off debts, including federal taxes.  He also sold recordings of his seminars, and templates for fraudulent financial documents, on his website.

From 2008 to 2015, Shrout created and submitted more than 300 fraudulent documents with the intent to defraud financial institutions and the US Treasury.  It was also shown in court that from 2009 to 2014, Shrout failed to file tax returns despite having a substantial income from his business and pension payments. He admitted in court that he had not paid federal income taxes for over 20 years.

In addition to jail time, the judge ordered Shrout to serve five years supervised release and restitution to the IRS.