Hart (ID-ALEC) Facing Federal Charges?

 I have to wonder if all ALEC members are slimeballs - my guess would be yes, but that is just my opinion.

Former Rep. Hart may face federal criminal charges

Posted by Betsy

June 30, 2013 7:31 p.m.  •  1 comment

Federal authorities may be laying the groundwork for criminal charges against tax-protesting former Idaho state Rep. Phil Hart. In bankruptcy court documents, federal officials are charging that Hart lied under oath, concealed or destroyed records and attempted to “hinder, delay or defraud his creditors, including the Internal Revenue Service.” The filings by the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee and the U.S. Department of Justice are aimed at preventing Hart from being relieved of any of his tax debts through his latest bankruptcy case, but the implications could go well beyond that.

SNIP

The Justice Department’s filing says Hart claimed to have paid $600 a month in rent to the trust in exchange for living in the home. But he said he “makes the purported rent payments to the Sarah Elizabeth Hart Trust by placing $600 in cash in a desk drawer in his home.”

A few more snips from another article

The IRS is currently in the process of attempting to foreclose on the home for more than $500,000 in unpaid federal income taxes, penalties and interest. A federal judge recently cleared the way for the foreclosure to move forward, but federal prosecutors are asking that the judge reconsider and expand the ruling to cover more years of Hart’s federal tax debt.

Hart illegally cut down trees from state school endowment land in 1996 to complete his log home; he maintained he had a right to take the logs for free as a citizen, but he lost in repeated court appeals and never fully satisfied a $22,827 court judgment over the timber theft.

Acting U.S. Trustee David Newman wrote in his filing: “Defendant has concealed, destroyed, or failed to keep or preserve any recorded information, including books, documents, records, and papers, from which his financial condition or business transactions might be ascertained, particularly as they relate to formation of the Sarah Elizabeth Hart Trust and the putative rent payments.”

Makes you wonder what other cash went into drawers and what other documents have been conceled or destroyed.

Defendant has concealed, destroyed, or failed to keep or preserve any recorded information, including books, documents, records, and papers, ...  from which his financial condition or business transactions might be ascertained,

Phil Hart - a member of the extremist American Legislative Exchange Council.  Seems like it was a good fit.