Like many of you, I enjoy Facebook. The other day, I saw a post quoting Warren Buffett about “protecting your assets.” The post talked about how they could protect your assets from the IRS. I investigated, and nothing was true. The quote wasn’t real; the photo was either fake or stolen. This isn’t the first time someone has claimed they have a way you can avoid taxes. It won’t be the last. This one was scary because it looked real, but it is not.
Early in my career, I worked for an attorney who did criminal defense. He paid me to appear at a sentencing hearing. The man was going to serve five years in jail for tax fraud. The judge asked him, “Where are the people who told you to do this?” (only his wife was there). The man was a good man who owned a construction firm. The prosecutor, judge, and attorney I worked for had come up with a merciful sentence. Instead of having his time shortened for good behavior, he was allowed to serve weekends (he had 10 children, all under 14). The person who had advised him of this “Constitutional Trust” had been a part of his church and had moved on. It was believed he had changed his name again.
The man going to jail had fallen for a scam. He was not the only one. I heard that others were being given this same deal. As is true with most scams, “If it looks too good to be true, it is.”
