KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri engineering consultant with ties to groups whose adherents believe the federal income tax system is voluntary has been sentenced to five years in prison for tax evasion.
The U.S. attorney's office said in a news release that 62-year-old Harold Stanley, of Peculiar, was sentenced Wednesday. The release said the tax evasion totaled nearly $1 million over the past decade. Stanley, who has participated in "sovereign citizens" groups, also was convicted of endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws.
Prosecutors found that from 2005 through 2015 he frequently failed to file any tax returns. Some of those years he filed substantially correct returns but left the tax line entry blank and failed to submit any payment.