Richard Jaensch, fifty-four, of Annandale, Virginia, was sentenced April 27, 2012, to thirty-six months in prison by US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, the Justice Department, and the IRS.

Jaensch had been found guilty on December 7, 2011, by a federal jury sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, of corruptly endeavoring to impede the IRS, filing a false claim for a refund, and four counts of failing to file tax returns for 2004 through 2007. Judge Lee also sentenced Jaensch to three years supervised release and ordered him to pay $197,984 in restitution to the IRS.

According to evidence introduced at trial, Jaensch, a self-employed plumber, failed to file personal income tax returns for many years, beginning in 2002, despite the fact that he was required to do so by law because of income he made from his business and from stock trading. The first tax return he filed after 2002 was a false 2008 tax return claiming a $774,052 refund based on false Forms 1099-OID that the defendant submitted to the IRS.

Over the years, Jaensch also obstructed and impeded the IRS by, among other acts: filing numerous documents and pleadings in Fairfax County, Virginia, claiming that he and his wife, a federal employee, were not persons required to file federal income tax returns; that his wife was not a party to the Constitution of the United States of America and that she was not a taxpayer; and providing false information to the IRS.

In addition, Jaensch caused his wife to present letters to her employer directing them to stop withholding federal income taxes from her salary. The IRS began levying his wife's paycheck and bank accounts to satisfy her outstanding tax liability, and Jaensch continued his obstructive conduct by filing, or causing his wife to file, correspondence with the IRS claiming that the IRS could not instruct her employer to withhold taxes from her paycheck.

Jaensch’s wife was a former high-level civilian employee in the Department of the Navy during the time that she was not filing tax returns at Jaensch’s direction. She pleaded guilty to willfully failing to file a tax return and was sentenced on December 13, 2011, to three years of probation and ordered to pay more than $137,000 in restitution to the IRS.

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Source: US Department of Justice