Prominent tax dodger Winston Shrout, sentenced in the fall to 10 years in federal prison for failing to file tax returns and issuing fake financial documents, likely won’t have to report to prison Monday as ordered.

Shrout has filed an appeal of his sentence to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and has requested to remain out of custody pending the outcome.

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones granted Shrout a “stay,’’ or hold on his prison surrender, pending the 9th Circuit’s decision.

If the appeals court denies Shrout’s motion to remain out of custody, he must surrender to the federal prison in Sheridan on the first Monday after the ruling, Jones said.

Last month, Jones said Shrout had to turn himself in to prison no later than 2 p.m. on Jan. 7, calling him a “crafty, manipulative and knowledgeable individual who enjoys, not suffers from, a grandiose opinion of himself.’’

“In short, this individual has been pretending to be incompetent knowing full well that he is responsible for his criminal acts,’’ Jones said.

But the judge reconsidered after Shrout challenged the denial on Dec. 20. He has remained out of custody for the last three years on supervision.

Shrout, in his appeal, argues that he’s not likely to flee or endanger the community. The 70-year-old has no prior criminal record, his defense lawyer Ruben Iñiguez noted. Shrout also has significant family and community ties to Oregon and followed conditions of supervised release for the past three years, Iñiguez said.

Shrout’s attorney further argued the federal trial judge should have held hearings before trial to determine whether his federal prosecution was vindictive and whether Shrout was competent to stand trial. Shrout also contends that Jones should have held a hearing on his motion to stay out of custody pending his appeal but ruled without oral argument allowed.

Prosecutors have countered that Shrout is simply trying to delay his prison term. Jones found Shrout competent to stand trial after a September hearing before he was sentenced.

“This Court has made clear that a defendant’s choice to advance meritless arguments — including challenges to the court’s jurisdiction, claims of ‘sovereign citizen[ship]’ and other ‘unorthodox defenses’ — does not mean that a defendant is incompetent,’’ wrote Katie Bagley, an attorney for the United States.

Shrout was sentenced Oct. 22 after a jury convicted him of six misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file tax returns and 13 felony counts of producing, presenting and shipping fictitious financial instruments.

Shrout made and issued more than 300 fake "International Bills of Exchange'' on his own behalf and for credit to third parties. The government said Shrout falsely claimed the bills had value and purported them to be worth more than $100 trillion. Shrout also testified at trial that he stopped paying income tax or filing income tax returns “well over 20 years ago.’’

The government proved at trial that from 2009 through 2014, Shrout received over $500,000 in gross income through pension payments, speaking fees at seminars where he espoused his theories abroad, royalty payments for the sale of DVDs and other products he sold and for private client consultations through his business Winston Shrout Solutions in Commerce, yet never filed a single tax return.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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