Tax Refund Scheme Cons Thousands

A con ring that touted anti-government conspiracy theories took in more than $2 million by convincing people they could recover all the money they’d ever paid in taxes or interest on bank loans, authorities said Tuesday.

The 11 people named in an indictment unsealed Tuesday allegedly held meetings around the country in which they claimed that the U.S. monetary, banking and tax systems had been declared unconstitutional, according to the federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Then, the defendants persuaded more than 6,800 people to pay $300 each to process their claims for refunds and damages from the government, U.S. Attorney Stephen Rapp said.

“At meetings in as many as 40 states the defendants … talked of ‘black helicopters and military and police’ that were bringing in crates of new currency and spoke of a future in which attorneys would be ‘shot on sight’ because they are ‘unregistered foreign agents’ and those responsible for the present financial system would be arrested and prosecuted as ‘perpetrators of fraud,”’ Rapp said.