Businessman who didn’t pay taxes for 20 years fled to Florida with arsenal, feds say
A 66-year-old “tax defier” was ordered to spend five years in a Colorado prison, according to the Justice Department.
He fled to Florida with a small armory instead, federal prosecutors said.
Lawrence Martin Birk pleaded guilty to failing to surrender and illegal possession of a firearm, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday in a news release. He now faces up to 15 years in federal prison on top of his current sentence.
Birk was convicted of tax evasion by a federal jury after a one-week trial in July 2019, according to the Justice Department. Prosecutors said he ran a log home building company called Tarryall River Log Homes LLC in Colorado but hadn’t paid federal income taxes in more than 20 years.
When the Internal Revenue Service came knocking, Birk reportedly enlisted a tax firm to prepare his delinquent tax returns.
But he left out $400,000 in retirement income that had been funneled into a sham company and then refused to pay the outstanding taxes, the Justice Department said in a news release after his conviction.
“Instead, he sent the IRS threatening correspondence that espoused the frivolous tax arguments of known tax defier organizations, including the ‘We The People’ foundation and the ‘Tax Honesty’ movement,” the news release states.
Birk later hid his money to avoid collection efforts by the IR, ultimately owing the federal government more than $2 million in outstanding tax payments from 1998 to 2005, the Justice Department said. He also never filed returns or paid taxes on his company from 2006 to 2018.
After his conviction, a judge ordered Birk to surrender his guns while out on bond.
A federal judge then sentenced Birk in October to five years in prison with three years of supervised release, prosecutors said. He was also ordered to pay the IRS $1.8 million in restitution.
Court officials told Birk to voluntarily surrender to the Federal Corrections Institution in Florence, Colorado, on Nov. 21, the arrest warrant states. His probation officer left him a voicemail informing him of the order — but Birk never showed, prosecutors said.
“Instead, he fled Colorado with a fully automatic assault rifle, two pistols, over a dozen loaded magazines, hundreds of additional rounds of ammunition, ballistic helmets, ballistic vests and gas masks,” Friday’s news release states.
His attorneys did try to appeal his conviction at the Tenth Circuit after he fled, court filings show.
Birk’s attorneys argued federal prosecutors had been “misguided in (their) attempt to project sinister motives onto Mr. Birk’s failure to report,” citing the failing health of his wife and mother.
Birk was reportedly the sole caregiver for his wife with dementia, and his 90-year-old mother was battling breast cancer, his attorneys said.
“Considering the circumstances in full, it is incorrect to cast Mr. Birk’s failure to report as necessarily an act (of) defiance toward judicial authority,” court filings state. “Instead, it is entirely possible that Mr. Birk’s conduct was motivated by a desire to spend as much time as possible with loved ones who will, in all likelihood, not be alive when he is released from BOP custody.”
An appellate judge dismissed the appeal in early January because Birk was still a fugitive from justice, according to the court docket.
Law enforcement caught up to Birk shortly thereafter in Florida.
He was arrested and is now in custody at FCI Englewood while he awaits sentencing in September, according to the news release and court documents. Birk faces an additional five years in prison on the failure to appear charges and up to 10 years for possessing a firearm as a felon.
