IRS Criminal Investigation of Ronald Weinland -- No Question

The story of the IRS criminal investigation of False Prophet Ronald Weinland was broken on this blog on August 1 of last year. The news was picked up by a number of other bloggers, including Bob Thiel whose CoGwriter blog is the most highly trafficked COG-related blog. Bob is an apologist for Rod Meredith and the Living CoG and has a Doctorate in alternative medicine. Bob made a few careless statements in his piece that deserve correction.

In my August post, I stated: "Ronald Weinland is being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Internal Revenue Service. They are looking into his taxes beginning with tax year 2004 and including all of the years since. An investigation by the IRS CID should not be confused with a more common taxpayer audit."

After reading my post, Bob stated in his responding post: "Of course, just being audited by the IRS, including the criminal portion may or may not be significant as (from what I read in other sources) the IRS is deciding to use their criminal arm more and more even when it is uncalled for–especially for Americans who tend to go overseas somewhat frequently–which Ronald Weinland does (and that of itself is not criminal nor should it be discouraged)."

Let's review: I stated that a criminal investigation should not be confused with a more common taxpayer audit. Bob then promptly confused a criminal investigation with a more common taxpayer audit. The IRS does not conduct audits of a taxpayer at the same time as a criminal investigation. Per IRS policy, with a ongoing criminal investigation there is no ongoing IRS audit of Ronald Weinland. (IRM 1.2.13.1.11(7)) In my August 1 post I quoted statistics: "In 2007 the IRS Criminal Investigation Division started only 4211 investigations". With only 4211 investigations the IRS simply can't go after everyone who travels internationally, even those who travel many times each year as Weinland does.

Personally, I think that Ron's travels (3 trips to Europe, 2 trips to Australia, and 2 trips to Jerusalem with a side trip to Egypt in 2008) while technically not illegal should be discouraged, as they're financed on the backs of his tithe-and-offering slaves.

Bob finished his post with the following "But even if he has no real problem with the I.R.S. (and presuming he will be cleared, he would not) ...." As a criminal target Weinland enjoys a presumption of innocence should he go to trial, but he does not enjoy a presumption of being cleared. Personally, I'm not going to presume that Weinland will be cleared. First of all, one of the statistics I quoted in my article (which Bob could have read if he'd so chosen) was that 2155 were convicted as compared to 4211 investigations started. Based on those statistics, Weinland has over a 50% chance of being convicted. Second, the IRS does not investigate to clear someone. IRS CI will stop an investigation if they feel they can't develop enough evidence to obtain a criminal conviction -- and the IRS has a substantial burden of proof in a criminal trial. But the IRS will not publish even the fact that they've terminated an investigation unless the subject of the investigation requests and authorizes it in writing. While there's slightly less than an even chance that Weinland will not be convicted, there's only a very, very slim chance that Ronnie will be "cleared".

I get the feeling that Bob thinks that someone who served as one of Herbie's "Misters" could not possibly be a criminal (despite being a false prophet). Bob put a question mark on the title of his post (IRS Criminal Investigation of Ronald Weinland?) implying he was skeptical that there was a criminal investigation at all, despite access to court documents clearing proving that there was one. A few months later when it was suggested that another Armstrongite False Prophet (Gerald Flurry) was being investigated by the FBI, Bob took great exception. This even though Weinland and Flurry compete with Bob's own favorite false prophet, Rod Meredith. And even though Ron has called for Rod's death.

I've asked Doctor Bob on more than one occasion to provide his sources that the "IRS criminal arm" (IRS CI division) targets international travelers for criminal investigations so I could read them for myself. So far they hasn't been produced -- just vague references to some newsletter he might have read. I rather doubt that any such evidence exists, at least not from any reputable source. I expect that Doctor Bob's thielogical positions are as equally well researched as his position on IRS criminal investigations.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that international travelers are more likely to be targeted for criminal investigations. But that does not prove a cause-effect relationship, that is it does not prove that the IRS targeted them because they travel internationally. International travelers would tend to have more income, meaning they'd have more income tax to evade, meaning they would be of greater interest to the IRS. While not everyone who has a Swiss bank account is a tax cheat, tax cheats are more likely to have Swiss bank accounts to which they'd travel to hide their assets. The IRS is not going to target someone simply for traveling overseas. They're not going to waste their limited resources unless they feel they have a good chance of being able to meet their burden of proof in a criminal trial. As a reminder, the mere existence of the criminal tax investigation does not in and of itself prove that Weinland has broken the law.

There are a lot of misconceptions about what IRS criminal investigations are, not just on the part of Doctor Bob. I have done some actual research on the topic (not just reading some random newsletter) and plan a post in the future to share what I've learned. I imagine that Doctor Bob will have a response to my post as well. That is unless Weinland's long-delayed curse of quick death from the inside stops me and/or Doctor Bob who has also made himself subject to the death curse with his own criticisms of this false prophet.