The Leader's Bank Accounts

The founder and leader of a new religious movement, who had arrived in the country a few years earlier, kept about $1.7 million in bank accounts in his own name and received $50,000 of stock in a company connected to the movement. Over three years the accounts earned roughly $106,000 in interest, none of which he reported on his personal tax returns. Prosecutors said the money and stock were his, so the income was taxable, and that he and a close aide conspired to file false returns and later to mislead investigators. The government refused his request for a trial without a jury. The defence argued the funds were held in trust for the church and belonged to it, and that the prosecution was religious persecution.