4 Pa. men among 11 indicted in tax scheme

Four Pennsylvania men were among 11 indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for allegedly defrauding the Internal Revenue Service of more than $10 million.

The suspects were part of Commonwealth Trust Co., which federal prosecutors say allegedly sold false trusts to clients, allowing them to transfer their assets and income into various entities and enabling them to dodge federal taxes.

"It's just a tax-evasion scheme. That's all these things are," said Peter Alvarado, the IRS special-agent-in-charge in Philadelphia.

"The lesson for the public is: If sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

By yesterday, authorities had arrested company owner John Michael Crim, 51; Anthony Trimble, 46, of Downingtown; and C. Robert Dadds, 69, of Exton.

All have been charged with conspiring to defraud the IRS.

Federal prosecutors said Commonwealth Trust was not operated from a specific central office, but through a network of satellite locations in Texas, New Mexico and other states.

Arrest warrants have been issued for John Brownlee, 58, an lawyer and former Commonwealth Trust board member; Constance Taylor, 53; Wayne Rebuck, 58; Paul Crim, 25; Steven Barnhart, 50; Howard Goode, 63; Ralph Sutton, 69; and David Burkholder, 62, of Chambersburg, Pa.

"The issue is not what they were doing, but whether what they were doing was legal or illegal," said Jeffrey Miller, attorney with Nasuti & Miller, the Philadelphia firm representing Trimble. The Downingtown man worked as a contractor for Commonwealth Trust selling fraudulent trust packages, court documents say.

Miller said his client was a "church-going, hard-working family man" who has never had trouble with the law.

"The fact that he's indicted doesn't mean he's guilty," Miller said.

According to the indictment, Commonwealth Trust, which was founded in 1988, offered two domestic trust packages and an offshore one allowing clients to divert their legitimate income and evade taxes. The company also had a program whereby clients could conceal their property from IRS levies and seizures by transferring those assets into trusts. Commonwealth Trust sold its products by word of mouth and through independent contractors.

"This was nothing more than an elaborate shell game," U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan said in a statement.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a three-year period of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.