LAS VEGAS - - An associate of long time tax protestor Irwin Schiff, CYNTHIA NEUN, was sentenced to over five years in prison today for her convictions on conspiring to defraud the United States, aiding and assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns, failing to file her own tax returns, Social Security disability fraud, and theft of government property, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada, Eileen J. O'Connor, Assistant Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice Tax Division, and J. Wesley Eddy, Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation for Nevada and Utah.

NEUN was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson to 68 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,107,357.73 in restitution to the IRS. She will also be placed on three years of supervised release following her release from prison.

"We are committed to aggressively pursuing taxpayers who willfully fail to file their tax returns and promoters who make outlandish claims that returns need not be filed and taxes need not be paid,” said IRS Special Agent-in-Charge Eddy. “Today’s sentence is a reminder that anyone committing this crime will be prosecuted.”

Following a five-week jury trial, CYNTHIA NEUN, Irwin Schiff, and colleague Lawrence Cohen were found guilty in October 2005 for their involvement in aiding thousands of taxpayers in the filing of false federal income tax returns with the IRS that reported zero taxable
income, in spite of the taxpayers earning reportable income. The evidence presented at trial demonstrated that NEUN was second in command at Irwin Schiff’s Freedom Books, located in Las Vegas, and that she actively sold products encouraging customers not to pay taxes, prepared numerous false returns, and represented hundreds of taxpayers before the IRS where she promoted Schiff’s misleading and incorrect arguments.

Mr. Schiff is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow, February 24, 2006, at 10:00 a.m. Assistant Attorney General O’Connor thanked Tax Division Trial Attorneys Jeffrey A. Neiman, David J. Ignall, Melissa Schraibman, and Larry Wszalek who prosecuted the case. She
also thanked Special Agents Sam Holland, Adam Steiner, and Autumn Woodard of the IRS, whose assistance was essential to the successful investigation and prosecution of the case.

Additional information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found at www.usdoj.gov/tax.

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