The Tax Commission's new Criminal Investigation Unit achieved its fourth felony tax protester conviction Jan. 29 when a Salt Lake City jury found Fred L. Miller guilty of five felony counts of failure to file a state tax return. If sentenced to prison March 6 by Third District Judge Frank Noel, Miller will join former Granite District bus driver Rulon DeYoung and Richfield dentist Leonard Shirl Brown, who are also serving time at the Utah State Prison for evading Utah's income tax laws. Miller could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
More prosecutions are in the works.
Trial of another alleged tax protester, Brown Kaplar, Provo, is scheduled to begin next week in Third District Court. He is charged with felony tax evasion and felony failure to file state income tax returns. In another case, an arrest warrant has been issued for Robert Daughterty, a former Utahn now living in Evanston, Wyo. He is charged with six counts of tax evasion and four counts of failure to file state tax returns. The Tax Commission created its criminal unit in 1997 to investigate individual and business tax fraud, and Attorney General Jan Graham designated a full-time prosecutor to try the cases.