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Justice Department sues conservative Roger Stone for nearly $2 million in unpaid income taxes and fees

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The Justice Department on Friday sued Roger Stone, accusing Stone and his wife, Nydia, of owing nearly $2 million in unpaid federal income taxes and fees.

Roger Stone has worked on the campaigns of many Republican politicians including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. The lawsuit was served in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The suit claims the Stones owe more than $1.5 million in back income taxes from 2007 until 2011, and separately alleges that Stone also owes more than $400,000 for not fully paying his tax bill in 2018. The lawsuit claims that the couple used a commercial entity known as Drake Ventures to “shield their personal income from enforced collection” and to fund a “lavish lifestyle.”

The government filing stated that the Stones deposited more than $1 million dollars into a commercial account belonging to Dark Ventures, thereby frustrating any collection efforts. From those accounts, the pair covered a down payment on a Fort Lauderdale condominium, paid for personal expenses and covered some of their tax liabilities, the lawsuit alleges, calling the entity an “alter ego” of the Stones. Additionally, the filing wants to thwart the Stones’ transfer of their $525,000 Florida condominium to an entity known as the Bertran Family Revocable Trust, which the government says is controlled by Nydia Stone and has as beneficiaries their children, Adria Stone and Scott Stone.

“Despite notice and demand for payment, Roger and Nydia Stone have failed and refused to pay the entire amount of the liabilities” the lawsuit stated. The filing alleged that at one juncture the Stones agreed to pay back their debt by monthly installments of nearly $20,000; they did not stick to this payment plan. The filing also alleges that one tax year Roger Stone filed his taxes as “a married individual filing separately from his spouse.” The filing alleges that Roger Stone owes an extra $407,000 for that year alone.

Roger Stone furiously hit back at the charges: “This is yet another example of the Democrats weaponizing the Justice Department in violation of the rule of law,” Stone said in a statement Friday night. “I will fight these politically motivated charges and I will prevail again.” Roger Stone went onto say “That my wife and I owe a significant amount in federal taxes has been a matter of public record for several years,” Stone told Fox News. “This is not news. We had worked diligently with the IRS to pay down our debt until we were financially destroyed by the politically motivated and corrupt Mueller investigation. The claim that my wife and I are living a lavish lifestyle is a laughable joke in view of the fact that we are virtually bankrupt.” Roger Stone also compared his treatment to that of Hunter Biden who is also under investigation for his taxes and financial ties. “Evidently I am being held to a far different standard than Hunter Biden who is, in fact, living a lavish lifestyle and the status of whose federal tax investigation we have no report on whatsoever,” Stone said.

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ARTICLE: PAUL MURDOCH

POLITICS EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE

PHOTO CREDITS: THE BOSTON GLOBE

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