Hovind Convicted

Kent Hovind, one of the slimiest of the young-Earth ignorance peddlers, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for tax fraud:

Pensacola evangelist Kent Hovind was sentenced Friday afternoon to 10 years in prison on charges of tax fraud.

After a lengthy sentencing hearing that last 5 1/2 hours, U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers ordered Hovind also:

— Pay $640,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

— Pay the prosecution’s court costs of $7,078.

— Serve three years parole once he is released from prison.

Hovind’s wife, Jo Hovind, also was scheduled to be sentenced. Rodgers postponed her sentencing until March 1 to allow her defense attorney an opportunity to argue possible discrepancies in sentencing guidelines.

Prior to his sentencing, a tearful Kent Hovind, also known as “Dr. Dino” asked for the court’s leniency.

“If it’s just money the IRS wants, there are thousands of people out there who will help pay the money they want so I can go back out there and preach,” Hovind said.

Charming fellow. To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it’s nice to see a truly rotten human being brought to justice. But ten years for tax fraud seems like a bit much.

Comments

#1 San Bernardino
January 20, 2007

Must respectfully disagree. 10 years seems right to me. Who hates taxes? Me and just about everyone else. Who knows what happens if you evade taxes and get caught? Me and just about everyone else. So, who pays taxes? Me and just about everyone else.

Hovind thought he was something special but he is not. Let his imaginary friend the lord forgive him later in heaven. I think his punishment on Earth is just.
#2 kevin W. Parker
January 20, 2007

What the last guy said. It’s not as if Hovind made one mistake or sent in one fraudulent tax return. This is a guy who’s been giving the finger to the IRS for years, ignoring them, stonewalling, giving specious reasons why he shouldn’t have to pay, falsifying documents, whatever it takes not to pay taxes.
#3 Tony P
January 20, 2007

I always have to laugh at the restitution clauses in sentencing. Lets face it, the guy will be a federal convict so who the hell will hire him and pay him a reasonable wage to satisfy close to $650,000 in debt?

Put it this way – if they gave him ten years to pay it off, it’d be $65,000 a year.
#4 JohnnieCanuck
January 20, 2007

Won’t they be able to go after his assets?

It would be nice to get as much of his money as possible out of the hands of his son Eric, who plans to continue to preach creationism, just like his dad.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and is presumably just as rotten.
#5 mark
January 20, 2007

It’s not just that he knew better, but still tried to cheat America; note what he said: If the IRS just wants money, someone else can pay what he himself owes.
#6 J-Dog
January 20, 2007

What San Beradino said… Don’t be messing with Caeser, unless you want to be burried under a lot of salad. Hovind has made a good living off of donationsn from old ladies and idiots. Time to pay the piper dude for your dishonesty. 10 years is off easy, IMO
#7 Paul T.
January 20, 2007

He will be spending 10 yrs. in a Club Fed facility, certainly not the worst thing that could happen to you.

As for his fine, I’m sure there are enough credulous christians out there to bail him out.
#8 sparc
January 21, 2007

But ten years for tax fraud seems like a bit much.

I guess it is understandable though, because tax evasion is one of the biggest threads to any government and it will be prosecuted in every country.
On the other hand there is a lot of hypocrisy in such cases taking into account tax laws that have been enforced by certain pressure groups that benfit from such laws.
#9 sparc
January 21, 2007

One thing these fundamentalist don’t want to accept is that any constitution that guarantees religous freedom puts the law in a position superior to any religion. Thus, the law tolerates religous freedom of the single individuum from a position of power. However, this does not mean that it will accept every deviant action justified by religous claims. Indeed, the law can not allow such actions because otherwise it would disentitle itself.
#10 N. Wells
January 26, 2007

I don’t consider ten years too much for extensive tax fraud, but if you do, perhaps you would be more comfortable thinking of it as 1 year for tax fraud and 9 years karmic backlash for a lifetime of lying to the public.
#11 femi
December 1, 2007

shame on all you who r joying at this event my god have mercy on your soul because satan wownt.