A former agent for the Internal Revenue Service(IRS) pleaded guilty to charges from his involvement with the Renaissance The Tax People Inc., which law enforcement authorities say is an elaborate pyramid scheme that markets fake tax-reduction plans. The former IRS agent is Thomas Steelman Sr., a 65 year old Blue Springs resident who have pleaded guilty for the said crime before U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia to charges of one count of conspiracy to commit the following crimes which is mail fraud,wire fraud and defraud the Internal Revenue Service. Thomas Steelman also pleaded guilty to nine counts of aiding and assisting the filing of illegal tax returns.

Mr. Thomas Steelman is the first one who have been convicted of a crime regarding with the activities of the Renaissance The Tax People, a Topeka-based company which sells tax plans and have already recruited thousands of members nationwide. The multi-level marketing company, which is under investigation by both state and federal authorities. The company offers unsuspecting victims on how to create home-based enterprises and raked in thousands of dollars in tax cuts by selling the tax reduction plans and encouraging others to join the company.

Prosecutors said that Thomas Steelman admitted that he conspired with others to prepare the tax deductions which takes place from November 1997 to January 2001 and which have defrauded the Internal Revenue Service of about $120,000 dollars in both individual and corporate income taxes and have scammed clients of about $100 million dollars. A spokeswoman for the U.S Attorney’s Office in Wichita Kena Rice said that there are no additional details were available on how the prosecutors were able to calculate the $100 million figure that were scammed out of the investors in the company.
In court Friday, Thomas Steelman admitted to the Judge that he have advised the clients to avail of the excessive W-4 exemptions, which have ultimately result in their owing a big federal income taxes at the end of the year. Mr. Steelman also admitted that he have helped their clients overstate their Schedule C business losses which have resulted in the excessive tax cuts. According to the Marketing advertisement by the Renaissance Company, their tax team which includes Mr. Steelman which were described as a “meritoriously recognized IRS Revenue Agent for 28 years,”. Prosecutors for the case said that the company have used Steelman’s credentials so that the fears and apprehensions of would be investors in the company would be allayed.

Thomas Steelman could spend five years in prison and pay $250,000 dollars in fines on the conspiracy charges and another three years in the penitentiary and pay $100,000 dollars in fines for the remaining charges. Scott Rask, the Assistant United States Attorney have told Judge Murguia that the government would recommend a sentence to Steelman on the lowend of the sentencing guidelines if Thomas Steelman cooperates with investigators regrading the case. Judge Murguia will handed down the sentence on October 21, 2006.

The Company was founded about seven years ago by a Topeka Native and a former marine, Michael Cooper. Back in 1994, a Kansas attorney general accused Michael Cooper and another accomplice of running an unlawful pyramid scheme by lying to investors that they will reaped in huge rewards if they will recruit customers for a company who sell Topeka Specialty foods called Truy Special Incorporated. The civil case was settled back in 1996 when Michael Cooper and his accomplice agreed, without any admission of guilt, that they will not violate any state consumer protection laws in the near future.

Both the Company and its founder will remain the accused in the lawsuit that was filed about 18 months agi by the Attorney General of the State of Kansas Carla Stovall. Last May, A Judge at Shawnee County issued a TRO which forbids Renaissance from operating in Kansas and have freeze all bank accounts that belongs to Michael Cooper. The case is still awaiting for its trial date. A spokesman for Attorney General Carla Stovall’s office said that Thomas Steelman’s guilty plea on the case that there is some substance on the case that they have been pursuing.

Michael Cooper and the Officials of the company have denied the allegations of wrongdoing. The investigations on Renaissance is a joint effort multiple federal and state agencies, including the tax division of the Justice Department, the IRS, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Kansas attorney general’s office.