Schiff, a Tax Protestor, Loses 2255 Motion to Vacate Conviction (9/29/12)

Irwin Schiff, a tax protestor of some notoriety (see Wikipedia entry here) is back in the tax news.  He was previously convicted of various counts of conspiracy, tax evasion, tax perjury and aiding and assisting and sentenced to 151 months in prison.  He appealed his convictions.  He lost his appeal.  Then, as not uncommon, he filed a 2255 motion to overturn his conviction for ineffective assistance of appellate counsel.  (He could not do that for trial counsel, since represented himself.)  The Court denied the motion.  United States v. Schiff, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135934 (D. NV 2012)

He raised more or less standard 2255 arguments, some more or less grounded in fact (that is not to say that those that were ground in fact had merit).  The Court dismissed them all handily.  Here is one related to some argument he had about foreign banks honoring levies (since foreign banks are a frequent topic of this blog):

5. Testimony Regarding Offshore Bank Accounts 

Defendant argues that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to appeal the Court's exclusion of the testimony of two Freedom Book customers, Robert Eiler and Robert Schulz. The Court permitted Defendant to testify about why he used offshore accounts as part of his extensive testimony about his beliefs. However, the Court properly prevented Defendant from introducing the testimony of Eiler and Schulz about their experience with offshore banks' treatment of IRS levies "as proof that they don't" honor them. (16Tr. 4350-51.) The Court determined that Defendant was attempting to improperly introduce evidence that his beliefs were correct, rather than his basis for forming his beliefs. Accordingly, Defendant's appellate counsel was not unreasonable for failing to challenge the Court's determination. Even if appellate counsel had raised the issue, there is no indication that the results of Defendant's appeal would have been different.