SALT LAKE CITY, Utah Sept. 1, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A Utah County filmmaker and Constitutional activist was indicted federally with tax evasion and obstruction for forcibly occupying his home after it was seized for the back taxes.
“A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned an indictment, unsealed today, charging a Utah man with tax evasion, obstructing the IRS and forcibly retaking property that had been seized by the government to pay his outstanding tax debt,” according to a Thursday press release from the U. S. Attorney for Utah’s Office of the Department of Justice.
According to the indictment, Paul Kenneth Cromar owned a home in Cedar Hills, Utah, and operated Blue Moon Productions, LLC, a freelance film and media production company.
From 1999 through 2005, Cromar allegedly did not file any federal income tax returns or pay any tax and in 2005, the IRS conducted an audit and assessed him with $703,266.96 in taxes, interest and penalties, the DOJ said.
After Cromar allegedly failed to make any payments towards his outstanding debt, a federal judge ordered that his home be sold at auction to satisfy his tax obligations. The indictment alleges that Cromar then attempted to stop the sale by filing bogus documents, including a false promissory note, with the IRS, intimidating potential purchasers or investors of the home and attempted to harass IRS personnel by filing frivolous lawsuits against them personally.
The indictment further charges that shortly before the sale closed, Cromar allegedly broke into the home and attempted to reclaim it. With the help of others, he allegedly occupied the home unlawfully for several months, fortifying it with weapons, sandbags and wooden boards tactically placed throughout the house.
Through his criminal conduct, Cromar is alleged to have caused a total tax loss to the IRS of $1,174,201.91.
Cromar earned headlines in the 2020 forcible retaking of his house in Cedar Hills, which ended peaceably after an armed stand-off with police.
Occupying the house illegally for eight months, he had attracted supporters to the residence with similar Constitutionalist convictions in claiming the house was taken from him illegally, according to news reports.
He and his wife Barbie and others were charged in state court for the incident, those cases apparently still pending.
If convicted on Thursday’s indictment, Cromar faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for tax evasion, three years in prison for corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the IRS and two years in prison for forcibly retaking seized property.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney for Utah Trina A. Higgins made Thursday’s announcement.
IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) are investigating the case.
The FBI assisted in locating and apprehending Cromar, who had been a fugitive from justice in the related Utah state court criminal matter since August 2022.
