Irwin A. Schiff, 1928 - 2015

[Noah]

Very sad.

Yes, very sad he did not himself above his level of ignorance. Schiff was a perfect example of your footnote:

Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

[The Observer]

I am not convinced that Irwin was ignorant about what the tax laws said. I think that Irwin purposely distorted what the laws said, and did so because he saw a way to make money doing so. He may have been ignorant in thinking that the government would not pursue his prosecution a third time.

[Famspear]

.....I think that Irwin purposely distorted what the laws said, and did so because he saw a way to make money doing so......

Yes, and according to the New York Times obituary, he sold about 250,000 of his books. Even if he cleared only a dollar per book (and I'm thinking that might be a conservative figure), he would have made a substantial amount of money on his scam. He had a substantial economic interest in promoting his scheme.

He paid a price for it.

[Demosthenes]

He was man so convinced that he didn't owe taxes on his income from selling those books, that he hid the proceeds in an offshore account..

[The Observer]

He was man so convinced that he didn't owe taxes on his income that he called Steven Swann an idiot for believing him.

[notorial dissent]

I have to go wit the consensus here, Schiff couldn't have come up with some of the BS he did if he weren't intimately familiar with the laws and what they meant. Now whether he believe the hooey he was peddling that could be open to debate, except for the points brought up. I think he was basically a cheap jack, or maybe that really is hack as I misspelled it the first time, conman who was in it for greed and the money and nothing else. He was conning everyone around him, and to a degree himself I think, since as was also pointed out, he thought he wouldn't get caught and hammered the way he was. Seems he was WRONG on all counts. Now as to Peter, who can say. I'm going to find that Latin phrase yet, if it kills me.

[fortinbras]

I don't think that Schiff was "intimately familiar" with the tax laws. He started with a smattering of court cases which he really couldn't parse properly, and then crashed full speed in his many court cases - which he somehow refused to assimilate in his view of tax law. He was, like so many SovCits, fixated on on some nonsense and persisted in not learning from his failures.

[grixit]

What's up with Steven Shawnn these days, anyway?