Kent Hovind Tax Fraud Conviction — 58 Federal Counts
Kent and Jo Hovind were found guilty on all 58 federal counts including tax evasion, structuring transactions to avoid reporting, and failing to pay employee taxes.
On November 2, 2006, a federal jury in Pensacola, Florida, found Kent Hovind and his wife Jo Hovind guilty on all counts in a 58-count indictment. The charges included:
- 12 counts of willful failure to collect, account for, and pay over federal income taxes and FICA taxes for employees of Creation Science Evangelism (CSE)
- 45 counts of structuring financial transactions — making cash withdrawals just under the $10,000 reporting threshold to evade currency transaction reports (a violation of 31 U.S.C. § 5324)
- 1 count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the administration of the internal revenue laws
Hovind claimed his workers were “missionaries” not employees, that his ministry’s property “belonged to God” and was therefore not taxable, and that he had no income because everything he earned was assigned to his ministry. The court rejected all of these arguments.
Hovind was sentenced to ten years in federal prison on January 19, 2007. He served approximately eight years and was released in 2015, followed by a period of supervised release. Jo Hovind was sentenced to one year and one day.
During the trial, the government presented evidence that Hovind had paid employees in cash, maintained no employee records, filed no tax returns for 17 years, and withdrew nearly $1 million in structured transactions designed to avoid bank reporting requirements.