Marsh

Phillip Marsh and his five co-defendants appeal their convictions of conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the collection of federal income taxes and their convictions of related crimes. They also appeal their sentences, which, as to Phillip Marsh total a term of imprisonment of 17 1/2 years, as to his wife Marlene a term of 14 years, and as to the other defendants lesser but still substantial periods of prison.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Phillip Marsh was the founder in 1990 of The Pilot Connection Society, often self-identified by its acronym TPCS. Marsh’s enterprise offered its customers 'the elusive and enchanting prospect of untaxing themselves. The verb “untax” entered the language in political conflict in England over a formidable tariff on foreign grain and denoted political action by the government (“Who will untax our bread?” E. Elliott, Corn-Law Rhymes, 1833). “Untax,” as used in the present context, means freeing oneself from any legal obligation to pay any income tax, federal or state.

To achieve this exceptional state, TPCS offered an “Untax Package.” The package included Phillip Marsh’s The Compleat Patriot, the Constitution of the United States, Psalm…