DOJ Suit: Roger Stone Owes IRS $2M in Taxes

Complaint: Trump ally's tax troubles, which stretch back to 2007, didn't stop him from living it up
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 17, 2021 7:30 AM CDT
DOJ Suit: Roger Stone Owes IRS $2M in Taxes
In this Nov. 7, 2019, file photo, Roger Stone arrives at federal court in Washington.   (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

Former President Trump pardoned Roger Stone right before he left office, but that reprieve isn't going to help the GOP operative with his latest IRS troubles. NBC News reports that the Justice Department filed a lawsuit Friday in Florida against the 68-year-old Trump ally for the nearly $2 million in taxes and fees he's said to owe going back to 2007. Between that year and 2011, the suit claims, Stone and his wife, Nydia, underpaid their taxes by around $1.6 million. Then, in 2018, Stone, who filed separately from Nydia that year, paid only part of his tax bill, still owing more than $400,000, the complaint notes. The suit alleges that the Stones subsequently set up a trust and a company to "shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle," despite owing the IRS.

The lawsuit notes the couple had at one point been sending $20,000 a month to the government to pay down their tax debt, but after they used money from the company they'd set up, Drake Ventures, to purchase a condo in early 2019, those payments stopped, per the Washington Post. Stone, who as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe was charged and convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction—and subsequently pardoned by Trump—says that he's "destitute" and "on the verge of bankruptcy" as a result of his legal fight during the Mueller investigation. The IRS is "well aware that I have no assets," Stone tells the AP, adding in a statement to NBC: "This is yet another example of the Democrats weaponizing the Justice Department in violation of the rule of law. I will fight these politically motivated charges and I will prevail again." (More Roger Stone stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X