Adviser who calls himself 'child of God' sentenced to 40 months in jail

A former investment adviser who once told the Internal Revenue Service that he had “citizenship in heaven”— and not the United States — was sentenced in a federal court in Dallas yesterday to 40 months in prison for setting up a series of sham offshore investments that worked as tax dodges. According to a statement from the Department of Justice, the ex-adviser and estate planner, Lanas Evans Troxler, operated a series of tax and financial-advice businesses from at least 1998 to 2002. Last year, he was convicted of one count of obstructing IRS laws, four counts of attempting tax evasion and 12 counts of assisting in the preparation of false tax returns. The resulting IRS tax loss was more than $630,000. As part of his sentence, he was ordered to pay a fine of $10,000. When working as an adviser, Mr. Troxler in 2002 told the IRS that he was not a U.S. citizen but rather a “child of God,” and therefore his citizenship was “in heaven,” according to documents released by the Justice Department yesterday. He also reportedly told the IRS that he was an inhabitant of Texas, a republic established by the Spanish Land Grant. Beginning in 1997, Mr. Troxler set up a series of offshore businesses in the Turks and Caicos Islands for himself and his clients, and also steered his clients to accountants who prepared phony tax returns, the Justice Department said in a statement. He used the offshore businesses to make it appear as if his clients had made certain transactions that created income that should have been, but was not, reported on federal individual and business income tax returns. A call Thursday to Troxler Financial Corp. was not returned. Mr. Troxler has been ordered to surrender to authorities by the end of the month.