The Order, among other things, requires the Defendants Gwenn Wycoff and Frank Ozak to post the Permanent Injunction to our website. While the Defendants have only the most tenuous relationship with the owners and operators of this website, we, the Trustees, have posted the Injunction, so as to assist the Defendants, and to cooperate with the Order of the Honorable Judge.
On October 8, 2010, the US Department of Justice, acting on false allegations by the IRS, filed a preliminary injunction against Gwenn Wycoff and Frank Ozak with the U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
The DOJ had alleged, "In 2008, the Defendants published and began to sell a two-volume work entitled The Art of Passing the Buck, which contains false statements about the Internal Revenue laws."
The Department of Justice, on behalf of the IRS had sought a permanent injunction against the publication of these books. To her credit, the Honorable Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen refused to enjoin publication of The Art of Passing the Buck. This was after a thorough review of the IRS/DoJ allegations proved them at least baseless and in some cases blatantly false.
The court had ordered the Preliminary Injunction published on this site. We have left it posted for comparison with the final Permanent Injunction, also posted below.
As we stated at the time we posted the Preliminary Injunction:
These books are published with the express intent of educating people regarding contractual trusts and their proper usage. Contractual trusts, sometimes referred to as common law trusts, are not illegal. In fact, one can freely purchase such trust documents on websites such as www.legalzoom.com. To attempt to outlaw such trusts would require a violation of your Constitutional Right to Contract.
We challenge the DOJ and the IRS to show us anything in these books that either violates the Internal Revenue Code (or any other law, for that matter) or encourages any one else to do so. In the unlikely event that the IRS can show us any place in either book where this occurs, we will gladly edit the book to eliminate that problem. We have never advocated anything other than compliance with the law.
We make this offer in good faith. Indeed, this has been our stance since before the IRS brought this action. In light of these facts, we can only see any attempt to prohibit publication of these books as a blatant attack on the First Amendment.
After a thorough review of the books, the court required the following changes:
- Include the following paragraph in each volume:
Under no circumstances should you rely on the content of either volume of The Art of Passing the Buck in determining a trust's federal income tax liability, whether that trust presently exists or is to be created in the future. For all such matters, you should seek appropriate professional assistance (e.g., from an attorney, certified public accountant, or otherwise properly licensed and reputable tax return preparer).
- Remove certain end pages from each volume, specifically:
- Remove pages 344 and 345 from Vol. I.
- Remove pages 575 and 577 from Vol. II.
The pages ordered removed (as shown in Schedule B of the Permanent Injunction) did not contain any statements regarding Internal Revenue laws. We believe this to be prima facie evidence that the DoJ made false allegations in their initial complaint.
The order also required the defendants to send a letter to everyone who had previously purchased a copy of the book(s). We have posted that letter with a link below.
The findings of the court in the Preliminary Injunction were based solely on claims made by the DOJ on behalf of the IRS. In the interest of fairness, in addition to the Preliminary injunction, we have also posted a response by the Defendants to the press release from the DOJ, and a Declaration by one of the coauthors. We believe that these documents will show that, using your tax dollars, the DOJ and the IRS, at the least, engaged in vindictive prosecution of the Defendants, and at worst, may have committed a fraud upon the Honorable Court.
Therefore, here are:
Thanks to the First Amendment and the Hon. Judge Nguyen the books are still available.
