John Anthony Castro was arrested Tuesday on federal tax charges. The charges were part of a 33-count indictment that charged him with aiding in the preparation and filing of false tax returns.
Castro was arrested for submitting false tax documents to IRS. Prosecutors claim that Castro operated a virtual business that gave clients a much larger tax refund than they would receive in the normal course of things, thus defrauding the federal government. In court documents filed in Castro’s trial, prosecutors made damning accusations against him.
In court documents, prosecutors stated that Castro would offer a much higher refund to taxpayers than they could get from other preparers. On many occasions, he offered to share the extra refund with them. Castro created false deductions that were not based on fact and were submitted to the IRS without the taxpayers’ knowledge to obtain these higher refunds.
Castro was caught by an undercover officer pretending to be a client of Castro’s services. A “reputable” tax preparation firm told the undercover officer that he was going to receive a tax refund of $373. Castro said he would get the officer a refund of $6,007 and split it with him when he received it. Castro filed tax returns for the undercover agent that showed almost $30,000 of falsely claimed deductions.
Castro told The Hill he believed that the case was politically motivated and he denied any wrongdoing.
He claimed that his firm settled with the IRS the tax return issue in 2021. He claimed that some clients misunderstood tax law. Castro claimed that his firm paid $700,000 to the IRS in 2021 for the discrepancies.
He said, “I don’t care if I get a day of probation or a slap around the wrist for my guilty plea.” “This will go to trial, I will convince all 12 jurors I am innocent and this is political revenge.”
Castro claims that the arrests and indictments are politically motivated, and are a response to Castro’s 14th Amendment lawsuits against Trump filed in over 24 states. Castro’s arrest came on the same day as one of his legal challenges in New Hampshire against Trump was dismissed. Castro’s challenges in Florida and Nevada were also dismissed, but several others are still pending. In the Nevada challenge, Castro is accused of some old accusations. He claims that his legal challenge wasn’t completely factual.
In her ruling, the judge noted Castro’s previous comments that show he is “creating his injury to manufacture standing to challenge Trump’s qualification to run for President.”
The judge has not ruled on whether Trump is disqualified for violating the 14th Amendment.
Castro’s presidential campaign is full of interesting details. Castro’s political experience is surprisingly bare, as he has no elected or political experience. Castro has also hinted to the Associate Press, that he’s not running for president but rather trying to eliminate Donald Trump as a challenger. Castro’s entire “candidacy,” is based on his more than two dozen legal challenges to remove Trump from the ballots using the 14th Amendment strategy of the left. He noted that the fight for his candidacy is not in the campaign trail but rather within the courtroom.
Castro admits, in light of his current criminal case, that one condition of his release is that he can’t travel outside the Northern District of Texas without prior approval. Castro claims that this condition of release would compromise his future appearances in West Virginia and Montana for 14th Amendment cases. He will be back in court on the 17th of January.
