Originally published on Forbes.com.
My regular long-term readers will be either sad or dismayed that there is a new Kent Hovind story that belongs on this tax blog. I closed the books on L’affaire Hovind as being Forbes-worthy in August 2015, although I continued to follow him on Your Tax Matters Partner, which has looser standards and a readership numbering in the scores. He also had a cameo when Professor Samuel Brunson made Kent Hovind a subject of serious tax scholarship in God And The IRS.
A recent public statement by Mary Tocco, Kent’s second ex-wife, is what puts him back in the tax news. Robert Baty posted the statement on August 20 and Mary Tocco confirmed to me that it was from her. Hovind’s marriage to Mary Tocco had caused an uproar among some supporters.
And their split-up has had the popcorn popping for the Hovindlogists, whom Ms Tocco characterizes as:
I would rate that evaluation as harsh, but somewhat fair. You can judge for yourself here and here. But first a little background on Kent Hovind, which those familiar with him might skip.
About Kent Hovind
Kent Hovind is an independent Baptist minister who advocates young-earth creationism. YEC advocates that a hyper-literal reading of the Book of Genesis can be scientifically supported. When you sum up all those begats and tack on seven days, you get about 6,000 years, not nearly enough time for evolution to work. Another implication of YEC is that people and dinosaurs must have coexisted (That explains Dinosaur Adventure Land). When you compare this and other views to establishment science in a variety of fields including biology, geology, and astronomy, there has to be a massive conspiracy in order for YEC to be true.
Well, conspiracies of that scope are the stuff of Kent Hovind’s world view. Another is that the income tax is very narrow in its application. He took that one too far. Although he was prepared to defend himself against a charge of income tax evasion, he was blindsided when he was convicted of “structuring” (also interfering with tax administration and failure to pay payroll taxes). Structuring is systematically dealing in amounts of cash somewhat less than $10,000 in order to avoid bank reporting. Convicting people of structuring, which does not require the element of willfulness that most tax crimes have, was close to shooting fish in the barrel for prosecutors.
Kent ended up serving a long stretch in prison (over eight years). Perhaps more damaging to Kent’s first marriage was the one year that his wife Jo had to serve. Nearing the end of his prison term, he was charged with new crimes due to actions that he had taken to affect the title to property that the government had seized as a result of the first conviction. His persecution narrative became a thing inside the right-wing evangelical bubble with a Free Kent Hovind movement forming. The Hovindicators, as I dubbed them, got all the way to Alex Jones, but never quite made it to Fox.
Kent was convicted on one of the charges, being saved from the others by jury nullification. That charge was dismissed, so he was free in 2015.
His homecoming was not quite what he had had in mind, as he ended up in a bitter dispute with his family about control of property and also in one of his TMI bursts he let everybody know that he and Jo were not sharing a room. They divorced and Kent moved to Lenox Alabama where he is building a new Dinosaur Adventure Land.
That’s a nutshell. One other thing that is really important. Hovind consigliere, Ernie Land, assured me that a conventionally compliant tax structure would be in place including a 501(c)(3) with an independent board – Creation Science Evangelism Ministries Inc which filed its first Form 990, prepared by a CPA, last November.
About Mary Tocco And The Romance
Mary Tocco is a devout Christian and an activist in the area of vaccines as she explains on her website. She gave me a statement on the issue which you can read here. She was meeting with Hovind to work on video on the issue and there was something of a whirlwind romance that took her by surprise.
We saw each other professionally for the first time when I went to Pensacola, Florida in April of 2016 for the purpose of using Kent’s videography resources to produce an educational video on my own area of research that happens to be a cause that Kent supports. At that time I knew nothing about Kent’s personal or family life.
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Becoming personally involved with Kent had never even been a fleeting thought in my mind. It was not until after his separation and divorce filing that we shared even a conversation about anything other than our two separate areas of work.
They were married in September 2016.
Some of the Hovindicators were upset by the marriage, since they have strong beliefs about divorce and remarriage. It is not the first time that Hovind supporters have been shed. Using the King James Bible as a science textbook besides contradicting evolutionary biology can cause you to believe in geocentrism with the next step being flat earth. The conspiracy required to deceive us into believing that we live on a sphere orbiting the sun when we actually live on a flat stationary circular disk is pretty epic, but not that hard for some to accept (Johnny Cirucci pretty much blames the Jesuits). Kent refused to go there pretty much siding with Galileo, Copernicus and Newton. It’s Darwin he has a problem with.
Ms. Tocco told me that it was important that she be married in the eyes of God, but didn’t care what the State of Alabama thought, which simplified getting divorced. If you hunt around you will see the “obsessed band of internet fanatics” getting into whether there was a common-law marriage which would present legal complications. I think it is likely that Ms. Tocco has that issue covered and don’t find it interesting.
In my interview with her, Ms. Tocco told me she found Hovind charming and extremely intelligent. The marriage was wonderful. She confirmed the two things I most admire about Kent Hovind. He has an extremely strong work ethic and is very purpose-driven. That was one of the problems. In her view, he put the ministry before their marriage, which is unbliblical.
Eyes Wide Open
Among his other problems, Kent Hovind is likely still under the cloud of a large liability for personal income tax. The tab was $3.3 million back in 2013 when the Tax Court issued an order and it seems unlikely that he has gotten anywhere near to even keeping up with the interest accumulating.
A smart woman getting involved with Kent Hovind might also reflect that his troubles came in part from his ministry being considered an alter ego and that his first wife ended up with a prison sentence. The new ministry is set up with a more conventional structure, but Kent refuses to admit that he might have done something wrong the first time and is promoting a Kent Hovind is Innocent DVD Series with the legal heavy lifting being done by Brady Byrum an autodidact researcher with no credentials who Kent characterizes as a legal genius. I’ll just say that I have issues with Byrum’s analysis. Kent also had a cellmate that he thought was a legal genius whose advice led to the second prosecution. Not to mention the legal minds like Glenn Stoll who got him in trouble the first time.
As Ms. Tocco puts it in her statement:
A simple online search reveals dozens of court documents, documentaries, websites, articles, and social media debates arguing both sides. It is virtually impossible and somewhat ignorant for anyone to proclaim to know the full truth about Kent’s past, without having been personally involved and physically present throughout the entire former ministry debacle that spanned more than a decade.
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Rightfully, my five adult children were very concerned about my association with Kent. They are all wholeheartedly in support of the mission of his ministry, but the fact that his former wife was sentenced to jail caused enough apprehension for all of us that my final marriage decision was determined after a series of meetings that were able to satisfy the most serious of concerns for my freedom and safety.
Prudent Steps
Ms. Tocco having a lot more at stake than I did looked pretty intensely into the structure that was designed to keep the man who didn’t think he did anything wrong the first couple of times from getting in trouble again. And more importantly not having his second wife sucked into the vortex as his first wife was. Again from her statement;
During this “due diligence” process I consulted with attorneys, experts in accounting, and owners of 501c3 organizations. The summary of all of our communication was that they collectively were one hundred percent, completely committed and dedicated to handling every single aspect of Kent’s ministry in absolute compliance with all laws and regulations. I relied completely on the promises made during meetings with Kent and the members of the DAL board. At that time, it was not appropriate to demand privilege to review all internal documents, business and non-profit filings, bank and financial records, nor do I personally have the expertise in all applicable areas of study to conduct that type of investigation. However, we did speak explicitly about the structure of DAL; about proper handling of donations; about book keeping and accounting; about payment to staff; and most importantly about the team of experts, including attorneys and finance professionals, who were said to exist for the sole purpose of making sure everything was conducted to provide longevity, security and safety for the ministry.
Taking The Plunge
Ms. Tocco accepted Kent’s marriage proposal wholeheartedly. The only condition was that he not slide back into sovereign citizen tax protester shenanigans that he insists he didn’t do in the first place. In her statement she wrote that her:
…decision was to accept Kent’s marriage proposal and to leave my family to relocate my whole world to Alabama, and to temporarily take focus off of my career to become his wife, to create our home, and to support him as a wife should. I made those sacrifices easily, happily and willingly but with one, single, non-negotiable, permanent expectation that was clearly communicated multiple times verbally and in writing to Kent and his whole team:
I have absolutely no compromise with my expectation that all things related to Kent and his ministry be handled in compliance with all laws, IRS tax codes, ethics, honesty and transparency.
My agreement to marriage was permanently tied to trusting Kent that the ministry be handled “above-board” and in full adherence to the law.
The Trouble Commences
I think I might have seen this coming. Kent’s entire career when it comes to compliance with the tax law is a refusal to accept Reilly’s First Law of Tax Planning – It is what it is. Deal with it. After being convicted of crimes and losing in tax court and having both decisions affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit, Kent still does not believe he did anything wrong. He won’t even go so far as to opine that he took some really bad advice. He remains attached to his persecution narrative.
It did not take long for Ms. Tocco to start having concerns. Back to her statement:
But it wasn’t long before I began noticing certain things that didn’t seem to add up. My list of concerns started slowly, and then began to grow.
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Finally, I requested the opportunity to address these concerns in a meeting with Kent and the trustee of the DAL board. I had learned enough to be able to ask specific questions about how the business was being conducted. Much to my dismay, their side of the discussion was a terribly disappointment, and more accurately appalling. I shook my head in disbelief as I heard statements repeatedly such as, “well, that’s a gray area” and “I think we could explain it this way to defend ourselves, if we had to in court”. I was told to forget my concerns because they would likely be civil issues anyway, not criminal. It was one of the most unacceptable discussions I have ever witnessed, especially given the past of the men speaking.
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Looking back, I was most alarmed at the Kent’s response when I questioned a particular, serious matter that could create severe consequence: “The board doesn’t answer to you, Mary.”
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That was when I realized the lesson they had strategically waited to try to teach me – there is a veil of secrecy between Kent and the board of DAL. The wife of the ministry’s patriarch is not allowed to penetrate that veil and has she no business questioning the board’s decisions.
Last Chance
Ms. Tocco left, but was hopeful she would be able to come back and arranged for a meeting with a tax attorney. I asked her whether the subject was the not-for-profit operation or the looming civil liability. She had no comment. Again from her statement:
I facilitated meetings with totally impartial third-party experts in Alabama to provide an opinion on my concerns, and to help guide any necessary changes. According to Kent, the trustee of the DAL board advised him not to participate and I was informed that the board would not discuss internal matters with any professional unless they determined it was necessary. In the following months I only received continuous pressure and reprimand and I was told numerous times, “Just come home and be a Proverb 31 wife.”
Ms. Tocco told me that Ernie Land expressed the belief that the first loyalty of an attorney was to the government . So that was pretty much that.
Under the commitment of marriage, the husband takes a vow to care for and protect his wife, and to put her before anything else under God. I was not demanding extreme protection but refused to accept decisions that blatantly and foolishly welcomed risk, easy and valid attack, and the predictable demise of the life we were building together. The most disturbing aspect is that the problems I discovered were not accidental mistakes, nor were they impossible to correct. Instead, I had exposed and was demanding a complete revision of the planned, deliberate, voluntary way that Kent and his board are dedicated to operating DAL. Who was I to think I was going to persuade them all to change?
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My marriage with Kent would have survived had I “been a good wife”, understanding that a woman’s place is in the home and her job is to support her husband without question. And a wife is certainly never to meddle in the men’s business affairs. Yes, our marriage would have survived for some time…
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For all of the people who are just bursting with curiosity about why I left Kent Hovind, I will reduce it to one sentence. I decided I don’t want to play a lead role in the next debacle.
Reaction
Ernie Land, President of Creation Science Evangelism Ministries Inc and probably Kent Hovind’s most long-term advisor, as you might expect, takes a dim view of Ms. Tocco’s version of events.
Normal drama for me.
Notice how Mary doesn’t make mention of the CPA and tax Attorney, who helped set up the structure or the fact several Attorney’s were consulted and even those Attorneys had views that were 180 degrees apart. The one thing they all told Mary was not to be involved in the Ministry, which she continued to refuse to heed their advice, even those who she went to. Plus she continued to demand of Kent that he fire the Board members. In the end Mary insisted Kent fire ALL board members, even after being told if Kent had that power it would make the Ministry an alter ego. Well, we still have the same board members and Kent does not have that power, even if he had tried to do so under Mary’s direction. This is why my opinion believes that Mary’s motive was to marry Kent and take over the Ministry. I also believe that after she realized she could not accomplish taking over the Ministry, that she then choose to leave, using the death threat that timely came in as the reason to leave.
I must say I’m not the expert on how to properly structure this Ministry and Kent’s intellectual for profit things in a way that we can safely operate without more intervention by the IRS or Government, which as you know, I believe was an attack from the now known deep state because of Kent’s teaching that destroys the theories of evolution. So my solution was to use the professionals, who instructed that having a true Ministry donors we needed a 501C3 type corporation for the Ministry, with a for profit corporation for the sale of material, which is a for profit operation that distributes the religious material. So that is what we did, in the hopes we can operate in this evil system of money and government, but without putting anyone in jeopardy of breaking laws that even the professionals can’t agree on.
To be fair to Ernie, I think that you would have a variety of opinions among professionals on how to handle the overall management of this enterprise given the high exposure. With a bit of work though you would be able to identify someone with very good credentials. Then in order to allay the legitimate concerns of the second Mrs. Hovind you could go with the most conservative option.
Ernie referred me to Proverbs 6:19 . I’ll give you a bit more for context:
16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Rudy Davis, probably the most passionate of the Hovindicators, wrote me:
I think it is unfortunate that Mary seems to put more trust in attorneys than the Word of God and her husband. I pray Kent’s new wife has a fearless heart and is truly devoted to her vows. Kent deserves a woman who will boldly stand with him as he leads souls to Christ, not a wife who listens to the naysayers who are more fearful of government crackdowns than they are of the judgement of God
You will note Rudy’s allusion to a new wife. Kent’s reported third marriage is a subject towards which I am adopting deliberate disinterest. The reason I thought it worthwhile to cover Mary Tocco’s statement is that there is an important lesson.
Think About Your Spouse And Family
The shenanigans of Kent Hovind are beyond aggressive, but the lesson here applies to people who are more in touch with the reality of the tax law. The Learned Hand quote that I love so much retains its validity.
Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.
There is an important proviso. Not everyone has the same stomach for controversy. If I were to get audited on some issue or other, I would probably take it as an interesting challenge and maybe good blog fodder. I would probably enjoy it in a perverse sort of way. As it happens I don’t take aggressive positions, but if I were inclined to I would with no fear (having put money for my potential extra liability aside). If I had a spouse signing a joint return with me, it would be a different story. Her sensibilities would absolutely trump my carefree attitude. And if she had some sort of business and insisted on being loosey-goosey about the bookkeeping, I’d tell her that I loved her and because of that we were filing separately, maintaining separate bank accounts and she could find somebody else to prepare her returns,