Government Revokes Plea Offers In Case Against ‘Professor’ Patrick Moriarty; Prosecution Says It Has Seven Binders Of Evidence, Including Evidence From A ‘Casino’
Federal prosecutors have revoked plea offers made during discussions with a federal public defender representing AdSurfDaily mainstay “Professor” Patrick Moriarty.
Moriarty has hired a new attorney, and prosecutors have advised the attorney that they have “voluminous” evidence, including seven 4-inch binders of records.
Part of the evidence came from records at an unspecified casino, according to court records.
“Please be advised that any plea offers previously made with the defendant’s former counsel are revoked,” said Rosemary Casey Meyers, the prosecutor handing the case, in a letter to Moriarty’s new attorney.
Meyers is an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, where a tax indictment against Moriarty was returned in March by a federal grand jury. The letter means that any offer the government might have made earlier in the case is off the table.
Other evidence, according to court filings, includes IRS records, bank records, Social Security records, business records and verbal statements by Moriarty. Some 4-inch binders hold 780 sheets of paper.
Citing his client’s poor health, Moriarty’s new attorney, Lenny Kagan, now has asked for a continuance. The government did not object. Moriarty is scheduled to have cancer surgery this month. The trial had been slotted for next month.
The prosecution agreed to let Moriarty know if it intended to introduce evidence of other crimes prior to trial, without disclosing if Moriarty was being investigated for other matters unrelated to the tax indictment handed down in March.
Screen shot: Discovery receipt that shows government has casino records in the case against 'Professor' Patrick Moriarty.
Moriarty was charged with filing false income-tax returns for the tax years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. Prosecutors said he underreported his income by an unspecified amount for the tax year 2002; claimed a false deduction of $30,000 for “legal fees†for the tax year 2003; and claimed a false amount of $23,533 withheld for the tax year 2004 and a false amount of $23,433 withheld for the tax year 2005.
In May, the PatrickPretty.com Blog reported that Moriarty, in 2006, started a nonprofit organization for a Missouri man accused of murdering a woman in cold blood after he had shot a police officer four times.
The officer and his partner had stopped the man, Bryan Tullock, for running a stop sign in Montgomery City, Mo., on June 2, 2006. As officer Brandon LyBarger, 25, approached Tullock’s car shortly after midnight, Tullock shot him four times with a 9-mm handgun and also opened fire on LyBarger’s partner.
The second officer, Jarrod Brooks, returned fire, striking Tullock’s Cadillac but not Tullock.
When officer Brooks called for backup and went to the aid of his downed colleague, Tullock fled, police said. Tullock broke into the home of Heidi Casagrand about a block from the scene of the police shooting.
He shot and killed Casagrand, 32, and also shot at her husband. Tullock fled the second shooting scene and confronted Ricky Fry, 33. Tullock shot Fry eight times outside of his home, leaving him for dead.
LyBarger and Fry, who had been hit by a combined total of 12 bullets, survived.
Tullock was sentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole earlier this year. He could have been sentenced to death.
Moriarty registered the nonprofit for Tullock, the shooter, on Oct. 2, 2006, four months to the day after the rampage. Records suggest that the IRS already was interacting with Moriarty at the time be started the nonprofit.
Two years later, in October 2008, Moriarty was instrumental in registering another nonprofit in Missouri. Along with members of the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum, Moriarty started an organization known as ASD Members International (ASDMI), which solicited money to do battle with the government in the civil-forfeiture case against ASD, a Florida company implicated in an alleged $100 million wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi scheme.
ASDMI promised to litigate against the government even if it was behaving legally. Payments were accepted from at least 176 ASD members, but no litigation was filed.
It will be interesting to see if in his tax case they bring up the fact that his business was not licensed with the State of Missouri. And this from a man who helped people file their taxes both personal and business. From his website he says, and I quote:
“Professor Patrick Moriarty Prepares Income Tax returns on a personal and business level. If you are an internet network marketer working from your home, we need to talk. I have been getting taxpayers a legal maximum refund for years and years. If you spent thousands of dollars in a program named AdSurfDaily,Inc., I can show you how to recoup a hunk of that unfortunate loss in a huge refund. Remember, Tax Evasion is illegal. Professor Moriarty practices Tax Avoidance.”
I am sure there are a lot of people not sleeping well and are very concerned because of his preparing their taxes. If not they should be.
When the movie is made about ASD and all its tentacles, spinoffs and assorted bixarre characters, I can’t imagine that it will be accepted as being true by those who haven’t been following the story.
Moriarty, purveyor of fake college degrees, self-proclaimed “professor” and tax expert, defender of a cop-killer and a vulture who sucked funds from ASD members with his ASDMI scam, and now alleged tax-evader, may end up being the weirdest character in the story.
And that is really an accomplishment when I think about the various felons, fraudsters and con artists, the aging marine bully and the obvious sociopaths in this drama!
PWD
Quick note:
Readers may wish to acquaint/reacquaint themselves with this story and comments thread from May:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/05/19/patrick-pretty-poof-penalty-plagues-portal-posters/
In May, there was an effort at Surf’s Up to delete posters’ references to our coverage of the Patrick Moriarty indictment from the forum or push it off the first page — and there was a scolding thread titled “Overrun With Rats, Bed Bugs, Maggots, Cockroaches And Everything Else.â€
Andy Bowdoin now suggests he was indicted under seal in May. By the end of the month, the AdViewGlobal autosurf suddenly was announcing it had become a full-service advertising company with all sorts of income streams/products/services.
This, of course, led to questions about what AVG was before the announcement and — as had happened at ASD — discussions about whether a company that was a Ponzi scheme could make the allegations go away simply by announcing it was something else.
Some ASD/AVG members apparently believe they can unring the bell of past criminal actions and achieve a state of retroactive compliance simply by issuing a news release.
Some of the debates here in May and beyond were heated — and also instructive. We raised the question here about whether AVG insiders knew in May about the purported indictment against Bowdoin:
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/09/24/did-adviewglobal-insiders-know-about-purported-bowdoin-indictment-in-may-and-engage-in-bizarre-summertime-cover-up-bid/
Patrick
Hi Pat,
Parts of the story do read like fiction, requiring readers to suspend their disbelief. At one time, somebody mentioned that parts of the story reminded them of the movie “Fargo.”
I’m thinking Gregg Evans said that, in the context of the problems Bob Guenther had with his car dealerships that led to the felony charges.
I enjoy “Fargo,” but have to be in the proper frame of mind to watch it. Sometimes I’m not willing to suspend my disbelief; other times I suspend it willingly, and those are the times that “Fargo” rises to the level of exceptional cinema.
When I’m not in the mood, the problem I have with the movie is that it can be painful to watch. I wonder why intelligent human beings would not take steps to contain a relatively modest crime before it turned into a crime that could not be contained and demanded the harshest response by the authorities.
When I’m in the mood, the movie is easy to watch — despite its bizarre storyline — because it is a study in human nature and how awful things can happen when people implicate themselves in a crime and permit events to spiral out of control.
Regards,
Patrick
Hi Lynn,
Entertained discussed tax issues last week, and Richard talked about an ongoing debate he had with Moriarty.
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/10/04/reflections-cruelty-and-strangeness-we-have-covered-in-more-than-twenty-years-on-the-police-beat/comment-page-1/#comment-7002
I noticed that ASD-Biz has a thread on tax relief for Ponzi victims to which Richard has contributed:
http://asd-biz.ning.com/forum/topics/tax-relief-for-ponzi-victims
Regards,
Patrick