Is it Stephen Fason (header) or Stewart Fason (story)?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Nenah Sylver" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 6:31 AM Subject: Re: CS>Re: Dr. Jon & Stephen Fason > Copyright 2004 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc. > Palm Beach Post (Florida) > > January 24, 2004 Saturday FINAL EDITION > > SECTION: LOCAL, Pg. 1B > > LENGTH: 741 words > > HEADLINE: 'TAX CHEAT' SENTENCED TO PRISON > > BYLINE: By MARY McLACHLIN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer > > DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH > > BODY: > Former Palm Beach investment adviser, computer entrepreneur, concert promoter > and author Stewart Fason is afraid he's going to die in prison, and looks as > though he might. > > The millionaire health-pill huckster is only 70 but looks 90, the consequences > of a bad heart, dysfunctional arteries, multiple strokes and a bout with lung > cancer. White-haired and gray-faced, Fason listened dejectedly Friday as a > federal judge turned down his lawyer's plea to let him serve time for tax > evasion at home instead of behind bars. > > "This is a sick man - if he continues to be incarcerated, he may lose his life," > Miami attorney Allen Ross implored the court. > > "He is a tax cheat, pure and simple," U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley > said. "And he is someone who had the ability to pay his taxes . . . and he now > comes before the court saying 'I'm sick, I'm old, send me home.' > > "And the answer I have is, 'Absolutely not.' " > > Hurley sentenced Fason to 28 months in prison, followed by three years on > supervised release, plus a $6,000 fine and nearly $1 million in restitution for > taxes he admitted not paying in the 1980s. > > Fason already has served seven months of the sentence since his arrest last June > in South Carolina, where he was living under another name and helping his fourth > wife promote a cure-all cosmetic called Raiza Creme on the Internet. > > Hurley agreed to recommend Fason be sent to a low-security prison near his home > and said the Federal Bureau of Prisons is obligated to treat his medical > problems, including surgery for his heart and artery conditions. > > The sentencing began in December and stretched through two sessions this week as > government and defense lawyers argued over tax calculations and which parts of > Fason's intricate tax-avoidance enterprises should be counted against him. > > The Internal Revenue Service said Fason cooked up elaborate schemes to hide > money and avoid paying nearly $1.5 million in taxes in 1989 and 1990. They > included a phantom alter-ego, shell companies in the Bahamas and a deal in which > he supposedly paid $1.5 million for the rights to five "B" movies - Devil Man, > Mask of the Devil, The Gods of Evil, Big Race and Slow Death - to show on > television in countries such as China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Nepal. > > A movie industry analyst hired by the IRS said he could find no reference to > such movies, and if they did exist, they would have "a total value of zero" in > such countries. > > In the 1980s, Fason got caught in a hoax concert promotion in which he > purportedly found a young violinist by offering a $1,000 reward after hearing > her playing on the street in New York City. He admitted later he knew the young > woman and arranged the stunt. > > In the early 1990s, he made money by getting people in Palm Beach County to pay > $10 a month to take part in a study of "miracle" vitamins that he claimed would > cure serious illness. > > Fason once was an account executive with leading brokerage firms, lived in an > 18-room Palm Beach mansion and owned luxury homes in Tequesta and Lake Worth. He > played tennis, formed a society dedicated to the music of Chopin, lectured on > how to make money and wrote a popular book titled License to Steal. > > His own words came back to haunt him in the courtroom when an IRS investigator > read a passage that urged readers not to bother with secret Swiss accounts when > "30 minutes by jet from Miami" are banks in the Bahamas that "don't care if you > give your right name." The investigator then named a bank where prosecutors > found an account Fason used for years under an alias. > > Fason's lawyer tried to convince the judge that the alias, the mysterious "Mr. > Charles Sea," really did exist. He was a stocky, dark-haired, one-armed fellow, > an elderly man with a Chinese accent, or a Jewish Holocaust victim who didn't > understand Yiddish, according to various reports by people who spoke with him by > telephone. > > Hurley didn't buy it. > > He noted the "fascinating coincidences" in which brokerage accounts, "Charles > Sea" and the movie companies purportedly doing business with Fason intermingled > the same Bahamian and Palm Beach County addresses, including those of Fason's > then wife and mother-in-law. > > "I am well satisfied that Mr. Fason and Charles Sea are the same person and that > the whole movie deal was a sham," Hurley said. "It was cooked up by Mr. Fason, > and he is on all sides of these transactions." > > [email protected] > > NOTES: > Ran all editions. > > GRAPHIC: PHOTO (B&W); RICHARD GRAULICH/Staff Photographer Stewart Fason, shown > in a 1993 photo with the 'miracle' vitamins he peddled in Palm Beach County as a > cure for serious illness. > > LOAD-DATE: January 25, 2004 > > > > -- > The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. > > Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org > > To post, address your message to: [email protected] > Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html > > Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] > OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html > > List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]> >
