| For Immediate Release July 24, 2006 |
Contact: | Susan Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel (714) 347-8408 Office (714) 323-4486 Cell |
HIGH-TECH EXECUTIVE, NATIONAL TAX PROTESTOR PLEADS GUILTY TO THREE COUNTS OF STATE TAX EVASION
SANTA ANA – The owner of multi-million dollar, electronics companies in Orange County plead guilty to three counts of filing false tax returns from 1997 through 1999 and admitted that the amount was over $50,000. Judge Francisco Briseño sentenced George “Nick” Jesson Jr., 54, of Huntington Beach, to three years in state prison.
Trina Jesson, 42, is charged with four felony counts of filing false tax returns and faces seven years in state prison if convicted of all charges. She will be back in court on August 11, 2006, in C-45, Central Justice Center, in Santa Ana.
Nick Jesson, was the owner of three Orange County electronics companies –CD Electronics, Capacitor Specialists International, and No Time Delay Electronics, Inc. located in Huntington Beach. Nick Jesson failed to report nearly $3 million in income for 1997, 1998 and 1999 on their state income tax returns. Nick Jesson owed the state more than $500,000 in delinquent income taxes, penalties, and cost of investigation. Nick Jesson falsely filed joint tax returns reporting zero income and zero tax due, a tactic commonly used by tax ‘protesters’. Trina Jesson is accused of the same acts.
“Everyone must pay their fair share of taxes or we are forced to increase the burden on the citizens who do follow the law,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Bill Overtoom of the Economic Fraud Unit who prosecuted the case. “This case proves no one including Mr. Jesson, is above the law.”
Nick Jesson has participated in paid advertisements with “We the People for Constitutional Education,” a tax ‘protester’ organization that contends that paying taxes is not required in the United States. This group believes that taxes are unconstitutional, currency is not money since the United States abandoned the gold standard, wages are not income, etc. This group has purchased full-page advertisements in nationwide newspapers like USA Today to encourage others to stop paying taxes.
###