A once familiar name was in the news again last week.
One-time leading tax protester, Royal Lamarr Hardy, was convicted back in 2005 of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. Hardy sold access to his “system” of techniques and beliefs based around the idea that paying taxes is “voluntary.”
In at least one earlier trial, Hardy had been acquitted of money laundering charges.
After the 2005 conviction, Hardy was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison.
Hardy reportedly had been released from prison and allegedly tried to scam a woman in a mortgage rescue scheme.
According to Hawaii News Now:
According to a recent report by the U.S. Probation Office, Hardy was living in a federal halfway house in 2016 and used the name “Royal Solomon” when he befriended a 78-year-old homeowner facing foreclosure.
The report said Hardy promised she could stay in her home until she died in return for $1,250 a month. But then Hardy and his friends moved to evict her.
“She had received an eviction notice from one of her tenants the day before, claiming that she no longer owned her house and she had to move out by Monday,” said deputy Prosecutor Scott Spallina.
“Our concern is that … this may not have been their only victim.”
Hardy has been sent back to prison for another 15 months for violating the terms of his release.
Jack Gonzales, who served as executive director of the State Campaign Spending Commission for nearly two decades, told me back in the early 1990s he had learned from Hardy that paying taxes is voluntary.
In 1994, Gonzales told the Honolulu Advertiser he had not filed tax returns since 1988. He said he had been “asking tax officials since 1988 to provide him with legal justifications for mandatory tax payments.”
At the time, Gonzales was already facing charges in Washington State for a so-called “prime bank fraud” that had targeted the Hawaii labor organization, Unity House. The government contended Gonzales and other defendants raised $10 million from Unity House which was supposed to be invested on the labor group’s behalf, but instead went to the personal use of the conspirators.
Gonzales was convicted and served 15 years in prison for his role in the scheme. He has been living in Las Vegas since his release.
Do old con-men fade away, or do they just launch new scams?
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I did a long interview with Hardy on KGMB some time in the 80s. He was very open about his “tax advice” system: He said people who failed to file and claimed it is “voluntary” could defend themselves by saying they had relied on the advice of a tax consultant — Hardy. That never worked and the people Hardy “consulted” also went to prison.
My question is why anyone one — especially Gonzales — would be stupid enough not to think that if taxes are indeed voluntary, why are most all people filing and paying them?