A Texas man who filed more than 20 challenges to former President Trump's voting eligibility was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of filing 17 sets of false tax documents with the IRS.
John Anthony Castro was indicted last week on 33 counts of aiding and abetting the preparation of false tax returns. Prosecutors allege he defrauded the government by running a de facto tax preparation business and providing clients with tax returns that exceeded the amount of tax they actually owed.
“Mr. Castro repeatedly promised taxpayers significantly higher refunds than they could receive from other preparers and then split the additional refunds 50-50 with taxpayers,” prosecutors said in court documents. I suggested it.” “In order to achieve these large refunds, Castro created false deductions that had no basis in fact and were filed without the taxpayer's knowledge.”
Mr. Castro was arrested by undercover police officers posing as a tax service customer, prosecutors said. A well-respected tax preparer promised the undercover agent a $373 tax return, but Castro claimed he could get $6,007 in return and offered to split the difference with additional cash.
Prosecutors said the tax returns filed by Mr. Castro on behalf of the undercover agent included nearly $30,000 in fraudulently claimed deductions.
Mr. Castro is also the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, but the long-term candidate has received little attention outside of legal challenges to Mr. Trump's voting eligibility. Castro has challenged Trump's ballot placement in 27 states, arguing that Trump's involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot violated the 14th Amendment.
He was indicted on the same day that a ballot challenge in New Hampshire was rejected. His efforts were also rejected in Florida and, most recently, in Nevada on Tuesday. Several lawsuits are pending, but none have attracted much attention.
But other challenges to Trump's eligibility have been made using similar arguments, with Colorado and Maine both attempting to remove Trump from their states' ballots, and a Supreme Court lawsuit. is on hold. The high court announced last week that it would hear the merits of the Colorado case.
Castro told The Hill he denies any wrongdoing and believes the incident was politically motivated, saying there is “no doubt about that.”
He said his office settled a tax filing matter with the IRS in 2021, alleging that certain clients had misunderstood tax laws. Castro said his company paid back about $700,000 in 2021 to resolve the discrepancy.
“I wouldn't care if they offered me a day of probation and a slap on the wrist in exchange for a guilty plea,” he said. “This is going to be a trial. I'm going to convince all 12 jurors that I'm 100 percent innocent and that this is political retaliation.”
Mr. Castro argued that the timing of the indictment ties into his challenge to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The alleged fraudulent returns were filed between 2018 and 2020.
The provision of his release, which would keep him in the Northern District of Texas without prior permission, also jeopardizes his ability to appear in upcoming 14th Amendment challenges in West Virginia, Kansas and Montana. He also said that there is a possibility.
Mr. Castro is scheduled to return to court on January 17.
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