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Seven members of the Christian Patriot Association (CPA), a white supremacist, antigovernment organization located in Boring, Ore., have been indicted for allegedly helping 900 people hide $186 million in taxable income from the Internal Revenue Service over the last 14 years.
Richard and Dorothy Flowers were arrested and charged with running an unlicensed and uninsured "warehouse bank." Their customers, who were charged up to 2% per transaction but were paid no interest, sent deposits to anonymous, numbered accounts, according to the IRS.
Then CPA would allegedly pool the money, deposit it in legitimate commercial bank accounts and pay customers' bills out of those accounts in an attempt to shield the transactions from the government.
Those indicted were the leaders of the association, according to the IRS. All seven are now awaiting an April trial. Meanwhile, some of the 900 customers who paid for CPA'S help remain under investigation.
When warehouse banks first appeared in the 1970s, they were associated with the violent and anti-Semitic tax protest group called the Posse Comitatus.
In that same tradition, CPA members believed they and other Christian whites could exempt themselves from federal law by declaring their "sovereignty."
CPA'S interpretation of the Bible says that whites are God's chosen people and are superior to other races.
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