Activist gets extra
prison timeNathan Brown gets 21 months
appended to his earlier sentence
in a federal tax case
A Hawaiian activist who was a fugitive for nearly 10 years in a tax protest conspiracy case was sentenced yesterday to one year and nine months in prison for failing to surrender to start serving another prison sentence in that case.
U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor said Nathan Keliikui Brown, 50, must serve the 21-month sentence on top of the 6 1/2-year sentence imposed in 1991 for his conviction in the tax case.
After sentencing in that case, Brown was allowed to remain free on bail pending an appeal. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Brown failed to appear to begin his sentence on Nov. 17, 1993, and remained at large until he was arrested in a shanty in the rural Mountain View area of the Big Island on March 7, 2003.
During his trial, Brown claimed to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaii who was immune from state and federal laws because the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy was illegal.
Brown was convicted of 18 federal felonies and was identified as the leader of a group of Hawaiian activists who filed false tax returns to harass public officials.
Brown said he was seeking redress from the government for lands taken from the Hawaiian people and thought what he was doing was legal.
Brown and others filed false documents with the Internal Revenue Service to support fraudulent tax returns that sought refunds of about $5 million, according to court documents.