Colorado Springs tax protestors sentenced to prison

The Department of Justice says three tax protestors from Colorado Springs have been sentenced to prison for conspiracy to defraud the IRS.

George Brokaw, 68, and John Pawelski, 66, were sentenced to 78 months in prison followed by 3 years supervised release. They were also ordered to pay a $15,000 fine.

Mimi Vigil, 63, was sentenced to 72 months in prison followed by 3 years supervised release. She was also ordered to serve 200 hours of community service.

The three were convicted of numerous tax fraud counts stemming from a scheme in which they tried to defraud the government out of more than $100 billion. They claimed documents they created seeking credit for more than $100 billion in tax payments were part of a political statement and not a real attempt to steal from the government. But prosecutors depicted them as tax fraud schemers who used several fraudulent devices to scam the government.

Pawelski, who represented himself like his co-defendants, argued no crime was committed because none of them received any money.