Financial Guru Charged With Tax Fraud Thursday December 1, 11:13 pm ET Asset Protection Guru Wade Cook, Wife Charged With Tax Fraud in Federal Court Near Seattle SEATTLE (AP) -- A financial guru whose own business went bust was charged along with his wife Thursday with eight counts of tax fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Federal prosecutors accuse Wade B. Cook, 56, and his wife Laura of concealing nearly $8.9 million in seminar fees and book royalties from 1998 to 2000. Wade Cook conducted hundreds of the seminars on asset protection, stock investing, real estate acquisition and avoidance of income tax, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement. His books include "Wall Street Money Machine," "Wealth 101" and "Business by the Bible." In tax returns filed for 1998, 1999 and 2000, the couple reported adjusted gross incomes of about $350,000 annually while concealing the additional millions, prosecutors contend. According to court papers, the Cooks created a phony tax-exempt entity that purportedly was to benefit the Mormon Church but did not. In fact, documents said, the Cooks were concealing royalty income they spent on such things as show horses, his-and-hers Cadillacs and a $20,000 baby grand piano for an associate. They also used the money to make "imprudent business loans to prop up struggling business ventures into which Wade B. Cook had already poured large sums of money," the documents said. A call for comment to Cook's lawyer was not immediately returned late Thursday. The Cooks' telephone number in Fall City, about 25 miles east of Seattle, is not listed. Cook, a former cab driver, shut down his operations in February 2003, a month after his company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Creditors alleged the company made dubious loans to executives and failed to pay for employees' health-insurance coverage.
Freaking amazing, the guy made 9 million doing those seminars and selling books. So much money to be made being a guru. All this will do is show all the crooks out there how much you can really make being a guru and we'll know have more of them!
This happens every so often. Many never get taken down. The ambititious "big time scammers" who sell books, and put on convention meetings. The small timers who sell chatroom services, shill pirated systems, and useless advisories. We've all seen them here on ET. Some of them post regularly, trying to blend in with "the sheep". Human nature is never going to change. There are folks who are willing to work hard and play by the rules, and others who can't or won't and are willing to walk over everyone else to get what they want. Personally, I think it is gratifying to see one or two get caught. Steve
thats the lesson to be learned wether it being wise trade or any other stock guru selling something. nothing works but what you formulate and are comfortable with
The Feds so kindly "urged" me to redo my tax returns for 2001 and 2002, my second and third years trading. I was happy to redo them and zero out my supposed debt to them. I was happily surprised when a refund check for $4k came in the mail the other day, courtesy of the US Treasury. It was from reduction in interest and penalties they first assessed me on my original balance and returns. I have now become a committed tax payer, paying the appropriate amount, no more and no less. I was lucky that I handn't yet earned a ton of money and didn't really have a large mess to reconstruct and fix. If one truly wants wealth and uses trading as one vehicle for that end, it doesn't do anyone any good to achieve all of that but be brought down by self-imposed roadblocks that are completely avoidable. I also believe that most gurus become gurus not for the money but for the attention and in Wade Cook's case, the infamy.
they drive his and her cadillacs?! that should tell you something right there! LOL ! what loooooosers..... surfer