Sutter Says:
Sutter often pretends that he is able to obtain inside
information from the Justice Department and the IRS. Two examples:
"Reinsford is an indicted on charges of conspiracy, forgery, cyberstalking, money laundering, wire fraud, theft of a social security number, and using interstate communications to make personal threats."
(10-2-08 post on Sutter's "Chasing Evil" website).
"The IRS is now looking into MASh's tax returns and tax status to see where their donations are going and if they have been fully declared. The IRS has advised that MASh has no EIN, and therefore no permission to conduct any business within the USA. Now you'll incur the "wrath of the IRS", and for that, I almost pity you."
(Blog comment left on "Gates of Vienna vs. The World" at 3-13-09 1:06 pm)
The Truth:
Jim Sutter has been convicted of at least two
felonies (including
lying to the FBI) and been a party to over 20 civil suits, so it is highly unlikely that
the FBI would trust him with inside information on anything. In this
case, it would almost certainly be illegal for them to do so, given that his
salacious claims always involve private citizens. Even a gullible person
might wonder why law enforcement was continuing to trust him with "secret data"
if he is simply turning around and publishing it.
Suspiciously, each time Sutter claims to have inside information, it is something unflattering about an individual that he is personally at odds with. Not only that, but he conspicuously neglects to provide references, links or images of the official charges and/or court proceedings (even when challenged). Neither do his "inside knowledge" of indictments ever result in an actual court case or public record.
In the first quote above, Sutter is pretending that an adversary of his named "Glen Reinsford" is indicted on a battery of federal crimes. In the same post, however, he links to one of his own articles in which he claims that this is an alias and he does not know this person's real name. (It actually doesn't matter what the "real name" is, since there is no evidence that anyone in America is under indictment for the specific list of crimes that he invents).
In the next quote, Sutter claims that the IRS has given him confidential information about a U.S. business with which he is also personally at odds. According to Sutter, the IRS has informed him that the business has no EIN number and that they are also the subject of an official investigation.
However, it is not possible for Sutter to even request, much less obtain, information about the EIN for a business unless he illegally impersonated an authorized party, which is defined only as someone who is formally associated with the business itself (see the IRS). An EIN is as private as a social security number. Neither would the IRS inform Sutter of an investigation if the same information was not publicly available to everyone, otherwise the agency would be in violation of the law.
When repeatedly challenged, Sutter was unable to support either one of his stories.
Jim Sutter's true dealings with the IRS are detailed in a series of tax liens filed at the Cuyahoga County Court house in the 1990's. In 1989, he attempted to cheat the federal government out of $3,980.31. The next year it was $1,457.99, and the year after that it was $696.99. A tax lien of $6,135.29 was placed on him (Cleveland Common Pleas Court #2003200305289086) by the IRS. On 2/17/98, the State of Ohio levied a separate lien against him of $946.05 (JL-98-082750).
(Keep in mind that Jim Sutter was pretending to be a Christian minister during this time, as well).