Deadbeat “ministry” run by Bradley Dean Smith given the boot under court order for nonpayment of rent.
By Karl Bremer
Bradley Dean Smith, aka “Bradlee Dean,” and his Annandale-based anti-gay hate “ministry” found out that you can run, but you cannot hide—from the landlord. In 2007, Smith’s Old Paths Church Ministries, dba You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, was evicted under court order from its offices in the Bass Lake Business Centre II in Plymouth for nonpayment of rent.
The eviction was the result of a complaint filed against Old Paths Church Ministries in Hennepin County Housing Court on June 7, 2007, by its landlord, Bass Lake Realty LLC of Minneapolis.
According to Hennepin County Housing Court records, an eviction hearing was held June 21, 2007. A judgment against Old Paths Church Ministries and a “writ of recovery of premises” was issued the same day. It appears that Smith had flown the coop by then, because court records state that the writ of recovery was returned six days later and had to be re-sent to a forwarding address. Although Old Paths Church Ministries was never served, court records state the writ of recovery of premises was satisfied on July 5, 2007.
At the same time Old Paths Church Ministries was welshing on its rent due Bass Lake Realty, it was operating as a self-described “sham” ministerial trust and owned a house and property in rural Annandale valued at $361,600. The house was—and still is—occupied by Smith, who was paid a $45,887 housing allowance by You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International in 2009. Smith still lives there, but the property was transferred into his name in 2009 after he and his sidekick Jake MacAulay took legal action to escape from their sham trust.
No 2007 tax records are available for either Old Paths Church Ministries or You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, so it’s not known what either entity’s income was that year.
Also unknown is the amount of rent that deadbeat tenants Old Paths Church Ministries failed to pay. Neither Smith nor Bass Lake Realty LLC returned phone calls regarding this story.
This is the latest in an ongoing Ripple in Stillwater investigative series on Bradley Dean Smith and his Annandale “ministries.” For more, read:
Annandale “ministry” treasurer also files complaint with cops about Ripple in Stillwater—and drags Michele Bachmann’s name into it.
By Karl Bremer
“My life’s an open book,” Bradley Dean Smith, aka "Bradlee Dean," bellowed on his anti-gay, hate-talk radio show January 15. But when it comes to having a peek at the mysterious finances and real estate deals of Smith’s Annandale “ministry,” You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCR), Smith will go to extraordinary means to slam that open book shut.
Since Ripple in Stillwater began its investigation of Smith’s YCR nonprofit, along with its sister nonprofit Old Paths Ministry Inc., Dean has had YCR’s treasurer register a complaint with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office regarding my articles, and had one of his lawyers send a three-page letter to the parent company of Minnesota Independent complaining about coverage of his organizations by “some reporters.” The letter is on the YCR website.
H. Douglas Duncan, a Lodi, CA-based lawyer who prepared YCR’s 2009 federal tax returns, claims in his missive to the American Independent News Network that reporters “have engaged in baseless innuendo and supposition” in writing about YCR. “Further, they have drawn unfounded conclusions which imply that investigations and criminal proceedings were both pending and warranted. Neither is the case.”
In a series of articles, Ripple in Stillwater examined the sham ministry trusts under which Smith had his two organizations organized by Glen Stoll of Edmonds, WA, in 2005, as well as the curious Wright County real estate transfers between Smith, Old Paths Church, Old Paths Church Ministries, and Smith’s connections to the Oregon based anti-tax religious cult, Embassy of Heaven.
Bradley Dean Smith declined to comment for those articles.
Duncan defended the use of trusts as “a valid tool utilized by individuals, for profit and not-for-profit organizations,” he wrote. With regard to the sham trusts set up for Smith by Stoll, he claimed that “although the trust structure was legally valid, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International independently determined that the trusts were not in the best interest of the organization, nor were they in the best interest of the organization’s nonprofit purpose.
“In addition,” Duncan continued, “You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International independently determined that the information, initially provided by the promoter of the trusts, was false and that the establishment of the trusts were a result (of) fraud and misrepresentation by the promoters. You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, at its own expense, filed a petition with the Tenth Judicial District Court to expose the fraud perpetrated by Glenn Stole (sic) and others.”
What Duncan fails to address is why it took Smith and YCR Secretary Jacob MacAulay more than three years to take legal action to get out of Stoll’s sham ministry trusts. Stoll had been under a permanent federal injunction prohibiting him from promoting or selling his trusts since June 2005—the same time as when he and Smith were doing business.
Stoll ignored the injunction order. The Justice Department sought to have him jailed for contempt in June 2006. Stoll remains in contempt of the 2005 injunction order with at least $50,000 in fines hanging over his head.
Oddly enough, Duncan comments in a footnote to his letter that “You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International should be applauded for exposing this type of fraud and misrepresentation. Many other nonprofit organizations, previously defrauded by this scheme, now have a pattern and a court ruling upon which they can rely to assist them in reclaiming full control of the assets of their organization.” He goes on to liken Smith and MacAulay to unfortunate victims of a Ponzi scheme of which they had no knowledge.
Duncan is also careful to note that “You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International is current on all tax reports, returns and liabilities. The tax filings by individual employees of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International are current and there are no tax liabilities associated with those returns.”
In his letter, Duncan also defended the salaries of YCR board members and employees, noting that they are “determined by an independent compensation committee in full compliance with” tax laws.
According to YCR’s 2009 IRS Form 990, prepared by Duncan, YCR President Smith was paid $51,303 in compensation and $45,887 in housing allowance last year for a total of $97,190. YCR's Secretary Jacob MacAulay was paid $42,028 in compensation and $24,869 in housing allowance for a total of $66,897 in 2009. Four other “ordained ministers” with the group received a total of $41,555 in housing allowances.
In an obvious attempt to discourage further reporting on his clients, Duncan concludes: “From this point forward any reports stating information contrary to the facts stated above are baseless, inaccurate and will have been published with the full knowledge that the reports are false.” He then signs off “In support of a free (accurate and unbiased) press.”
SMITH RESORTS TO SHERIFF’S COMPLAINT Smith took his book-closing one step further when he had YCR’s treasurer, Heather MacAulay of Annandale—Jacob MacAulay’s wife—register a complaint with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office about information she claimed had appeared on Ripple in Stillwater.
The sheriff’s report said MacAulay was “concerned” that information such as “where they live, what they earn, along with other information,” had appeared on Ripple in Stillwater.
Inexplicably, the report further stated that “Heather said the same information is blogged about Michele Bachmann. Heather said she is uncomfortable with this and that it is uncalled for.”
However, as treasurer for YCR, MacAulay should well know that salary information and addresses of a nonprofit’s property and offices are all a matter of public record. They can be found in public property tax records, IRS Form 990s, the Attorney General’s Office and the Secretary of State’s office. In fact, the MacAulay's home address is listed as the registered corporate office for You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc. in its Articles of Incorporation on file with the Secretary of State's office.
For the record, nothing has appeared on Ripple in Stillwater that can’t be found in public records—and most of it is online.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office sounded unimpressed with MacAulay’s complaint. Bradley Dean Smith was given the opportunity to respond to a whole series of questions about his “ministry” and relationships with anti-tax organizations such as Glen Stoll’s and the Oregon-based Embassy of Heaven. He chose not to.
I'm happy that Smith has finally responded—sort of—through his attorney, to some of my questions. But he really should disabuse himself of the notion that sending his underlings to whine to the cops about public information being disseminated about his controversial little “ministry” is going to stop anyone from looking further into his affairs.
That’s really not “in support of a free press,” as his lawyer
would say. Or much of an “open book,” as Bradley Dean Smith would say.
Bradley Dean Smith was a member of the Embassy of Heaven until September 2010; Scott Roeder picked up much of his anti-government hatred from the Oregon extremists a decade before he gunned down Dr. George Tiller in 2009.
By Karl Bremer
What does Bradley Dean Smith, president of Annandale-based anti-gay hate ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCR), have in common with Scott Roeder, murderer of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller?
Both were affiliated with the Embassy of Heaven, a virulently anti-government religious cult in Oregon.
“A religious/antigovernment group in Oregon headed by “Paul Revere,” the alias of a former computer analyst named Craig Douglas Fleshman. Fleshman started the Embassy of Heaven Church in 1987; it preaches a total separation from “earthly” government. Embassy members continue to make and sell the bogus license plates and other paraphernalia-18. Committed Embassy of Heaven adherents rarely ever show up for court dates and frequently go on hunger strikes when jailed.”
“Revere” himself has had a number of run-ins with the law over the years. In 1997, he and his family were evicted from their wooded property in Marion County, Oregon, for nonpayment of $16,000 in back taxes and jailed.
SMITH JOINED GROUP IN 2003
Smith, aka “Bradlee Dean” to his followers, was “baptized” into the extremist organization in 2002, according to his identification card verification posted on the group’s website. His ID card was issued on September 30, 2003, and expired September 30, 2010.
The Embassy of Heaven website states: “On file is a signed statement by Bradley Smith renouncing allegiance to the world and declaring citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. “We are fellow citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Government of God, which was handed to the Apostles by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper (Luke 22:29), We fulfill the Great Commission by traveling from place to place using old and modern conveyances. Our government is not of this world, and we expect to be held accountable to the laws from which we come. Our conduct is not an offense if it not an offense in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
When Smith and YCR hired Glen Stoller in 2005 to set up what they later described in court documents as “sham ministries” for YCR and its sister organization Old Paths Church, Stoller promised that part of the package would be identification cards and other materials from the Embassy of Heaven. But clearly, Smith already was involved with the group at least two years prior to that.
THE ROEDER CONNECTION
Roeder, who was sentenced to life in prison for gunning down Tiller in a Wichita, KS, church during a Sunday service in 2009, also shared allegiance to the Embassy of Heaven with Smith.
A federal investigation was launched after Tiller’s murder to determine whether Roeder acted alone or in concert with any organization.
Documents from his 1996 divorce case indicate he was affiliated with the Embassy of Heaven Church in Stayton, Ore., during much of the 1990s. The group's leader, who goes by the name Paul Revere, wrote letters to Johnson County court officials in 1999 offering to pay Roeder's back child support.
"We have faithfully informed the District Court Trustee that Scott P. Roeder is on assignment for us in the mission field and that we are handling his affairs," Revere wrote Aug. 10, 1999.
Revere said that Roeder wanted his wife and child to “return to his side,” saying that would be biblical.
Revere told the Kansas City Star on Thursday that the Embassy of Heaven was “a country.”
“We represent the Kingdom of Heaven, God's government on Earth,” he said. The group issues its own driver’s licenses, identity cards and passports for members. Over the years, followers have found themselves in legal trouble for rejecting government authority. Revere said he didn't know Roeder had been charged in Tiller’s death. After checking Roeder’s file, Revere said Roeder during the 1990s had been training with and receiving materials from the Embassy of Heaven but never “made his statement of citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Revere said he never met Roeder and that after he sent the letters to the court on Roeder's behalf, he never heard from him again.
Revere said his group did not condone Tiller's killing. “Killing anybody is a violation of our law,” he said.
Roeder's ex-wife, Lindsey Roeder, said in an interview last week that she told the FBI about the Embassy of Heaven.
“I used to hide their literature from Scott,” she said. “He wanted to send the title of our car to them.”
Like Roeder, Smith is also rabidly anti-abortion, although there is no indication that Smith has ever advocated violence against abortion providers.
Smith has declined to comment on his "citizenship" with the Embassy of Heaven.
EMBASSY OF HEAVEN HONOR ROLL Other fringe elements affiliated with the Embassy of Heaven include:
John Joe Gray got into trouble with the law last spring, when a car he was riding in was stopped for speeding. According to the state trooper who pulled him over, Gray was carrying a pistol — illegally .
“He said, ‘You got a permit?’” Gray recalls. “I said, ‘No, sir, it’s my God given right to carry.’”
The two men ended up in a scuffle, with Gray biting the officer. Later indicted, Gray refused to appear in court, saying that he acted in self-defense and that the entire judicial system is corrupt and conspiring against him. In protest, he now refuses to obey the law, including paying taxes, and has lived inside an armed camp for the past six months. His compound — which has no electricity or running water — is about an hour’s drive from Waco, the scene of the deadly Branch Davidian stand-off in 1993.
Inside the compound, the vehicles have license plates “issued” by a church called the Kingdom of Heaven. The American flag hangs upside-down. A sign that reads “Kids Inside” stands above a bunker, and sandbags, presumably to be used for cover in case of an attack, rest on the dirt ground. Two years worth of food is stockpiled. And throughout the compound, all the adults carry weapons.
If authorities try to take the children by force, Gray says he will defend himself — and his right to live as a free man — to the end. “I’m willing to die for it, because how else could you live,” Gray says. “They can take my land, you know, OK. They can take my life. But they can’t take my freedom.”
Richard Allen Shiarla, who, according to the Orlando Sentinal, “found God, rid himself of most of his earthly possessions and established Embassy of Heaven Church” in Longwood, FL. As pastor of his church, the Sentinal reports, Shiarla now goes by his “Christian name” of Richard Allen.
According to the Sentinal:
Allen, 38, is trying to have the house at 112 Pineapple Court in Longwood declared tax-exempt because it is part of Embassy of Heaven Church. The house serves as the pastor's home and the church's spiritual counseling center. Baptisms are performed in the backyard swimming pool. The Internal Revenue Service and the state of Florida recognize Embassy of Heaven as a legitimate church, he said.
The church's claim for tax exemption may seem reasonable. The property was deeded to the church, and most churches pay no property taxes. But Allen's approach has created a stir at the Seminole County Property Appraiser's Office.
Allen and his flock, which numbers between 50 and 100, say the church is a sovereign nation and the church building is a foreign embassy. He said he established the embassy under the rules of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a document signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1972.
That document requires all signatories to recognize missions established on their soil, and it makes all such missions parties to the convention.
Some members of the church have given back their drivers licenses, abandoned their Social Security numbers and carry red ''passports'' identifying them as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Some of their cars have tags issued by the church.
Allen acknowledges those actions are similar to high-profile, anti-government groups, but he said he has no quarrel with the government. Allen and his followers simply answer to a higher authority, he said.
Patrick Henry Talbert was a key associate of Gerald Payne, who along with Talbert was convicted in 2001 for running a $500 million Ponzi scheme. Talbert is serving a 19-year prison sentence on multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering for his role in the Payne Ponzi scheme.
Talbert was a self-declared “sovereign citizen” and “Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven” who proclaimed that ordinary laws and courts had no jurisdiction over him. He advanced that argument in court when charged in 1997 with multiple counts of racketeering, fraud and other crimes related to a separate pyramid scheme. At one point, Embassy of Heaven leader Richard Allen Shiarla intervened on Talbert’s behalf.
The Kingdom of Heaven held its own “ecclesiastical court” and found Talbert guilt of “coveting thy neighbor’s property.” The Kingdom of Heaven offered victims of Talbert—a dozen elderly investors—restitution if they didn’t pursue state charges against Talbert.
Talbert’s novel defense ultimately got him a 10-year prison sentence for his crimes.
Michael Didier is a deadbeat dad in Washington who tried to avoid paying child support for his three children after his wife petitioned for separation and child support in 2004. Michael said the state lacked jurisdiction because he was a “member of the Kingdom of Heaven and served only Jesus Christ.” Michael also claimed he could not pay child support because “as a church “missionary,” he did not have an income and had taken a “vow of poverty” that precluded him from accepting paid employment.”
However, Didier’s wife told the court that he made thousands of dollars advising people on setting up churches and trusts to avoid paying taxes. According to court records, the address Didier gave the court is the same address as Glen Stoll’s Remedies at Law, which organized Bradley Dean Smith’s sham ministerial trusts.
The court didn’t buy it, calling Didier’s reasoning “circular.” Michael Didier was ruled in contempt of court and ordered to pay $4,900 in child support.
IS SMITH STILL A 'CITIZEN'? Although the Embassy of Heaven advocates checking out of government altogether, and many of its adherents have been convicted of tax evasion and other crimes, there is no evidence at this time of any illegal tax activity on the part of Bradley Dean Smith, YCR or Old Paths Church.
Based on an examination of Wright County tax records for property owned by Smith, Old Paths Church and the Family Defense League - the sham trust they established with Glen Stoll - it appears that taxes on those properties have always been paid on time and in full. Vehicles seen at YCR’s Annandale headquarters also appear to be properly licensed, rather than bearing license plates from the Kingdom of Heaven.
Bradley Dean Smith severed his ties with Glen Stoll and his illegal tax scams in 2009. It’s not known whether Smith did the same with the Embassy of Heaven when his "citizenship" in the Kingdom of Heaven expired last September.
Top right photo: Bradley Dean Smith, from Embassy of Heaven website. Top left photo: Scott Roeder, murderer of Wichita, KS, doctor George Tiller. Center image: Embassy of Heaven ID card verification for Bradley Smith.
But Bradley Dean Smith's sidekick at You Can Run But You Cannot Hide is silent on what his own 'ministry' does for the poor--or anyone else. Can we expect to see an Annandale Free Clinic soon?
By Karl Bremer
In his first major act as Minnesota governor, Mark Dayton reversed his predecessor, Tim Pawlenty, by expanding the federal Medicaid program in the state to up to 95,000 more people currently not eligible for Medicaid or not covered by any insurance at all. But after doing so, he took the unprecedented step of turning over his podium—and microphone—to a few of the noisy teabagger protesters present who were clamoring for an end to “Obamacare.”
What was astonishing was that although MacAulay never identified himself as a 'minister' or affiliated with any church, he blasted churches for not stepping up to the plate and providing health care for those who cannot afford it, rather than letting government provide it through some "unconstitutional" means such as “Obamacare” or Medicare or Medicaid:
Addressing the issue of Minnesotans without health care, MacAulay asks: “Where is the church to help these people? Because that is the church’s job and duty—it’s social causes. Find in the Constitution where it’s the government’s job to do that. It’s for nonprofit organizations. It’s for the church to do what it rightfully should do.
“I don’t blame somebody for feeling that when the church doesn’t do its job, we’ve got to do something,” he continued. “I agree we need to do something, there’s no doubt about it. But when we step outside of our bounds where our Constitutional authority lies, and we start to take that authority on ourselves, because we can create an executive order, it has a ripple effect of destroying societies.
“What we need is not a strong centralized government. What we need is strong self-government of the people who will look out for each other, just like this poor woman who died,” MacAulay concluded, referring to an earlier speaker’s story of inadequate health care. “The church should have been looking after her.”
MacAulay raises some interesting points—especially considering he’s supposedly a paid ordained minister in a church himself. So as long as he’s asking, where is MacAulay’s “church” in all this?
I’ve spent a lot of time in the past few weeks looking into MacAulay’s mysterious “church” and have found virtually nothing about what it does or who it serves—other than the tens of thousands of dollars in grants it has received from its sister “ministry” YCR, and the $360,000 Annandale property it once owned that’s the home of Bradley Dean Smith, aka Bradlee Dean.
MacAulay is listed as the “agent” and “incorporator” of Old Paths Church, Inc. and YCR in filings with the State of Minnesota. The mission of Old Paths Church, its Articles of Incorporation state, “is to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to develop Christian leadership, to perform charitable work and to otherwise function as a church.” Nothing about providing medical help for the poor, as he so eloquently demanded of his fellow church brethren.
There are no expenses reported for indigent medical services—or any other kind of medical services—in the tax filings, state filings or an independent audit of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International. Nor are there any other expenses listed that could conceivably be related to medical services. No tax records are available for Old Paths Church, which shares the same Annandale address as YCR.
An exhaustive internet search turns up no evidence of any “charitable work”—medical or otherwise—on the part of MacAulay’s Old Paths Church either. In fact, it's almost as if the church doesn't exist at all, other than on paper.
No one at YCR/Old Paths Church responded to inquiries about either organization.
The next time “Pastor” MacAulay decides to take the podium and preach about what churches should be doing for the poor, perhaps he should stick around to enlighten his congregation as to what his own Old Paths Church is doing in that capacity. Or what it’s doing in any capacity, other than trying to shelter its income from the government.
That’s something he may have to answer sooner rather than later anyway.
Notorious Washington tax cheat Glen Stoll worked with You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International to set up 'ministerial trusts.'
By Karl Bremer
Did Annandale-based anti-gay hatemonger Bradley Dean Smith cut loose his You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCR) “ministry” from tax violator Glen Stoll in 2008 because the federal government sent one of Stoll’s other whacky ministerial trust customers to prison on federal tax violations the year before?
Kent Hovind, along with his wife, Jo Hovind, ran Creation Science Evangelism in Pensacola, FL. Among the group’s endeavors was Dinosaur Adventure Land, a sort of cheesy theme park for creationists. Working with Stoll’s Edmonds, Wa-based Remedies at Law beginning in 2002, the Hovinds concocted the Creation Science Evangelism Ministry under the auspices of a corporation sole, “Director of Ecclesiastical Enterprises,” as trustee in 2003. Stoll issued the ministry a business license from the “Kingdom of Heaven” — the same “Kingdom of Heaven” in which Bradley Smith claimed citizenship.
The Hovinds’ enterprise as described in a 2009 property forfeiture proceeding filed in U.S. District Court in Pensacola sounds virtually identical to Bradley Smith’s “ministerial trusts” for YCR. Except that Kent and Jo Hovind got caught using their ministry to evade taxes, and Kent is still serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison. Kent Hovind, known as “Dr. Dino,” was convicted by a jury in 2006 on 58 charges including failing to pay payroll taxes for his employees, structuring financial transactions to avoid reporting requirements, and “corruptly endeavor[ing] to obstruct and impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws.” Jo Hovind was convicted on 44 counts.
Among the properties ordered forfeited to pay off the Hovinds’ more than $600,000 judgment was Dinosaur Adventure Land. Stoll tried to get his hands on some of the Hovinds’ property before it was forfeited, claiming to be a trustee, but was rebuffed by a federal judge.
Kent Hovind is currently jailed at Jesup Federal Correction Institution in south Georgia. He recently appealed to have his sentence vacated. Jo Hovind was sentenced to a year in prison and was released in 2009.
At about the same time the Hovinds’ tax-evasion convictions and property forfeitures were making news in 2008, Bradley Smith, known to his follows as "Bradlee Dean," and his “co-minister” Jacob MacAulay began to take legal action to sever their ties with Stoll. Coincidence?
You Can Run But You Cannot Hide was originally established in 1999. It filed federal IRS Form 990s in 2001 and 2002. Smith established his YCR and Old Paths Church trusts with Stoll in 2005, but no federal Form 990s can be found for YCR at either the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office or Guidestar.org until 2008, when it was reincorporated as You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc.
“2008 is this ministry’s first year of existence,” YCR’s 2008 Form 990 states. Technically, that may be correct, as “International” wasn’t added to the group’s name until 2008. But Bradley Smith had been operating an organization under the You Can Run But You Cannot Hide banner for nearly a decade prior to that.
What happened to YCR’s taxes between 2003 and 2008? Were they ever filed? Did YCR employees pay taxes? Did the IRS even know of YCR’s existence?
Smith and YCR declined to comment on their relationship with Stoll or the IRS.
According to the permanent federal injunction ordered against Stoll in 2005, Stoll falsely told his customers that “church ministries are not required to notify the IRS of even their existence, much less their exemption from taxation and return filing requirements.”
The federal injunction states that Stoll also falsely advised his customers to take such illegal tax-avoidance steps as classifying employees as independent contractors, not report compensation to the IRS and to make payments to their ministerial trusts rather than individuals so income can be more easily hidden from the IRS.
And, court documents state, Stoll advised and assisted his customers in transferring their pre-tax income to offshore bank accounts in the Caribbean and advised customers on how to circumvent U.S. banking laws.
Next in this investigation of Bradley Dean Smith's tax-exempt Annandale, MN-based "ministry," You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, we’ll take a closer look at the extremist anti-tax religious cult Embassy of Heaven, for whom Smith renounced his allegiance to the world and pledged his citizenship.
Photos of 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer with the YCR gang (top), and Tim Pawlenty with YCR Co-Minister Jacob MacAulay, from theawl.com.
Annandale-based anti-gay hate ministry led by 'Bradlee Dean' was tied to a religious tax-avoidance scammer in Washington who was prosecuted for peddling 'sham ministries' in 2005. But why did it take until 2008 to begin to sever ties with him?
By Karl Bremer
The Annandale-based homophobic hate ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCR) was organized as a self-described “sham” ministerial trust in 2005 by a bizarre religious group in Washington state that ran afoul of federal tax authorities for setting up such tax-avoidance trusts. Yet the controversial Wright County nonprofit, which paid thousands of dollars to have trusts created for itself and its mysterious sister nonprofit Old Paths Church, continued to operate as a “sham” trust until 2008, when it initiated legal action to sever its ties from the Washington group and its leader, IRS scofflaw Glen Stoll.
What YCR thought it was getting when it signed up for Stoll’s tax-avoidance program—and what drove the organization to take such drastic steps to remove itself from his trusts four years later—is unknown. YCR declined to comment for this article.
Details about YCR’s finances and real estate gleaned from property tax records and court filings raise more questions than they answer about the group’s tax status and its relationship with Stoll, his trust-creating business Remedies at Law, and the Embassy of Heaven, a fanatical religious cult in Oregon.
You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International is run by President Bradley Dean Smith of Annandale, who is better known to his followers as “Bradlee Dean,” and Secretary Jacob McMillian MacAulay, a/k/a "Jake McMillian," the only two paid members on the organization’s board. Other directors include Nicole Bengston, vice president; Heather MacAulay (Jake’s spouse), treasurer, Ron Stone, director; and Todd Bergren, director.
The group describes its charitable purposes and major program activities in its 2009 State of Minnesota Annual Report as “to reshape America by redirecting our youth morally and spiritually through education, music, radio, and street teams.” Much of the organization’s activities seem to revolve around Smith’s “Bradlee Dean” personna and the punk-metal-Jesus band he leads and drums for, Junkyard Prophet.
The group has come under fire in the past for bringing religious proselytization masquerading as anti-drug programs into public schools. More recently, however, YCR has become widely known for the controversial, homophobic on-air rants of Dean and his sidekick Jake on their weekly “Sons of Liberty” radio show, broadcast by local conservative talk station WWTC-AM. It’s through his “preaching” from that pulpit, which cost YCR $35,054 in radio time in 2009, that Smith has garnered the attention and scorn of everyone from Rachel Maddow to Anne Rice.
WELL-COMPENSATED ‘MINISTERS’ According to YCR’s 2009 IRS Form 990, Smith was paid $51,303 in compensation and $45,887 in housing allowance last year for a total of $97,190. Not bad for a “minister.” That’s nearly double his 2008 reported compensation of $27,433 (it’s not clear from its tax filings whether Smith received a housing allowance in 2008).
MacAulay was paid $42,028 in compensation and $24,869 in housing allowance for a total of $66,897 in 2009. That’s also nearly double his 2008 reported compensation of $21,522. MacAulay also received a $12,976 “minister’s housing allowance” in 2008. Four other “ordained ministers” with the group received a total of $41,555 in housing allowances.
An independent audit of YCR’s 2009 books stated that the “expected commitment” for ministers’ housing allowances in 2010 is $124,600.
Housing allowances for YCR’s “ministers” have come under scrutiny before. Whether “ministers” such as those employed by YCR would qualify for tax-free housing allowances in the eyes of the IRS is murky at best. The use—and abuse—of this special tax exemption for ministers has been the subject of considerable debate.
The IRS defines “ministers” as “individuals who are duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed by a religious body constituting a church or church denomination. They are given the authority to conduct religious worship, perform sacerdotal functions, and administer ordinances and sacraments according to the prescribed tenets and practices of that religious organization.”
The lofty salaries and housing allowances of YCR’s top two directors/“ministers” were fueled by soaring revenues for the controversial “ministry” from 2008 to 2009.
YCR reported a deficit of $41,478 on total revenues of $385,670 in 2008, according to the group’s IRS Form 990. By the end of 2009, YCR reported net assets of $197,081 on total revenues of $985,319—despite the fact that the group stated on its Form 990 that it did not “undertake any significant program services during the year which were not listed on the prior Form 990 or 990-EZ.”
YCR lists the source of its income on its 2009 Form 990 as follows:
• $473,789 from “contributions, gifts and grants” ($238,338 in “noncash contributions” of vehicles and equipment)
• $444,126 from contributions collected by Street Teams. It claims its street teams “shared the gospel six days per week through the year” and “shared the message of Christ with over 250,000 individuals.” Street team members, each of whom is either a “certificated, licensed or ordained minister,” distribute CDs, DVDs and printed materials from tables set up at gas stations and special events, such as the Michele Bachmann-Sarah Palin rally in Minneapolis April 7 and the 2010 GOP State Convention.
• $29,787 from its annual reception for guests and donors (offset by $17,542 in expenses).
• $18,471 from five school assemblies, where issues including “drugs, alcoholism, suicide, sex, media, our country, our veterans and the Constitution” are covered (offset by $16,778 in expenses).
• $10,684 from contributions at a State Fair booth.
• $8,492 from training or church services conducted “at various churches in and outside the state of Minnesota.”
THE MOVE TO ANNANDALE Bradley Dean Smith first set roots in Annandale on November 17, 2004, when he bought a lot on County Road 3 NW from Stephen B. and Barbie Jo Kalash on a contract-for-deed for $160,000. That same day, Smith assigned the contract-for-deed to an entity called “Old Paths Church,” which currently shares the same address as YCR and was registered with the State of Minnesota by Jake MacAulay, YCR’s secretary. The 2005 property tax statement lists “Old Paths Church, c/o Bradley Smith” as the property taxpayer.
Meanwhile, according to 10th District Court documents filed in Wright County, Smith and MacAulay attended classes offered by Glen Stoll of Edmonds, WA, who operated a business called Remedies at Law. There, they were promised they could buy what Stoll said were “established, exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable and assignable ministerial trusts” that would allow them to operate as a ‘free church’ that would be invulnerable to state regulation and control.”
For a fee of $6,500, they were told, Stoll would create three trusts that would give them “absolute tax-exempt status,” eliminate all federal tax return filing requirements, allow donations to the organization to be tax-deductible, and allow the organizations to retain control and enjoyment of all assets of the ministries. They would also be assigned a trustee to deal with all federal, state and legal systems.
According to court documents, Stoll advised his customers to transfer all assets to these trusts, and these asset trusts would be used to issue “grants and other disbursements.” Customers also were advised to stop paying all income and employment taxes and stop filing federal tax returns. Stoll would assist his customers in creating “corporations sole,” entities established by law in some states for churches to hold title to property used in association with church activities. These ministerial trusts then would be created under the corporations sole.
Stoll advised his customers to complete a “Political Profession of Faith” that he claimed would enable anyone to create their own personal ministry. And he would assist customers in getting such things as ID cards from the “Embassy of Heaven Church” in Stayton, OR, which Stoll said helps people sever all ties to government and become “Citizens of Heaven.” The Embassy of Heaven Church, which describes itself as “God’s Government on Earth,” at that time already had a long and controversial history of clashes with government authorities. But Smith’s own “Kingdom of Heaven” ID card, a copy of which was found in court filings, indicates he didn’t need any help from Stoll to get introduced to the Embassy of Heaven cult. His ID card states he was “baptized” on 11-17-02, the ID was issued on 9-30-03 and expired on 9-30-10. Smith’s official record at EmbassyOfHeaven.org states:
“On file is a signed statement by Bradley Smith renouncing allegiance to the world and declaring citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven.
“We are fellow citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Government of God, which was handed to the Apostles by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper (Luke 22:29), We fulfill the Great Commission by traveling from place to place using old and modern conveyances. Our government is not of this world, and we expect to be held accountable to the laws from which we come. Our conduct is not an offense if it not an offense in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
SMITH, STOLL AND THE FEDS By April 2005, Bradley Dean Smith began the unusual transfer of property to the new trusts being created by Stoll. Stoll claimed to be a lawyer, but according to the Justice Department, he was not a member of or licensed with any state or federal bar.
A new warranty deed was issued April 29, 2005, for his Annandale property—this one from the original sellers to “Old Paths Church Ministries, State of Washington.” That same day, Smith filed an “affidavit of identity” stating that his earlier assignment of the contract-for-deed should have been to “Old Paths Church Ministries” and not “Old Paths Church.”
About the same time Smith started doing business with Stoll, the federal government swung into action against Stoll’s sham ministry mill.
On Feb.15, 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against Stoll and his enterprises seeking a permanent injunction to prohibit him from engaging in a whole host of illegal tax schemes and conduct, and also seeking a complete list of all of his customers.
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against Stoll on April 26, 2005. The judge’s order also required Stoll to provide the government his customers’ names, mailing and e-mail addresses, and Social Security and telephone numbers, and to notify customers of the injunction.
“People who buy into tax-fraud schemes are buying nothing but trouble—past due tax bills with interest and penalties and the possibility of criminal prosecution,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division. “The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service are committed to stopping the promotion of tax fraud.”
Smith and MacAulay continued transferring assets of YCR and Old Paths Church to the new entities being created for them by Stoll, even after the temporary injunction had been issued against Stoll.
On June 21, 2005, the Old Paths Church Ministries PTA trust was established. Smith was listed as an agent of the trust and a “Director of the Family Defense League,” which was the corporation sole created by Stoll under which two of the three trusts were held.
A permanent federal injunction was issued against Stoll June 27, 2005.
On July 11, 2005, another warranty deed was issued for Smith’s Annandale property, conveying it “as a gift” from Old Paths Church Ministries to Old Paths Church Ministries PTA (Washington State).
YCR Ministries transferred its assets to another trust, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide PTA. These included: office equipment, three televisions, an aquarium, fountain, 16 Coca Cola bar stools, one Coca Cola cooler, 39 Coca Cola artwork pieces, 63 pieces of framed art, eight Macintosh computers, a recording studio, drums, PA system and fog machines.
YCR, Inc. transferred its assets to a third trust, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Ministries PTB. Those assets included a 1997 Polaris Indy snowmobile, a 2005 Honda Rincon ATV and a 1994 Prevost bus.
Smith and MacAulay apparently continued to operate YCR and Old Paths Church under the trusts created by Stoller until early 2009. It’s not known whether they followed Stoll’s illegal tax-avoidance advice during those years.
Property tax statements for Smith’s Annandale property from 2006-2009 list “Old Paths Church Ministries PTA, Director Family Defense League Trustee” as the taxpayer. A new house was built on the property in 2006, using a construction mortgage of $336,552 issued to Old Paths Church Ministries and signed by Smith. The property’s estimated market value rose from $92,700 to $361,600.
The year Smith moved into his new house in rural Annandale in northern Wright County, he moved his controversial YCRBYCH “ministry” to downtown Annandale in the city’s former fire hall. He told the Annandale Advocate at the time that his group and band would put Annandale on the national map.
SOMETHING’S FISHY Court documents indicate that Smith and MacAulay found out about the federal injunction against their friend Stoll in 2008, and that in September 2008, they claim Stoll told them there wasn’t any injunction.
That’s not entirely surprising, since as recently as this fall, according to a Justice Department spokesman, Stoll has continued to thumb his nose at the injunction order’s demands, which included informing his customers on the injunction. Indeed, his Remedies at Law website shows little indication of compliance with the order, and he appears to be continuing to offer some kind of ministerial trust advice.
The Justice Department sought to have him jailed for contempt in June 2006. Stoll remains in contempt of the 2005 injunction order with at least $50,000 in fines hanging over his head.
According to court documents, Smith’s and MacAulay’s attorney advised them to sever all ties with Stoll, demand his resignation from their trusts and return all property from the trusts. Stoll refused, and on December 9, 2008, a summons and petition was attempted to be served on Stoll’s address, where a person there “refused to accept the documents” and “slammed the door.”
In affidavits filed with the court, Smith and MacAulay’s attorney stated that “The trusts that (Stoll) creates for their customers are shams, devoid of economic substance.” Stoll’s “false and fraudulent schemes” induced at least 30 customers to participate in their “illegal schemes” through at least 89 corporations sole and 47 ministerial trusts.
On March 27, 2009, District Court Judge Stephen Halsey granted Old Paths Church, Inc. and YCR, Inc. their motion for a summary judgment against Stoll that terminated Stoll’s trusts, removed Stoll as trustee, transferred assets from the trusts back to the two original entities, and awarded attorneys fees plus the $6,500 they paid Stoll to create the sham ministerial trusts.
Smith purchased the property back from Old Paths Church, Inc. on July 29, 2009, for $349,200. On August 14, 2009, another warranty deed was issued for the Annandale property from Old Paths Church, Inc. to Bradley Dean Smith. The Old Paths Church mortgage was satisfied, and a $367,344 mortgage was registered from Mortgage Depot in Bloomington to Smith. And the taxpayer of record for the former Old Paths Church property is once again listed as Bradley D. Smith.
Smith managed to get a swimming pool installed at his “parsonage” before the title transferred, though. A building permit was issued by Wright County for the pool on June 4, 2009, listing Smith as the applicant and Old Paths Church Ministries as the owner. It’s not known who paid for the installation.
STILL A 'SHAM' MINISTRY? While Bradley Smith and Jake MacAulay may have shed themselves of Glen Stoll and his sham ministry mill, YCR’s critics still consider them to be running a sham ministry.
In a Minnesota Independent report on the group’s ministerial housing allowances last year, a former IRS attorney told reporter Andy Birkey:
“No one can qualify for (the housing allowance) unless they are licensed or ordained ministers … I doubt that all five of the members of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide would meet that requirement. I mean, some of these guys are musicians.”
Added Alex Luchenitzer, senior litigation counsel for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State:
“Are they just five people who just decided to get together or are they ordained by an organized religious body? It it’s the former, it’s probably not what the IRS intended.”
Interestingly, one of the Justice Department’s complaints against Glen Stoll and his sham ministries is that they “falsely advise customers that if their residence or real estate is titled in the name of the ministerial trust, then the participant can use and maintain it as a tax-exempt parsonage or management housing.”
YCR declined to comment on its “ministers” or their housing allowances.
Questions remain about other aspects of YCR.
What is the relationship between the elusive Old Paths Church Ministries and YCR? They share the same address and at least one of the same officers—Jacob “Jake McMillian” MacAulay. Is this the “religious body” that ordains YCR’s “ministers?”
An extensive internet search turns up no references to Old Paths Church in Minnesota or its activities, events or services, other than the former address of the “church” in Plymouth. That address is a small office building housing several small commercial businesses, according to one current tenant, and is not a “church” at all. Old Paths Church, Inc.'s address registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State is identical to the Annandale address registered for YCR with the SoS.
Yet Old Paths Church or Old Paths Church Ministries—they are one and the same, according to court documents—was the taxpayer of record for Bradley Smith's residence in French Lake Township in Wright County from 2004-2009.
On its 2008 and 2009 IRS Form 990s, YCR reported “grants” to Old Paths Church Ministries in the amounts of $43,851 and $37,700, respectively.
A search of the YCR website turns up only one curious reference to Old Paths Church—this “Statement of Faith” that appears to be largely lifted from this "Statement of Faith" for an Old Paths Christian Church in El Paso, TX. However, a spokeswoman for Old Paths Christian Church in El Paso says they have no connection to Old Paths Church—or any other organization—in Minnesota.
YCR declined to comment on Old Paths Church or its relationship with the nonprofit.
Some also question whether YCR crosses the line from ministerial work to political work.
The YCR Articles of Incorporation filed with the State of Minnesota in 2008 state:
“No substantial part of the activities of the corporation shall be carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, and the organization shall not participate in, or intervene in (including the publication or distribution of statements) any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.”
Yet YCR had a booth at a political rally for Michele Bachmann’s congressional campaign April 7, 2010, that featured former half-term governor Sarah Palin. And the group also was invited to set up shop at the 2010 Minnesota GOP Convention.
Perhaps the biggest question looming is whether Smith, MacAulay and their “ministers” lived by the tenets of their tax-dodging sham ministries from 2005 until 2009, when they severed all ties to Stoll and his trusts. Smith’s pursuit of these tax-avoidance trusts, and his renouncement of his allegiance to the world and declaring citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven suggests that he may have a proclivity toward not paying taxes.
If so, are they now liable for back taxes, penalties—or worse? Or was it an IRS enforcement action that prompted their divorce from Stoll in the first place?
Unfortunately, the only person who can answer all these questions is Bradley Dean Smith, and he’s not talking.
Top photo: Billboard on the outskirts of Annandale, MN, home of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International.
Middle photo: You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Internatonal's world headquarters downtown Annandale.
Bottom photo: You Can Run But You Cannot Hide's booth at Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's political rally with former half-term governor Sarah Palin last April in Minneapolis.
All photos by Karl Bremer.
Postscript:
If you're interested in learning more about "Bradlee Dean" and his You Can Run But You Cannot Hide "ministry," check out some of the youtube videos of his radio programs, starting with the one below. It's not pretty.
Deadbeat “ministry” run by Bradley Dean Smith given the boot under court order for nonpayment of rent.
The year Smith moved into his new house in rural Annandale in northern Wright County, he moved his controversial YCRBYCH “ministry” to downtown Annandale in the city’s former fire hall. He told the 
