Medina man convicted of tax evasion for cat-and-mouse game of nearly 20 years with IRS

A Medina man who owns part of a successful commercial repair and remodeling business has been convicted of six counts of tax evasion for schemes dating back to 2002.

Randal S. Brinkman, 60, set up sham businesses, closed his personal bank accounts, paid with cash and created a fake religious organization called "Sapphire Skies" to hide his income, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in written briefs.

Despite his success and a six-figure income, Brinkman went to "great lengths" to avoid paying taxes, engaging in a "cat-and-mouse game" with the IRS and the Minnesota Department of Revenue for nearly 20 years, prosecutors said.

Brinkman, who represented himself, was convicted Thursday after a four-day trial in front of U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen in Minneapolis. He was indicted in September 2018.

A sentencing date has not been set, but Brinkman faces up to five years on each count. He is the only person who was charged in the scheme, and he is not in custody.

Brinkman and his wife own 50% of Roseville-based MB Cos., where he works in sales and his wife manages the office. According to prosecutors, the company has gross revenue of at least $3 million annually. The Brinkmans took home $300,000 in 2016, and until recently they rented a "nice home" on Lake Independence for $4,000 a month.

After he was audited by the IRS in 2007, Brinkman filed returns for calendar years 2002 through 2007 and admitted he owed more than $145,000 in federal taxes for those years.

The government said Brinkman's "decision not to pay taxes has been exactly that — a decision."

As evidence of his planning, the government introduced at trial items found in Brinkman's home during the execution of search warrants, including a book titled "How I Beat Satan and the IRS." The book bills itself as a "personal testimonial about how the author found harmony between God's law and man's law to live a more simple and abundant life free from the technical bureaucracy of the IRS."

The warrant also turned up an FBI reference guide, "Sovereign Citizen Use of Documents to Further Fraudulent Schemes," which contains a list of documents "some sovereign citizens misuse or fraudulently create to further criminal schemes [and] … to declare they are not subject to US law," according to court filings.

To evade taxes, Brinkman sent "frivolous correspondence" to the IRS and the state Department of Revenue that is "typical of those who defy the IRS," prosecutors wrote. He sent affidavits claiming he was neither a U.S. citizen nor subject to federal law.

Brinkman and his wife stopped depositing checks and closed their personal bank account in 2012 shortly before the IRS attempted to seize funds from the account. He also used Sapphire Skies to hide income and assets.