Idaho Files Claim For Butler's Back Taxes

The Columbian/December 16, 2000

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho -- White supremacist leader Richard Butler owes the state of Idaho more than $66,000 in personal income taxes, interest and penalties for 1992 through 1999, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Ted Spangler, a deputy state attorney general for the Idaho Tax Commission, said the filing came in response to Butler's recent bid for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection from creditors in the wake of a $6.3 million civil judgment against him and his Church of Jesus Christ Christian-Aryan Nations.

Spangler said Friday that the claim was based on Butler's testimony about his income during a court-ordered examination of what assets were available to satisfy the judgment won by Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason.

"It's important to note that he will have the opportunity to object to that claim and come forward with whatever more specific information he might have," Spangler said. "We're basing this on his general testimony at that hearing, so if there is an opportunity to actually examine some records or see better sources of income there's certainly an opportunity to adjust that amount in the bankruptcy. At this point it's merely a claim."

The Tax Commission filed the claim to ensure that the state has an opportunity to recover the money as Butler's bankruptcy case proceeds. But a spokesman for the 82-year-old white supremacist questioned the move.

"He never earned any money," Debra Maggiore said on Thursday. "How can he pay taxes?"

Maggiore said the state has never mailed a tax form to Butler, who has lived in Idaho since 1972. "Now, all of a sudden, it just seems odd," she said.