‘Sovereign citizen’ gets term of 5 months for skipping taxes

An East Wenatchee chiropractor who didn’t pay federal income taxes for four years was sentenced Friday to five months behind bars, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported in a press release.

Biffer Arthur Wellendorf, 50, was found guilty in August of failing to pay income taxes for the years 1998 through 2001.

U.S. District Court Senior Judge Justin Quackenbush also sentenced Wellendorf to five months of home confinement and ordered him to pay more than $38,000 in taxes and almost $12,000 in court costs, the press release states.

Wellendorf, who served as his own attorney, called himself a “sovereign citizen” who was not required to pay federal taxes.

IRS agents in August 2000 served Wellendorf with subpoenas demanding access to his business documents.

In 2002, he was found in civil contempt and sent to jail for four months after repeatedly refusing to turn over the records.