Update IRS probe: At Asset Protection Group, trouble follows Reed, Nieswonger

Trouble is nothing new to William S. Reed and Richard C. Neiswonger, who are accused of federal fraud and money laundering charges in connection with an IRS investigation into their use of Nevada’s liberal incorporation laws.

In 2007, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Neiswonger and Reed’s partnership in Asset Protection Group Inc., had been misleading thousands of customers who paid up to $9,800 to participate in a program that promised them an asset shield that would fend off litigation, the IRS, law enforcement and even “capricious federal judges.”

For his part, Reed practiced his sleight of hand as an attorney in Colorado before losing his license and moving to St. Louis. Neiswonger, meanwhile, in 1997 was ordered “not to lie in the advertising or sale of ‘business-opportunity’ programs and agreed to other marketing restrictions after a similar business took in $6 million from 612 people using similar methods, prosecutors said at the time. He also pleaded guilty of wire fraud and money laundering, served 12 months in prison and paid millions in fines and restitution,” the newspaper reported.