Business Owner Convicted Of Tax Evasion Flees State With Guns, Armor, Ballistic Vests, Gas Masks

DENVER (CBS4) -- A Colorado businessman invested in weapons and fled the state rather than honor his appointment with a penitentiary last fall. Now Lawrence Martin Birk, 66, of Lake George, faces four times the amount of prison to which he was initially sentenced.

Birk was found guilty by a jury in July 2019 of tax evasion. He failed to pay taxes for eight years on revenue from his company, Tarryall Log Homes, concealed retirement funds from the firm he hired to prepare delinquent returns, and continued to withhold payment even after those returns had been filed, according to prosecutors.

"Birk still did not pay what the returns acknowledged he owed in taxes," stated a press release Friday from the U.S. Department of Justice. "Instead, he sent the IRS threatening correspondence and sought to impede its efforts to seize money from his bank accounts. He did not file returns or make any tax payments for 2006 through 2018."

He was sentenced to five years in prison, but did not show up in November 2019 to begin serving it.

Authorities caught up to Birk in Florida three months. According to court documents, authorities found in his possession a fully automatic assault rifle, two pistols, more than one dozen loaded magazines, hundreds of additional rounds of ammunition, ballistic helmets and vests, and gas masks.

Thursday, Birk pleaded guilty in Denver federal court for failing to surrender and illegal possession of a firearm, in addition to tax evasion. He now faces a maximum sentence of years' imprisonment for the failure to appear and ten years for the firearm possession as well as the five for tax evasion.

Sentencing is scheduled for September 10th before U.S. District Judge Robert E. Blackburn.