Real estate author convicted of tax fraud

Wade Cook, a cab driver turned entrepreneur, real estate flipper and seminar leader, is in the news again. Tuesday, after three-and-a-half days of deliberation, a jury found Wade Cook guilty of evading federal income tax from 1998 through 2000 on royalty payments of $9.5 million; filing falsified tax returns in those years; and obstructing federal investigations into his actions.

February 20th, a federal jury convicted Cook, 57, on seven counts of tax fraud, while his co-defendant wife, Laura, went free because jurors couldn't agree on verdicts in her case.  Cook faces penalties of up to $1.75 million and 40 years in prison. 

From his current website The Liberty Network:

May we introduce Mr. Cook to you. He was a cab driver, now turned entrepreneur. He is a cash flow specialist. He discovered a whole new way of thinking: the key to potential wealth accumulation and income growth is in repetition and duplication. He discovered a way to compound profits in his taxi for the “meter drop”—short, numerous runs instead of waiting all day for big run. He made so much driving a cab, he started buying fixer-upper houses. Everyone else at the time was into buy and hold (rentals). Wade learned that the meter drop style also worked in houses. He would buy a house, do minor fix-ups (clean-up) and then sell. Oh, he sold these houses quickly, because he took the buyer’s down payment and provided owner financing—carrying back the paper with all those monthly checks coming in. He retired at age 29.

If you'd like to earn money the Wade Cook way, one can still order books, tapes and CD's on real estate. However, I'd probably avoid any of his books on income tax avoidance.

--Marlow Harris, 360 Digest

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