Guest Post: Real estate guru gets 88 months in prison

Wade Cook, a cab driver turned entrepreneur, real estate flipper and seminar leader, was sentenced last Thursday to seven years and four months in federal prison for income tax evasion, filing false tax returns and obstructing a tax investigation.

On Feb. 20, a federal jury convicted Cook, 57, on seven counts of tax fraud. His wife, Laura, 54, was sentenced to 18 months in a separate federal prison after pleading guilty in May to obstructing the investigation.

From his current Web site, 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, you can still order books, tapes and CDs on real estate. However, I'd probably avoid any of his books on income tax avoidance.

--Marlow Harris, 360Digest

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