Harvard Business School Club of Washington, D.C. (former)
John Anthony Castro (born 1983) is an American tax advisor from Texas. He is known as the most prolific[2][3] advocate for disqualifying Donald Trump from the 2024 U.S. presidential election under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and for his involvement in Dixon v Commissioner and its related cases. In 2024, Castro was convicted of 33 counts of tax fraud as a result of filing fraudulent returns through his tax preparation service, Castro & Co.
He was banned from participating in Georgetown University Law Center's job fair as a student and then later on as an employer over what the university claimed were "deliberate misrepresentations on his resume".[7][8][1] Castro disputed the allegations and sued Georgetown over them, though the lawsuit was dismissed on a jurisdictional issue.[8]
Career
Though he has described himself, and has been described, as an attorney,[9][10][11][12] Castro has never been licensed to practice law.[13][9][14][15][16][17]
In 2013, shortly after completing his LLM, Castro briefly worked for Gudorf Law Group of Dayton, Ohio, before suing the firm for allegedly defaming him.[5][18][19] The lawsuit was dismissed.[19]
Castro & Co.
In about 2016, Castro established his tax preparation service, Castro & Co., in Orlando, Florida, later relocating it to Texas.[20][21] He did contingency fee refund work,[22] a practice in which a tax preparer retains, as payment, a portion of the tax refund he is able to secure on behalf of a client.[23]
Castro successfully marketed his home-based tax consultancy to clients around the world and, in one two-year period, filed nearly 2,000 tax returns on behalf of taxpayers in multiple countries.[24][19]
The Dixon cases
At Castro & Co., Castro issued "legal opinions" to United States expatriates living in Australia — some of whom were employees of investment firm Dixon Advisory — on ways they could exclude certain earnings from being reported on their U.S. tax returns.[12] The company's CEO Alan C. Dixon, an Australian citizen who had taken up residence in the United States to invest in the New Jersey real estate market,[25][26] replaced his own tax accountancy, PwC, with Castro & Co.[12][26]
Castro amended the tax returns PwC filed for Dixon to claim foreign tax credit on Dixon's franking credits, allowing Dixon to transform his tax liability into a $3,268,930 refund due to him from the U.S. Government.[12] Upon receiving the revised returns Castro prepared, the IRS initiated an audit of Dixon, assessed penalties against him, and seized his refund.[12][25] Dixon's lawsuit against the U.S. Government to recover his refund was the subject of the United States Tax Court case Alan Dixon v Commissioner of Internal Revenue, described by Tax Notes Federal as "a cautionary tale of cross-border tax compliance complexities".[27][28] According to Justia's summary of the case:[29]
During the litigation, it became clear that Dixon had not personally signed his name on the 2017 amended returns—the tax preparer [Castro] had signed Dixon’s name—and no authorizing power-of-attorney documentation accompanied the amended returns.
Because federal law prevents a taxpayer from suing for a refund without having previously submitted a “duly filed” claim to the IRS, and the 2017 amended returns were not “duly filed” due to the lack of a proper signature, Dixon's case against the U.S. Government was dismissed leaving him, according to the Australian Financial Review, with "nought, aside from penalties and legal fees".[29][28][26] The Dixon case was one of a "long-line"[22] of cases adjudicated that involved Castro signing his name in place or on behalf of his Australia-resident clients.[30] Carlton Smith, writing in Tax Notes Federal, noted that "in all Castro cases" courts held that "the signature requirement mandating that the taxpayer sign is statutory and not subject to waiver".[31]
United States AttorneyLeigha Simonton said that Castro's crimes were "stunning" for their "brazenness" and involved him promising higher tax refunds to clients than they could legitimately receive, padding their tax returns with bogus deductions, and then keeping half of the amount refunded to the client by the government for himself.[21][33] According to prosecutors, "for one client, who made approximately $103,000 in income, Mr. Castro claimed over $90,000 in deductions related to unreimbursed employee expenses" while, with another client he "deducted over $26,000 in expenses that he claimed related to a nascent cupcake business that had generated only $250 in revenue".[24] Prosecutors went on to allege that Castro "often acted in a highly vindictive manner when questioned or challenged by clients or others, often berating individuals in emails, threatening legal actions, or by filing amended tax returns, without clients’ permission or knowledge, that removed all deductions, causing the taxpayer-victim to then owe the IRS tens of thousands of dollars".[24] It is alleged that Castro's enterprise resulted in more than $15.5 million worth of tax losses to the United States.[19]
Castro denied any wrongdoing and explained that he had already taken responsibility for what he said were past instances in which he'd misinterpreted the tax code and had thus far paid back $700,000 to the United States.[2][33][35] At trial, Castro's attorneys argued that his application of the tax code involved "aggressive" and "unconventional" legal positions but did not rise to the level of "willful violations of the law".[19]
In May 2024, Castro was convicted of all 33 charges and was remanded into custody pending sentencing.[13][24] The following October, he was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.[37]
Euclid University
In 2016, Castro was awarded a teaching appointment at Euclid University, becoming the supervising faculty member for the university's Master of Laws program in taxation.[38]
In 2022, Castro launched an unsuccessful run for President of the United States as a Republican in the 2024 United States presidential election.[42] According to Castro, he ran to attempt to achieve legal standing to disqualify Donald Trump from seeking reelection under the 14th Amendment.[26] He began filing pro se lawsuits to block Trump in early 2023.[43][9][44]
Castro was a ballot-listed candidate in the 2024 New Hampshire Republican primary.
In 2022, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader, Castro claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to plant listening devices in his automobile on orders of Donald Trump.[10]
The following year, Castro sued Trump for $180 million, alleging that the former president was engaged in a conspiracy with the IRS and CIA to “monitor, surveil, and harass” him.[26][56] He added several others to the lawsuit, including IRS criminal investigators, attorneys, a senior CIA official, staff of the Pine Gap satellite surveillance base, and a John Doe defendant, all of whom he alleged conspired with Donald Trump to harass him.[56] Castro also emailed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to express concerns he would be "assassinated" and to demand the U.S. Secret Service protect him.[57] Castro's lawsuit was dismissed.[58]
Castro filed an additional lawsuit alleging Donald Trump and others made defamatory edits to this Wikipedia article about him.[59] He sought a further $180 million in damages from the defendants.[59] In dismissing that lawsuit, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texassua sponte declared Castro a vexatious litigant and prohibited him from filing further lawsuits in the Northern District of Texas without leave of the court.[59]
Views
In 2008, Castro denounced the "corruption, lies, theft and war" of the George W. Bush administration in an opinion piece for the Houston Chronicle.[60] In 2021, according to Politico, Castro said he wanted to "return to the compassionate conservatism of the Bush era".[61]
^Includes vote totals from Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. Excludes Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota. No vote totals reported for Guam or Wyoming.
References
^ abc"Judge Tosses Obscure Candidate's Attempt to Bump Trump From NH Ballot". New Hampshire Journal. October 29, 2023. Archived from the original on November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023. Castro's failure in New Hampshire will unlikely cause this political gadfly to land. He still has dozens more lawsuits in other states and a history as a perennial candidate. After running for state offices in Texas as a Democrat, Castro switched parties in 2020. He made runs for Senate and Congress in Texas as a Republican, though he barely registered in the final results in either campaign. Castro has also created quite a legal record outside of politics. In 2018, his $5 million lawsuit against the Georgetown University law school was dismissed. Castro sued his alma mater after he was banned from the Georgetown hiring fair, both as a prospective employee and employer. His ban was a result of resume inflation, according to court records. Castro claimed to have been a West Point cadet, though, in fact, he attended a prep school for cadet candidates who had not yet academically qualified for the service academy.
^Ross, Keaton (September 13, 2023). "Lawsuit seeks to block Trump from the ballot in Oklahoma". Norman Transcript. Archived from the original on September 13, 2023. Retrieved October 24, 2023. John Anthony Castro, a Dallas-based tax advisor and perennial candidate who unsuccessfully ran for state House and U.S. Senate seats in Texas prior to his presidential bid, claims the former president violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack and is ineligible to run... Castro has filed similar lawsuits in 11 other states that Trump won or lost by a close margin in 2020, including Kansas, Arizona, North Carolina and Utah. His legal track record is mostly unproven. While several media outlets have called him an attorney, he stated in a recent federal court filing that he has never been licensed to practice law in any state. In 2018, Georgetown University barred Castro from participating in a job fair because he embellished his resume.
^Benson, Samuel (September 7, 2023). "New Utah lawsuit attempts to bar Trump from 2024 election ballot". Deseret News. Archived from the original on September 9, 2023. Retrieved October 24, 2023. Castro has filed similar lawsuits in Florida, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and several other states... Castro filed as a Republican candidate in the 2024 election in December 2022. Several news organizations have called him an "attorney," though he is not listed in the Texas bar directory and he claimed in a recent lawsuit that he "is not and has never been licensed to practice law in any state." Castro has been accused of embellishing his resume. Georgetown barred him from a job fair, claiming Castro wrongfully claimed to have been a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Castro sued the school, but a federal judge in Texas tossed the lawsuit.
^Prokop, Andrew (October 7, 2023). "The fraught debate over whether the 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump, explained". Vox. Retrieved October 7, 2023. Shortly after he registered to run, he filed a lawsuit citing Section 3 to try and get Trump taken off the ballot. He's since filed similar suits in more than a dozen other states, and constantly hypes up his effort on the website formerly known as Twitter ("They finally realized I'm not fu**ing around. Too late, beta boys," he wrote recently).
^Stein, Perry (January 7, 2024). "The Trump Trials: The Art of the Appeal". Washington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2024. John Anthony Castro, a Republican candidate for president, has filed more than two dozen lawsuits to remove Trump from the ballot; these cases have not been successful and are not included on the map.
^Ulrich, Steve (August 31, 2023). "Lawsuit Seeking to Prevent Trump From Appearing On 2024 PA Ballot Filed in Commonwealth Court". PoliticsPA. Archived from the original on September 19, 2023. Retrieved October 24, 2023. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) previously dismissed a similar lawsuit Castro filed against Trump, also ruling he lacked standing in the case... The 39-year-old Castro filed his candidacy for president in January 2022 and campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission indicate that he loaned his campaign $20 million back in March. His website says that he graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico Law School, although he is not licensed to practice law. Despite his loan that was reported to the FEC, Castro has been sued by American Express for an outstanding credit card bill of $53,923.74, and recently requested a pro bono lawyer in a lawsuit brought by a former tax client, hinting that he could not afford a lawyer.
^Fischer, Howard (December 6, 2023). "Court finds Trump challenger not serious candidate". Arizona Capitol Times. Retrieved December 15, 2023. And Rayes took a slap at Castro for trying to manufacture evidence designed to influence his decision. He noted that on Oct. 27 – the same day a federal judge in New Hampshire threw out Castro's challenge there because he lacked standing to sue – Castro's campaign purchased a digital billboard in downtown Phoenix, about three blocks from the federal courthouse here. And the message began running on Nov. 13, the day before the hearing before Rayes. The judge was not amused.
^ abMathur-Ashton, Aneeta (January 5, 2024). "Trump and the 14th Amendment: Here's Where the Remaining State Challenges Stand After Maine and Colorado Rulings". The Messenger. Archived from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024. Castro filed a challenge to Trump, Charles Rettig, Maria Chapa Lopez, Tuan Dang Ma, Anne Craig-Pena, Anton Pukhalenko, Estela Wells, John Turnicky, and John Doe in June in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. According to the initial complaint filed on June, 5, Rettig is the former Trump-appointed Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Chapa Lopez is the former Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Tuan Dang Ma is a "Trump-supporting" IRS-CI Special Agent, Craig-Pena is a "Trump-supporting" IRS Attorney with the Office of Chief Counsel, Pukhalenko is a "Trump-supporting" tax examiner with the Internal Revenue Service, Wells is a "Trump-supporting" tax examiner with the Internal Revenue Service, Turnicky is the former Head of Security for the Central Intelligence Agency and current housing program manager for the U.S. Department of Defense at the Joint Defense Facility at Pine Gap ("JDFPG"), and John Doe "assisted in the conspiracy to unlawfully surveil, harass, and retaliate against Plaintiff." Castro is representing himself in the suit.
^Kovensky, Josh (September 7, 2023). "A Bunch Of Fringe Figures Have Also Seized On The Disqualification Clause". Talking Points Memo. Archived from the original on September 25, 2023. Retrieved October 24, 2023. Castro further raised the stakes in his bizarre gambit on Wednesday night. He said on Twitter that he filed a petition for the Supreme Court to hear his case, and sent an email to the Department of Homeland Security demanding Secret Service protection. "I am blank copying media outlets on this email because, if I should be assassinated, I want it documented that I formally requested U.S. Secret Service protection and was ignored," Castro wrote.
^John Anthony Castro v. Donald Trump, et. al. (United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas March 19, 2024) ("This judgment is issued as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58. In accordance with the Court’s order dismissing this case, dated this same day, this case is DISMISSED with prejudice."), Text.
