July 19, 2005:
A Self-proclaimed prince who declared his family farm an independent kingdom wrote a letter to a "devil" in the tax office, arguing he and his sons did not have to pay tax, a Melbourne court was told today.
(Histoire a:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15 ... 62,00.html)
The Rigoli family – father Virgilio, 67, and sons Philip, 36, and Little Joe, 25 – named their property near Shepparton dans le nord de Victoria, the "Principality of Ponderosa", arguing it was not part of Australia.
Virgilio and Little Joe were charged with defrauding the Commonwealth in June 2001 after police raided the family's property, while Philip was charged three years later.
The trio was convicted of fraud earlier this month, while Virgilio – the self-proclaimed prince of Ponderosa – was also found guilty of obtaining an illegal pension.
During a pre-sentencing hearing today, Victorian County Court judge Tim Wood heard the trio earned $6.9 million between 1991 and 2000 through its polystyrene box manufacturing firm.
"The accused had decided that they were not going to pay taxation to the Commonwealth of Australia and had gone to the trouble of setting up an independent municipality ... to distance themselves from the laws of Australia," crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert told the court.
He said Virgilio wrote a letter to an employee at the Australian Tax Office (ATO), addressing it "to the devil possessed," and Little Joe wrote another letter explaining why he refused to pay tax.
"I do not recognise nor will I ever recognise the government of Australia, signed: His Royal Highness, Little Joseph Rigoli,"
Mr Silbert said the letter read.
He said fences were erected around their 24 hectare property, which issued its own Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1994.
The farm was surrounded by a moat (entoure par un fosse) and people required passports to enter and leave.
Defence counsel for Virgilio said "Ponderosa" was a manifestation of his client's "resentment" towards the Department of Agriculture, which bulldozed his fruit crop after it became infested with a pest.
"That was what caused him to set up the principality – it had nothing to do with the Australian Tax Office," he said.
.....The hearing continues tomorrow.
Bizarre histoire huh?