Dr. Kent Hovind in Jail: Conviction, Sentence, and 2015 Release

Kent Hovind went to jail after a federal jury in Pensacola, Florida, convicted him in November 2006 on 58 counts of tax and financial crimes, and he was sentenced in January 2007 to ten years in federal prison.¹ He served roughly nine years and was released in July 2015.² Hovind, the young-earth creationist evangelist behind Creation Science Evangelism and the Dinosaur Adventure Land theme park, has continued to face legal problems since, including a 2021 domestic violence conviction in Alabama.

What He Was Convicted Of

The 58 counts fell into three groups. Twelve counts were for failing to collect and pay federal employee withholding taxes. One count was for corruptly obstructing the administration of the Internal Revenue Service. Forty-five counts were for structuring bank transactions to evade currency-reporting requirements.³

The withholding charges grew out of how Hovind ran his ministry. He treated his employees as “volunteers,” “missionaries,” or “ministers” and called their pay “gifts” or “love offerings,” which he argued meant he owed nothing to the IRS. He said he was “employed by God” and that his ministry’s assets belonged to the Almighty and therefore sat outside federal tax law.⁴ Starting in 2002, he also used a “corporation sole” and “ministerial trust” arrangement set up by adviser Glenn Stoll, moving properties and accounts into trusts while continuing to control them day to day.⁵

The obstruction count was based on Hovind’s use of complaints, bankruptcy filings, and other legal proceedings against IRS employees who were trying to do their jobs. The court held that otherwise legal actions become “corrupt” when they are aimed at thwarting government employees carrying out their duties.⁶

The Structured Bank Withdrawals

Federal law requires banks to file a currency transaction report on any cash transaction of $10,000 or more. Between 1999 and 2003, Kent and his then-wife Jo Hovind pulled more than $1.5 million out of AmSouth Bank in amounts kept just under that threshold.⁶ The indictment identified 45 specific withdrawals between July 2001 and August 2002, often at $9,500 or $9,600, sometimes as frequently as every three days.⁷

Jo Hovind handled most of the checks and controlled the ministry’s finances. A former employee, Brian Popp, testified that Kent Hovind knew about the reporting rule and had complained about it, evidence the government used to show that the pattern of withdrawals was deliberate.⁶ The jury found that $430,400 was involved in or traceable to the structuring offenses.⁸

Sentence and Restitution

On January 19, 2007, Hovind received 120 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and an order to pay $604,874.87 in restitution to the IRS.¹⁸ The court also ordered the forfeiture of $430,400 tied to the structuring offenses. When that money could not be found because assets had been transferred to third parties or moved beyond the court’s reach, the court substituted ten parcels of real property and a bank account.⁶

Jo Hovind was convicted alongside her husband on the structuring counts and sentenced on June 29, 2007, to one year and one day in federal prison.⁹

The Arguments Hovind Tried, and Why They Failed

Hovind maintained throughout the case, and afterward, that federal tax law did not reach him. He argued his ministry was outside the jurisdiction of the United States, that paying income tax amounted to involuntary servitude, and that church-state separation shielded his organization from tax obligations.¹⁰ He also claimed his organization fell under Section 508(c)(1)(A) of the tax code rather than Section 501(c)(3), an argument that misread how churches obtain their automatic tax-exempt status and ignored that the status does not eliminate employment tax obligations.¹¹

On the structuring charges, Hovind argued that the statute reached only transactions at or above $10,000, so his sub-threshold withdrawals could not violate it. Courts rejected that reading. Keeping transactions below the reporting line to evade federal reporting is precisely what the structuring statute criminalizes.⁶

U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers said during the proceedings: “No one can violate the law and then say that they were doing so for the will of God.”⁴

Both Hovinds appealed. On December 30, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed every conviction and every sentence.⁸ On the question of willfulness, the court held the government only needed to prove Hovind knew of his duty to collect and pay taxes, not that he could recite the statutes. His own statement to attorney David Gibbs that he was “smarter” than other church leaders who had lost property for the same conduct undercut any claim of innocent ignorance.⁶

Where He Served, and What Happened Inside

Court and news records place Hovind at Federal Correctional Institution Edgefield in South Carolina in the earlier years of his sentence and at FCI Berlin in New Hampshire by at least 2013.⁴

He kept litigating from prison. In May 2013, the U.S. Tax Court held him liable for more than $3.3 million on individual income tax returns he never filed for 1998 through 2006.¹² The Eleventh Circuit affirmed that decision on October 23, 2014, finding Hovind had effectively abandoned his own petition.¹³

New Charges During Incarceration

In 2014, still in prison, Hovind and co-defendant Paul John Hansen were indicted for mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and criminal contempt. The charges came from their efforts to contest the government’s right to sell nine Pensacola parcels Hovind had been ordered to forfeit. Despite an order barring them from filing claims, the two kept mailing documents disputing the government’s ownership.¹⁴

At the March 2015 trial, a jury convicted both men of criminal contempt but hung on the mail fraud and conspiracy counts.¹⁵ Chief U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers then granted Hovind a judgment of acquittal on the contempt count, finding the government had not shown the underlying order spoke directly to his conduct.¹⁶ Prosecutors then moved to dismiss the remaining fraud and conspiracy charges without prejudice, citing concerns about the “technical sufficiency” of the superseding indictment, and the court agreed.

Release in July 2015

Hovind was released from federal prison in July 2015, after serving about nine years of his ten-year sentence, and returned to Pensacola under home confinement for roughly a month. About 400 supporters had RSVP’d for a homecoming party. He told reporters he intended to focus on being “a husband and a father for a while” before resuming ministry work.²

Legal Trouble After Prison

Hovind continued to litigate. He filed a lawsuit against the federal government seeking more than $500 million and asking a court to overturn his 2006 conviction. In June 2021, U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II dismissed the case and described Hovind’s arguments as “frivolous and delusional.”¹⁰ An earlier motion filed on his behalf by Hansen in November 2019 to vacate the 2006 conviction was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.¹⁷

On July 30, 2021, Hovind was arrested in Conecuh County, Alabama, and charged with third-degree domestic violence against Cindi Lincoln, whom he had married in a 2018 ceremony performed without a state license.¹⁸¹⁹ Lincoln had filed a protective order alleging Hovind “bodyslammed” her in late 2020 and that the injuries required an emergency room visit. Hovind said the incident occurred while he was trying to keep Lincoln from grabbing his phone and that she fell.²⁰

On September 21, 2021, Judge Clinton Hyde of the District Court of Conecuh County found Hovind guilty and sentenced him to one year in jail with a requirement to serve 30 days.²⁰ His representatives filed a motion for a new trial and said they would seek a jury trial. In 2023, Lincoln filed a separate pro se lawsuit alleging Hovind owed her $130,000 under an agreement tied to her financial support of Dinosaur Adventure Land.¹⁹

1
NCSE. Kent Hovind Sentenced to Ten Years
2
Pensacola News Journal. Hovind Free From Jail, Back in Pensacola
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Tax Division 2007 Results Appendix
4
Pensacola News Journal. Evolution of Dr. Dino
5
GovInfo. United States v. Hovind, Case No. 3:06cr83/MCR
6
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. USA v. Kent E. Hovind, No. 07-10090
7
Forbes. Was Kent Hovind 2006 Structuring Indictment Flawed
8
Justia. USA v. Kent E. Hovind, No. 07-10090
9
The Ledger. Wife of Evangelist Guilty of Tax Fraud
10
Americans United. Fla. Creationist Loses Lawsuit
11
Forbes. Looking at Kent Hovinds Innocence Claims
12
Forbes. Kent Hovinds Battle With the IRS in Retrospect
13
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Hovind v. Commissioner, Agency No. 4245-10
14
Pensacola News Journal. Kent Hovind Retrial
15
GovInfo. United States v. Hovind, Case No. 3:14cr91/MCR
16
Forbes. Free Kent Hovind Movement Has Big Win
17
Forbes. Kent Hovind Trying to Undo His 2006 Conviction
18
AL.com. Alabama Evangelist Kent Hovind Arrested on Domestic Violence Charge
19
Forbes. Kent Hovinds Third Wife Sues Over Financial Commitments
20
Forbes. Kent Hovind Half Billion Lawsuit Ends as He Faces Domestic Assault Charge