A Josephine County man has been sentenced to federal prison for illegally manufacturing marijuana and filing false tax returns with the IRS.
The US Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon reports 52-year-old Steven Shirley was sentenced last week to 24 months in federal prison and five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $290,291 in restitution to the IRS and $12,896 in restitution to the BLM for damage the marijuana grows caused to the environment of federally-managed land.
According to court documents, Shirley began purchasing properties in the Cave Junction area in 2012 as president and minister of Earth Peoples Park, an Oregon nonprofit religious organization. After purchasing a property, Shirley leased the land to third parties and used profits from the lease to purchase more properties.
By 2019, Shirley -- through Earth Peoples Park (EPP) -- owned or co-owned 21 properties in Josephine County and received at least $400,000 per year through property leases.
In September 2019, investigators from the Josephine Marijuana Enforcement Team (JMET) learned 16 of the properties had large-scale unlicensed marijuana grows. On October 21, 2019, JMET executed search warrants and seized more than 15,000 marijuana plants and nine firearms and determined that a portion of BLM lands were used for these grows.
Investigators learned Shirley not only employed and directed staff to illegally grow and harvest marijuana, but he also sold and delivered the marijuana. On June 14, 2021, BLM agents executed search warrants on 11 EPP properties and discovered Shirley continued to illegally manufacture and sell marijuana on lands owned by EPP and the BLM. Agents also seized additional firearms.
As part of the investigation, IRS agents reviewed EPP's religious organization tax exempt status and Shirley's personal tax records from 2015 to 2018. They determined EPP did not qualify as a religious organization and that Shirley used EPP as a for-profit land management company. In addition, agents learned Shirley intentionally underreported lease income by more than $1 million, resulting in $290,000 in unpaid taxes.
