TAX DODGERS: DON’T BANK ON IT

PROTEST For years the American Liberty Association, a farthest-right group founded by Dallasite TOM DONAHUE to “promote the U.S. Constitution,” offered its members a unique service: a private. IRS-proof bank where accounts were identified only by numbers. The ALA also held seminars on the alleged illegality of the Federal Reserve System and other hot topics in the so-called “patriot movement,” in which many members refuse to file tax returns or carry driver’s licenses.

But the patriots are bickering, AL SUGAR, a former ALA member, now accuses Donahue of absconding with some $300,000 from the uninsured ALA bank. Donahue, who recently resurrected the ALA after a seven-month hiatus, says he stole nothing. In turn, he accuses one Steve Schneider of embezzling $1.3 million from the bank before fleeing to the Pacific Northwest.

Donahue says he had hired Schneider, a 6-foot-2, 400-pounder who claimed to wrestle under the name “Man Mountain Mike,” to help collect money lost by ALA investors in a Mexican peso scheme. The giant, passing as a member of the Banditos motorcycle gang, made a very good collector, Donahue says.

Donahue blames a former assistant, MARTIN PYLE, for the effort to pin the embezzlement on him. Pyle, who denies Donahue’s charges, left ALA to found the Texas Liberty Association, which also gives its members banking privileges without those messy paper trails.

“Martin’s afraid because he knows I’m a better communicator,” Donahue says. “They’re not offering anything that reaches out to the community and brings in new blood.”