By: Dr. Jerry Bergman
Montpelier, Ohio
. . . And all appeals failed, forcing him to serve the sentence. The law he supposedly violated was designed to catch drug dealers, but it also caught at least one creationist.
I recently watched the set of 20 debate videos involving Kent Hovind and an evolution professor. Hovind clearly is a master debater, better than any other creationist, including me. He is well-prepared, articulate, poised, and often uses humor in the debate.
He relies heavily on PowerPoint, including copies of the book pages he refers to. Hovind has effectively responded to almost every possible question related to creation.
In contrast, partly out of frustration over the fact that Hovind was clearly very effective, his opponents often resort to name-calling while on the debate stage, referring to Hovind as a science denier, a pusher of pseudoscience, stupid, and a liar.
His debaters ranged from fairly competent to incompetent. I often felt sorry for many of them, most of whom could not defend their position. To be fair, Hovind had a lot of experience debating and honing his presentation during his over 700 debates.
He focused on now-refuted, evolutionary claims, including useless organs. Example: the os coccyx is a useless remnant of our tail when we were apes. In fact, it is an essential anchor point for nine muscle attachments, plus tendons and ligaments.
It surprised me that his debaters were not aware of the documented uses for all once claimed vestigial organ examples. Or Ernst Haeckel’s 19th-century embryo drawings, now proven forgeries. He often quoted evolutionists who questioned the veracity of some aspect of evolution.
Some evolutionists resorted to attacking the Bible, which does not help the evolutionist’s cause. The goal of evolutionists was to discredit him or, ideally, to send him to jail for a decade, which is exactly what happened.
My review of the case against him supports the position that he was lynched. All appeals also failed, which is not surprising. Of the over 200 cases of discrimination against creationists I researched, some in great detail, all lost in court, and all failed to overturn their case on appeal. Of course, Hovind’s opponents were joyously jubilant over his conviction.
The Law He Allegedly Violated: Structuring
Anti-structuring laws (31 U.S.C. § 5324) were originally enacted to intercept drug cartels and money laundering operations.
The Inspector General reviewed 278 IRS structuring cases, finding that 91 percent involved honest citizens, including jewelry store owners, restaurant managers, gas station operators, and scrap metal dealers (www.nyccriminalattorneys.com/what-is-structuring-cash-deposits/).
Hovind, as is also true of me, was both unschooled and naive of these laws. If you withdraw over $10,000 from your bank, the bank must fill out a form called a cash transaction report (CTR) form.
If you have two transactions in one day that are each less than $10,000 but together total over $10,000, you have structured transactions. Once every two weeks Hovind’s wife went to the bank to take out $9,500 for paying bills, and the bank filled out the forms.
When arrested for structuring, he had taken out less than $10,000 45 times, thus he was charged with 45 counts. His attorney said, “Don’t bother giving a defense because you did nothing wrong.” In the end, Hovind was sentenced to ten years in prison for taking his own money out of his bank 45 times.
On average, historically 14 to 20 months of actual time was served for structuring, and some of these cases involved tens of millions of dollars.
Clearly, his enemies wanted to shut him up as is obvious from the hundreds of comments condemning him on various websites: “The atheists couldn’t silence him on evolution, so they had to structure a crime to silence him.
“He is a con man and not a real doctor. Keep on lying Hovind.” “Don’t pay your taxes and try to cover it up will get anyone locked up. Pushing garbage science is Hovind’s real crime.
“He went to prison because of a government that sought to stop a good man.” “Kent Hovind is a lying snake. His seminars are utter garbage, and it takes eons to unravel the mountain of lies he spouts.”
Conducting two cash transactions in one day that total over $10,000 is not automatically illegal structuring. Under federal law (31 U.S. Code § 5324), structuring only occurs if you deliberately break up a single large transaction into smaller amounts for the purpose of evading the bank’s requirement to file a CTR.
The “structuring crime depends entirely on intent. If it is driven strictly by legitimate business, or personal timing needs—and not by a desire to hide the transaction from the government—no crime was committed.” (www.wilmerhale.com/en/insights/client-alerts/20251028-fincen-clarifies-suspicious-activity-reporting-requirements).
Hovind was not a drug dealer nor did he use illegal drugs, so was not concerned about hiding transactions. At some level, the motive was to stop Hovind from critiquing evolution. This goal was very successful. He lost his ministry and has not to this day been able to fully revive it.
Another concern was paying income tax on his part time help, most full time students. Paying or filing federal income taxes depends primarily on gross income, filing status, and age.
The minimum threshold matching the IRS Standard Deduction, which for 2026 is $32,200 for married couples filing jointly, $16,100 for single filers and Head of Household: $24,150. You do not need to file federal income tax if your gross income falls below these limits. Evaluating this was very complex.
The average cost to the state of a decade in prison is 80,000. And Hovind did not work for a decade, thus he had no income to pay taxes on. The proper response is to fine him and require him to pay what is owed, and let him work so he can pay his taxes.
He cannot earn money to pay any taxes owed or fines if he is in prison. Hovind, as is true of many of us, is gifted in one area, neglect in other areas. When in prison, he was moved 32 times.
He was imprisoned first in Pensacola, which allowed his family to visit, and then ended up in New Hampshire and Colorado. He also answered over 8,000 letters.
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Dr. Bergman is a multi-award-winning professor and author. He has 9 degrees and has taught at both the graduate and undergraduate level for over 40 years. His over 2,100 publications are in both scholarly and popular journals. Dr. Bergman’s work has been translated into 15 languages. He has spoken over 2,000 times to college, university and church groups in America, Canada, Europe, the South Sea Islands, and Africa. He lives in Montpelier and is available to present in churches and schools. Jerry can be reached at JerryBergman30@yahoo.com Bergman’s website is: https://crev.info/author/jbergman/
