A federal tax fraud conspiracy trial began Monday for two Brunswick men who claimed the Internal Revenue Service had no authority to tax people’s incomes.

One of the men, F. William Messier, 70, is accused of failing to pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars he made leasing the use of radio towers on his property and obstructing the government’s attempts to recover the money.

The other man, 78-year-old David Robinson, with whom Messier co-authored a book about the IRS, is accused of helping Messier avoid paying taxes.

Messier’s attorney, Michael Minns, admitted Monday at the start of the trial in U.S. District Court in Portland that his client failed to pay taxes and sought to thwart the IRS, but he said Messier did so because he is “delusional,” not willfully criminal.

“He is a man who made a lot of money on his cell towers, but he loses a lot of money on foolish, delusional mistakes,” Minns said in his opening statement.

Robinson’s attorney, Joel Vincent, said Robinson believes that every U.S. citizen has a “secret” account created at birth using his or her Social Security number without the dashes and that Robinson encouraged Messier to pay his $170,000 tax debt from that account.

“The issue in this case is, did Mr. Robinson have a good-faith faith belief in the position he was espousing?” Vincent told the jurors.

But prosecutor Karen Kelly, the assistant chief of the Department of Justice’s tax division, said in her opening statement that the men knew what they were doing and intentionally tried to block the government’s collection efforts against Messier.

“Do they really think the IRS laws don’t apply to them, or is this a game to keep more money in their pockets?” Kelly asked.

Messier and Robinson are the authors of the book “Maine Lawsuit Against the IRS: For Unfair Trade Practices,” published in 2012.

Messier faces seven charges – one count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct administration of the tax law, one count of conspiracy and five counts of willful failure to file federal income tax returns.

Robinson faces a single count of conspiracy.

Both men have pleaded not guilty and have remained free since they were indicted by a federal grand jury last June 18.

Messier is accused of failing to file a federal income tax return since 1997. In 2012, the IRS began a collection action against him for back taxes, interest and penalties for the years of 2000 to 2004 totaling $172,000. From 2006 to 2012, Messier received a total gross income that totaled about $677,000, according to the nine-page indictment.

Messier earned more than half of that 2006-2012 income from renting antennae space on radio towers that he owned on his Tower Lane property and by renting access to his property to customers who constructed their own communications towers or located electronic equipment on the property, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Robinson allegedly claimed to be the “Interim Attorney General” of the “Maine Republic Free State,” and urged people not to pay their state and federal taxes, according to the indictment.

Messier’s adult daughter, Lisa Pelletier, testified as the government’s first witness in the case against her father, saying she gave the IRS all the evidence she had against her father after he betrayed her in 2009.

“He’s not my dad anymore,” Pelletier said, referring to her father from the witness stand as “Mr. Messier.”

Pelletier, who was raised by her mother in Wisconsin and had been estranged from her father for most of her life, said he contacted her in 2004 looking to reconnect and began sending her gifts of cash in amounts between $1,000 and $20,000.

Pelletier said her father persuaded her and her husband to quit their jobs and sell their house in Wisconsin on a promise to live on his 18-acre Brunswick property and take over his radio tower business, which netted him $100,000 in cash per year.

“He knew we were not comfortable not paying taxes. We were not going to jail. We were not going to do something illegal,” she testified.

Then Messier abruptly switched in 2009 and angrily reneged his offer for Pelletier and her husband less than two months before they were set to move to Maine, after all their belongings were already moved.

Pelletier said she was so hurt by her father’s reversal that when she received a letter from her father’s credit union informing her of an IRS investigation into Messier for back taxes, she turned on him.

“I ended up going on the IRS website and adding everything I knew about illegal activity,” she said.

Authorities also allege that Messier and Robinson mailed false and frivolous documents to IRS employees and that Messier sent his radio tower customers threatening letters telling customers not to comply with IRS collection efforts.

At least one of Messier’s customers paid double rent for space on a tower after first receiving a letter by the IRS, followed by Messier’s threatening letter.

Jeffrey Bates, who rents tower space from Messier for his business, Active Communications in Brunswick, testified that he paid his rent to the government in the form of a tax levy to settle Messier’s debt and continued paying rent to Messier in cash to keep from upsetting his business relationship.

“It was a business decision,” Bates said. “That radio tower is absolutely critical to my business.”

The trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday with testimony expected from IRS officials.

If convicted, Messier faces up to 13 years in prison and fines totaling $1 million.

Robinson faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

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