A good number of people congregated at the courthouse for the public auction of three quarters of land owned by Ted and/or Steve Nelson. The property was sold by court order to pay off a debt the Nelsons owe to the Federal Government in unpaid income taxes. According to a notice printed in the Sanborn Weekly Journal, the Nelsons owe $1,831,146.04 in unpaid income taxes. The property taxes on the land for sale were paid except for the last year’s property taxes. 

Before the auction started, a lawyer stood and explained that he was there to represent one of his clients who has a mortgage on one of the quarters of ground for sale. The mortgage was for $85,000 and would have to be added to the price of the land and paid to his client in order for the buyer to own that particular quarter. 

Rich Nebelsick, a representative of the Prairie Hills Farms, spoke to the crowd with the intent to make sure it was on record that the Nelsons don’t actually own the land for sale, but that the group Prairie Hills Farms is the actual owner of the property. The IRS field agent on site, Leslie Anderson, told Nebelsick that a Federal judge had ruled in court that Prairie Hills Farms is actually just a trust created by the Nelsons in order to avoid paying income taxes, and that the court ruling is the legal decision confirming the need and legality of selling the property in order to pay off the debt owed to the IRS. 

…Read on and see more pictures of the auction in this week’s issue of the Sanborn Weekly Journal!