We're used to see well-known attorney and politician Arthur Saldivar defending accused persons, but today, he was the one being accused.
According to the General Sales Tax Department Saldivar's law office did not file any tax returns for the entire year of 2011.
And as a result, they took him to Magistrate's Court and charged him with 12 counts of failing to furnish returns for those 12 months.
Saldivar pleaded not guilty to all charges, and asserted that there may be a statute of limitation on some of the counts because they were filed too late.
The matter was adjourned until August 3.
Outside of court, 7News attempted to speak with Saldivar about the allegations, which he referred to as ridiculous, but he flatly refused to comment.
We did manage to reach him by phone later in the morning and he told us that he was not to pay tax to a government that uses his money to pay criminals to keep the peace.
He also said that his clients are so poor that they cannot afford to pay sales tax. He adds that he did go to Belmopan to try to resolve the situation - and did not expect it to go this far.
If Saldivar is indeed found guilty of the charges, he faces a $500 fine for each of the 12 counts.
Attorney Lionel Welch is currently faced with the same situation. He was called up to face charges from the GST Department this morning, but Magistrate Hamilton chose not to deal with the matter until Welch makes an appearance to defend himself.
