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lawsuits. It's official. Cody from Whistle and Diesel has been gagged. Expect a video soon. Why I got gagged? What I'm not allowed to do. I'm going to break it down for you first because I'm also going to give you a breakdown of is this even legal. What is going on with Cody? How is Whistle and Diesel, his company and YouTube channel, basically in the frying pan with a Williamson County courthouse?
Why are they coming after him for fraud? And is this just all rigged entrament? Is this big government coming after our guns, our cars, our money, the rest of it, the other half that they don't already take? Or are they just pissed because, you know, Cody kind of embarrassed him a little bit after the jet ski incident?
Which politician is screwing with Cody? And more importantly, towards the end of this, we need to break down, will Cody end up going to jail? Is this the end of Whistlin Diesel? Let's break it all down. Okay, first let's start with the facts. You might not know, so I'm going to try to be a little quick on the facts just to keep this as straight as possible for you.
So, basically, Whistle and Diesel Cody, he got arrested. He got arrested by deputies from the state of Tennessee and the local county deputies, Williamson County Sheriff's deputies, for unlawfully and willfully evading Tennessee's sales tax laws on a 2020 Ferrari F8 that he registered in Montana that happened to burn down in a cornfield in Waco, Texas.
Yes. Now, apparently Cody bought this car for his typical durability test challenge where he puts cars through extreme tests to see if they can survive. He's done it with a cyber truck. And let's [snorts] just say burning the car down wasn't necessarily what got him in trouble, but it certainly put a highlighter under what was going on because the car very clearly had a Montana license plate.
We up. And that's where things get interesting. See, he bought the car in Montana under a Montana limited liability company, which you could set up very cheaply going to websites like this, my Montana LLC.com. Register your vehicles in Montana using a limited liability company. Our priority is your satisfaction and saving you money.
Now, what kind of money could you possibly save by spending maybe a few hundred bucks or maybe even a thousand bucks by buying a car through a company like this that's going to set you up a I hate to say it, but sort of like cover LLC that might not actually be a business in Montana. This is the Montana title, clean title to my $400,000 Ferrari F8, which sales tax in Tennessee would be roughly $30,000 or something like that.
And so this car, this Ferrari was titled and registered in Montana. This is known as the Montana tax loophole. And that's where Tennessee says, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We want our taxes. We're not playing this sham game." Now, these are allegations. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
These are criminal fraud charges. But where am I getting this from? Well, Cody says it himself. In fact, here is Cody saying that 85% of owners do this and have a legitimate business in Montana. I should remind you 85% of luxury car owners have a business in Montana. There is an option to have a business in Montana that holds your assets that is not you.
It holds your assets in Montana where you can run business out of that just so happens to not require sales tax on specifically vehicles or luxury items. Especially many luxury car owners have businesses in Montana. Now, this is where Cody might actually want to talk to his attorneys because the more he talks on YouTube, the more he might actually be setting up for the case against him.
See, this is why attorneys don't like it when you start yapping on the internet because if you say things like, "Hey, 85% of people do this and they have legitimate businesses in Montana." But do you, Cody? So, he's kind of setting up for the case against him. , Tennessee clearly disagrees with Cody's assessment.
Tennessee has been investigating Cody for over a year. A special agent, I guess, from the state called my accountant. That was a year ago. And they are charging Cody a use tax. Now, why are they not just sending him a letter saying, "Yo, bro, you owe us this tax." Because the state of Tennessee says that Cody, and they're alleging this, [snorts] fraudulently lied to the state of Tennessee, saying, "I have a business in Montana and the car doesn't even show up in Tennessee.
Therefore, I don't have to pay your Tennessee use taxes." And Tennessee is like, "Huh, that's really interesting because here's the Whistland Diesel compound. We know this is your compound because here it is with you giving a tour to other people saying you know this is your compound. All right. We are here today at Whistland Diesel's compound.
So I think I know enough about your stuff to be dangerous but then here is the Ferrari in that very compound. Like the way I'm treating my Ferrari. You can treat your Ferrari extra nice. Get it? Cuz they don't have a Ferrari. Yeah. And if Tennessee can then say, "Hey, here's the address of that compound.
In fact, we arrested you at that very compound," then Tennessee can say, "It certainly looks like you're using this vehicle in Tennessee. After all, here it is getting used in Tennessee." Now, of course, we could argue that makes it kind of look like a prop, which it certainly does, but it obviously had to get there.
And the whole point of use taxes is to pay for things like roads and bridges and the public infrastructure that lets you drive that vehicle. Two wheel drive car. This will kill you to your very garage. Those are the use taxes that were not paid to the state of Tennessee. Now, where do we know that these use taxes or sales taxes are required on this?
Well, if you go to the state of Tennessee's website, they're actually very clear about it. They say the following quote, "The use tax is the counterpart to the sales tax. All individuals as well as businesses operating in the state." Operating is a key word because it doesn't say driving cars in the estate.
It says, "Hey, if you're using a vehicle or operating any kind of asset in the state, you must pay a use tax when the sales tax was not collected by the seller on otherwise taxable products brought or shipped into Tennessee." the car was certainly brought or shipped into Tennessee. It doesn't even say driving and it says it applies to all other blah blah blah blah blah.
Okay, so got it. That's essentially the Tennessee argument is that hey, you brought this vehicle to Tennessee. You drove it on the roads. You used it in your studio. You used it in your garage. You set up a sham LLC in Montana. That's their allegation. Maybe he's got a legitimate business in Montana.
In fact, Cody tells us, "Hey, hey, hey, I'm thinking about buying property in Montana. I'm actually in the middle of purchasing property in Montana right now." Side note, thinking about or buying property in Montana doesn't mean back when you bought this property, you actually had a legitimate business in Montana.
So, that's a little bit problematic for Cody, but we'll talk about that. The state of Tennessee is pretty blunt here. They're like, "Hey, like if you bring products into the state and you don't pay taxes, you owe use taxes." Now, Cody seems to know this and he kind of makes the argument on YouTube that, hey, well, you know, they should teach us better.
Don't get me wrong, our schools don't do a great job for us. There's no doubt about that. But this is really Tennessee playing 4D chess. See, Cody is arguing, well, we need more education or like how many hours would it take to qualify for this to be used in Tennessee? Currently, we are asking the state, what is the qualification for the amount of time that that vehicle would be in or operated out of Tennessee when there's no information or education provided on it.
Tennessee isn't worried about how many hours. They're worried about, hey, if you use it at all in Tennessee, we want our money. And 4D chess move, well, that's the entertaining part. See, the charges against Cody are the following. Tax evasion, willful attempt. So, a willful attempt under subsection G of 671140.
Okay. Well, what does that section G say? Section G says it is a class E felony for any person to willfully attempt in any manner to evade or defeat any tax due to the state of Tennessee and that is a violation each time you do it. So potentially for every single car you've done this with. Now, for a little bit more context, there's a different subsection here that basically argues if you delay, hamper, hinder, impede, or obstruct the state of Tennessee in the collection of its lawful revenue or you fabricate or falsify records, there could be even more charges against you.
So, if he falsified his Montana LLC, they might not just stop at G, they could also potentially start layering on more issues in their investigation. Now, this is a problem. This creates the dual argument, right? On one hand, you have the prosecution going, "Listen, we're going to pierce the corporate veil.
We're going to say, "We don't care that you have an LLC. The LLC is actually you. There's no difference between you and the ML uh the LLC. You had no real plans to move to Montana. The car was here in your garage, and here's the address of your garage. Here's you potentially, you know, buying gas in Tennessee or showing an Instagram post of this, that, or whatever." you know, they got to stalk them to put the case together.
And then they say, "Look, the Montana LLC was just a sham. You pay a few hundred bucks to this company that sets up your LLC. You save 27 grand. Hey, you win." Right? Wrong. This is Tennessee trying to shut down this loophole using Cody as a pawn or an example. And it really sucks for Cody because because he's a public figure, he is being used as an example.
Now, his goal is going to be to prove that the car was never in Tennessee. But that's going to be hard to do unless somehow he's got a duplicate set of his garage basically. I don't think the broom is a problem really in a different state. Him destroying it in Texas really doesn't matter. Him saying he's buying land in Montana really doesn't matter unless he could prove he has a real business in Montana.
But it's not just that Tennessee problem. We also have this argument that Whistle and Diesel was being entrapped. And see, this is where the gag order comes in. A judge has said, "Hey, you're not allowed to reveal any kind of non-public information about this case." We'll talk about gag orders in just a moment, but Cody in this now deleted footage reveals that his CPA was contacted and instructed not to tell Cody about the ongoing investigation, which seems wrong, right?
But before I play you the clip, understand the definition of entrapment. Entrament is a legal defense that you can claim when you essentially say, "Hey, I was induced by law enforcement to commit a crime that I would not have otherwise committed." So, in other words, you pushed me into a corner and you made me do the crime.
That's entrament. Saying, "You committed a crime, we're investigating you, don't tell anyone about this investigation," isn't entrament. It's making an investigation on an incident or conducting an investigation on incident that already occurred. So, I don't think the enttrapment argument is going to go very far for Cody.
But don't worry, I have good news when it comes to Cody. And we'll talk about that and the gag order after I show you the now deleted portion, which I will say doesn't feel right. It feels like they are making an example of Cody. And frankly, that's exactly what they're doing. The whole point of this, in my opinion, is to kill the Montana LLC loophole.
That's it. And I guarantee you, well, I mean, I guess I can't guarantee you, but I would argue that LLC signups for Montana LLC's are already plummeting since this arrest. So, I think Tennessee is already winning. But let's go ahead and play the clip and then let's talk about gag orders and LLC's. We contacted my accountant.
She pays my federal taxes, my income taxes, and everything else. She handles my finances. She handles my my cars, my payments. And she's a good accountant because when they called her, a special agent, I guess, from the state called my accountant and they asked her all these questions. They said, "Uh, do you do you give Cody financial advice?" Uh, they asked him questions about Montana LLC's.
And they were they were kind of digging. It says in the document, she called them back and asked if there was a problem with Debtweilers's Montana registrations. She asked if we should move all of the Montana assets to Tennessee. In other words, register them in Tennessee and pay the sales tax. The accountant was advised not to speak to Debtweiler about the conversation and to leave assets as they were until the investigation was complete.
That was a year ago. instead of saying that I owed any tax or sending a bill or a letter or a notification or notice or telling my accountant that she should talk to me and and let's get this taken care of so that we can be in compliance with the law. They asked that I not be informed about it. I don't know about you guys, and this isn't me defending myself, but that is wild.
So, they wanted me to not know. That just shows me that this was not about the money. This was never about the money. This was not about $27,000. This was about sending a message. So, I don't know if they targeted this and like chose me on purpose cuz they thought it would get like the word out that they're collecting tax.
You better move your registrations to Tennessee. All right. So, obviously here you've now seen that Cody CPA was instructed not to tell Cody about the investigation. Again, you can't say it's entrament because he kind of already went through what the alleged crime is. and that happened in spite of any kind of investigation or potentially even before the investigations.
We don't know. All the details will come out soon enough or they won't because a lot of these things end up getting settled sort of like the jet ski incident under NDA and then we never end up hearing what the actual truth was. But see, a problem that a lot of people forget is that LLC's don't actually protect you as well as you might think.
And that's where we enter problem number three, the 30B6 deposition. Ah, the 30B6 deposition. See, people think that LLC's or corporate veils like S corps or corporations protect them, but unless you know what a 30B6 deposition is, you're probably not protected. A 30B6 deposition is where you get asked under oath to testify and prove how you are actually somehow different from the entity that you propose to have.
So, just because you go file LLC paperwork gives you no actual protection. You have to show that well in the case of Cody, you actually have legitimate businesses in Montana and bank accounts and transactions and residences or business locations or collect mail or whatever in Montana. And if you can't prove that, it actually hurts your ability to say you had the LLC in the first place, which then just doubles down on the argument that Tennessee is going to say you set up a sham entity in Montana to scam us out of youth taxes.
That's their argument. Now, I see some people on social media say, "Well, I mean, like, what if Cody got a letter and he just didn't get the mail in Montana." Okay. Well, unfortunately, that just reiterates the problem. You don't actually pick up your mail in Montana because it's a sham address. That would be part of the allegation, right?
And so, this is where he's probably not in the best of positions. But don't worry, I think Whistle and Diesel is going to be okay. And I'm going to tell you how this is all going to settle out. First, let's hit the gag order. So, there was a gag order today. Well, a hearing on a motion for a gag order today on December 8th.
A judge entered into a limited gag order, not what was initially filed for, but a limited version. And the gag order basically is designed to prevent the reveal of public information or non-public information. Correction, non-public information. So, Cody is free to talk about public information. But in his last video about I'm being silenced, Cody holds up an investigative report and says, "I have all the details in this investigative report." And right here, I have a many page long investigative report on all the details of this case.
Now, I can't say I was too surprised when I read this because a lot of it made sense. But I did laugh when I was reading it. I don't know about you guys, and this isn't me defending myself. Part of that is the clip that I already played for you where he talks about his CPA getting called on by investigators and he gets told or the CPA gets told not to tell Cody.
That portion has since been deleted from Cody's YouTube video. Why? it's been deleted because the judge doesn't want sealed non-public information to potentially obstruct or screw up the legal process. And so this is where a lot of people freak out and they say, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. How is it legal to stop Cody from talking about this?
How is this acceptable?" All right, few things to break down here. Number one, from a very basic point of view, non-public information can be concealed from the public to actually allow a fair trial. Now, that might sound crazy, but listen to this. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the right to a fair trial via the Sixth Amendment is more important than free speech, the First Amendment, because they don't want participants in a legal trial to turn the trial into a circus.
That is people showing up at courouses or police departments you throwing papers and demanding Cody get freed. Not that Cody at all implies that people should show up and essentially peacefully protest for him. Oh, wait. That's exactly what he does. If you guys have a role in any form, whether that's physical, if you are showing up to the courthouse or if there's any communication to anyone in the department of revenue, just please be respectful.
But again, the Supreme Court actually says that it is a judge's constitutional duty to shut down the one-sided release of information because the Sixth Amendment and the right to a fair trial is more important than that of free speech. Now, that doesn't mean that Cody can't talk about publicly known information.
It just means Cody is not allowed to hold up documents going, "Look at the evidence in this case." Much like the district attorney isn't holding up papers going, "Look, Cody set up a sham entity." And this way, the case is then publicly litigated on YouTube instead of in court, where then jurors in Williamson County are like, "Well, I subscribe to Cody, but not the district attorney, so I like his explanation." It's jury tainting and potentially obstructs a fair trial.
That's what the judge is ruling here. Now, we can agree or disagree with this, but let's just get to the bottom line of all of this. What is the likely outcome? Well, in my opinion, this case is extremely likely to settle. I think that this case will quietly disappear, much like Cody's jet ski incident, and this will quietly get settled under a non-disclosure agreement, and we'll actually never end up knowing all of the details of what Cody did or didn't do.
Instead, Cody won't go to jail. He'll just pay some back taxes and penalties, which he's probably earned more than enough money from selling merchandise. Talking about this case now, the Montana tax loophole will probably die, frankly, a rightful death. So, the Montana tax loophole will probably die and Tennessee will win big, which is the whole point.
The whole point of this is to make a circus for Tennessee so Tennessee can collect more tax revenue and the lawyers who write LLC's in Montana lose business and people like Cody pay more money in taxes. Cody realizes that this is likely, which is probably why he says from now on he'll probably just end up borrowing cars for durability tests.
There's also the possibility that Cody will sue his CPA for that alleged entrapment, though it probably won't go anywhere with the actual CPA, though you might end up seeing the CPA's errors and omissions insurance kick in and pay Cody some kind of undisclosed settlement. So, you know, do I think that this is going to hurt Cody's ability to start a family in the country that he was born and raised in, which is really the logical fallacy of an appeal to pity, appeal to patriotism, or an appeal to ignorance, or that, you know, everybody's trying to silence Cody, which is ignoring the facts of what's actually going on.
they're afraid of him or that, you know, there are people on the street killing people and why isn't essentially the revenue department of Tennessee worried about the people dying on the streets, which is really just a red herring. Let's be real, this is all a lot of drama. And it's exactly what Tennessee wants.
Tennessee wants people debating Cody's red herrings, whether what he did was right or wrong, whether there's an abuse of government here, uh, or an abuse of the Department of Justice, or that taxation is theft. people like this is such these are all little pools of gasoline almost like gasoline you might find under a rental van in Waco, Texas because how else would a van in Waco, Texas catch fire when it's 10 ft away from the back right tire of a car that's on fire and suddenly the front right tire of a car that's parked all the way on the other side of it catches on fire.
These are all like little pools of Tennessee fire gas that are just lit and they're designed to create drama to get people to bring attention to this Montana tax loophole so that way you learn to not use the Montana tax loophol.
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