The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil injunction lawsuit against Dr. Joseph Johnson, a serial entrepreneur whose latest venture is the Christian company Life Surge. The DOJ’s lawsuit pertains to a former company of Johnson’s, The Welfont Group, and accuses him of for more than a decade orchestrating a multi-state tax scheme involving inflated property appraisals and improper charitable deductions.
Federal attorneys say Johnson was the “architect” of “as many as 190 abusive bargain sale transactions” and claim the conduct might have caused “as much as $46 million” in “total tax harm.”
The DOJ lawsuit, filed Aug. 5, describes the same alleged patterns of misconduct that were related in at least five previous lawsuits filed against Welfont by property owners in different states that were litigated in federal court from 2020 to 2024.
In an extensive statement to ChurchLeaders, Johnson denied all wrongdoing and said the IRS has targeted him for years because of his conservative Christian views.
What the DOJ Is Alleging Against Dr. Joseph Johnson
Dr. Joseph Johnson describes himself as a “seasoned entrepreneur” with “over 30 years of experience in building and scaling companies.” According to his LinkedIn profile, from 2014 to 2019 Johnson served as CEO, founder, and shareholder of The Welfont Group, which marketed the tax strategy now under scrutiny. The Division of Corporations for the State of Florida currently lists Welfont’s status as inactive.
After leaving Welfont, Johnson founded Life Surge, a Christian organization known for its large, one-day events throughout the U.S. and which also offers education in trading, real estate and business. Johnson left his role as CEO of Life Surge in September 2025 and now serves in a founder role. Life Surge is neither named nor accused in any of the lawsuits.
ChurchLeaders spoke to Johnson for a 2024 article on Life Surge, interviewed Life Surge President Shawn Marcell in August of this year, and attended a Life Surge event in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Sept 27.
Marcell is not named in the federal lawsuit against Johnson, although Marcell is listed as a defendant in two of the prior civil suits against Welfont (in one of these, presumably as “Sean Marcel”). An archived page of Welfont’s website, which is no longer live, says Marcell served as CEO of Welfont.
According to court filings, the Justice Department says Johnson promoted a strategy known as a “bargain sale,” which allows property owners to sell their property to a nonprofit at a discount and claim a tax deduction based on the appraised value.
Federal prosecutors allege that Welfont’s transactions followed a repeated pattern:
- A property owner was told he or she could receive large tax savings.
- The property was given an inflated appraisal above actual market value using “bogus interpretations of IRS guidance, and other spurious methodological techniques, unsupported assumptions, and omissions.”
- The owner sold the property to a charity (“or purported charities”) at a steep discount.
- The charity resold the property “on the same day or within a few days of the bargain sale closing” at a lower value than was given by the appraisal.
- The IRS found property owners to have taken “large and unwarranted charitable deductions.”
The DOJ says that audits of these bargain sale transactions show an average disallowed deduction of more than $500,000 per return. The DOJ further alleges that Johnson supervised the entire process, including selecting the appraisers of the properties and the charities that purchased the properties.
One of the DOJ’s allegations is that Johnson controlled one of the charities involved in “at least 52 abusive bargain sale transactions” and that this charity was not actually a 501(c)(3). The DOJ further claimed that Johnson used multiple for-profit entities, as well as “purported charities,” to “broker abusive bargain sale transactions.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil injunction lawsuit against Dr. Joseph Johnson, a serial entrepreneur whose latest venture is the Christian company Life Surge.Click to Post
