Ex-Ku Klux Klan leader Duke faces prison

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who took his call for “white survival” to Europe during an investigation into his activities, today admitted charges of mail fraud and filing a false tax return.

He faces up to 15 months in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. Sentencing was set for March 19.

The plea in a New Orleans court came two days after his lawyer said Duke had returned to Louisiana to negotiate with prosecutors after three years out of the country.

Until his return late last week, Duke had been lecturing and speaking in Russia and other European countries in what became a crusade for what he called “white survival” against Jews and non-Europeans.

He was accused of filing a false 1998 tax return. The mail fraud charge accuses him of “obtaining a substantial sum of money” through mail solicitations and misusing the money.

His lawyer Jim McPherson, said before the hearing that the Justice Department had been examining Duke for possible income tax violations involving the sale of a list of his supporters to state Governor Mike Foster in 1995.

Duke had just started a speaking tour in Russia in January 2000 when federal agents raided his Louisiana home.

A search warrant, based on testimony from confidential informants, alleged Duke took hundreds of thousands of dollars he solicited from supporters and gambled the money away at casinos.