Let me get this straight: by your reasoning because Hovind told his WIFE that he doesn't know why he's being prosecuted, he's most likely telling the TRUTH? 'Cus, you know, nobody lies to their spouse, especially in times of crisis. HA HA HA HA! You just made my day.
Nope, there's no way we can exclude his claim of tax ignorance from the long list of things Hovind has KNOWINGLY lied about and, until this point, gotten away with.
I don't see any problem debating sentencing (10 years sounds about right to me, however) but if as soon as you start thinking to yourself "hey, maybe this guy really is just ignorant about tax laws," then you might as well start believing that he's really just ignorant about AIDS, cancer treatments, dinosaurs in the bible, phony doctorates and so on. Yeah, he must be the dumbest guy on earth.
I think so many people here are feeling a deep sense of shadenfreude now because nobody likes a liar regardless of the lie. Also, and I say this to some of you [Texas?] folk out there: hoarding hundreds of thousands of dollars that belong to the American people is NOT a "petty" crime.