A Maui man accused of bilking clients out of more than $700,000 has pleaded guilty to tax and wire fraud for offering to help them hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service and evade taxes, federal prosecutors said.

John David Van Hove, also known as "Johnny Liberty," faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and more than $250,000 in fines when he is sentenced in U.S. District Court on May 15, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Van Hove was arrested in Ashland, Ore., on May 9. He had been indicted on April 7 on charges of wire fraud, obstructing the administration of tax laws and avoiding the filing of individual income tax returns.

Van Hove offered several schemes to clients, including a method by which a client could avoid paying taxes using "common law trusts" to conceal assets and income and offshore trusts and bank accounts, prosecutors said. Van Hove also offered to set up phony businesses overseas for his clients as a way of hiding income and assets from the IRS, prosecutors said.

Van Hove was also accused of bilking an undisclosed number of people of more than $700,000 from at least two of his businesses, Liberty Foundation Services and Abundant Holdings Ltd., according to prosecutors with the U.S. Justice Department.

Most clients lost their money after falling for Van Hove's promise of return rates reaching 25 percent per month, the government said.

Van Hove started operating illegally in 1997 in an unknown location, prosecutors said. He opened a business in Kihei on Maui in December 1998 and operated out of other undisclosed parts of Maui starting in December 1999.

He also is accused of failing to file income tax returns for $281,890 he earned working for the Institute for Global Prosperity, an organization that had been investigated for tax-related crimes in 2002.