CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown are scheduled – but not expected – to be in federal court today to learn their sentences.

The Browns were convicted in January of plotting to conceal their income and avoid paying federal income tax. They are holed up in their fortress-like compound in Plainfield and say they will stay there despite convictions or arrest warrants.

“I don’t recognize these people. They don’t exist. They’re a corporation. They’re a fiction in my life. This was my investigation into that,” Brown about the government in a telephone interview on Monday. “I’ve concluded my investigation. I’ve found a criminal element within our administrative government acting in an unlawful due process of law.”

The Browns, who have defended themselves through criticism of the government and conspiracy theories, stopped attending their trial halfway through it. Elaine Brown returned to court at the end and to be convicted; Ed Brown remained on their 110-acre hilltop retreat that features a watchtower that offers 360-degree views of the rural setting.

A jury decided in January the Browns engaged in a scheme to hide Elaine Brown’s income of $1.9 million between 1996 and 2003. Jurors also found that over 10 years, the couple also used $215,890 of postal money orders – broken into increments just below the reporting threshold -to pay for their hilltop compound and for Elaine Brown’s dental practice.

After the verdict, Elaine Brown was released to her son in Worcester, Mass., and promised the judge she would have no contact with her husband.

At the time, Brown said her husband’s tactics weren’t hers.

“It’s not in my mind-set or my character (to join him),” she said. “I have no intention of returning (to the house) as long as he’s there.”

But she violated her bond agreement and returned to their Plainfield home.

“I don’t want her to barricade herself with her husband up there,” U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe said while debating whether to release her to her son or keep her in jail.

On Monday, Ed Brown said his wife, who earned most of the couple’s income, wouldn’t attend the proceedings today.

“I speak for her. You speak to the head. You don’t speak to the woman. That’s the way it was until the last decade or so,” Brown said.

Prosecutors are recommending sentences of more than six years each.

U.S. marshals have remained in contact with the Browns. Videos of their conversations were posted on the Internet, where fervent supporters pledged to defend the Browns.

Brown, a former militiaman who carries a gun, told reporters in January he expected federal agents to attack him any time.

He gave up part of his weapons cache before the trial began, but either restocked or hid part from authorities who inspected the house.

Brown also says snipers were in the woods around his house and he was under surveillance.

Officials dismissed the suspicions.

Negotiators said they have no plans to attack Brown’s home, which has concrete walls and can run on wind and solar power. Brown said he has a stock of food and supplies.

But prosecutors say the government has a plan in place.

“By returning to their residence and repeatedly threatening violence against any lawful attempts to apprehend them, the defendants have put the government in a position where it has needed to develop special plans to take the defendants into custody and to develop and implement heightened security measures,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

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