Uncle Sam's $100M Mistake

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/28/politics/main2618023.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_2618023

Uncle Sam's $100M Mistake
Poorly Written Justice Dept. Documents Cost Feds A Bundle In Income Tax Case


WASHINGTON, March 28, 2007
(AP / CBS)

Authorities said Anderson used offshore corporations to disguise his ownership in telecommunications companies that earned over $450 million between 1995 and 1999. He allegedly did not file federal income tax returns from 1987 to 1993.

(AP) Poorly written Justice Department documents have cost the federal government more than $100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the biggest tax prosecution ever.

Walter Anderson, the telecommunications entrepreneur who admitted hiding hundreds of millions of dollars from the IRS and District of Columbia tax collectors, was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison and ordered to repay about $23 million to the city.

But U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said he couldn't order Anderson to repay the federal government $100 million to $175 million because the Justice Department's binding plea agreement with Anderson listed the wrong statute.

Friedman said he could have worked around that problem by ordering Anderson to repay the money as part of his probation. But prosecutors omitted any discussion of probation - a common element of plea deals - from Anderson's paperwork.

"I've come to the conclusion, very reluctantly, that I have no authority to order restitution," Friedman said. "I hope the government will appeal me."

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