Airport Owner may go to Jail

Tom-D

Tom-D

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Tom-D
I know that I had hoped to have new hangers under construction at the Airport and other improvements by now. Unfortunately I have been distracted by personal problems that have sapped all my energy and time. My situation is serious enough that I could be jailed further delaying any progress I am therefore appealing to all those who have an interest in the Airport to come to my aid.. The situation is as follows:I recently pled guilty to filing a tax return that did not report a Swiss bank account that belonged to me. I have accepted responsibility for violating the tax laws and I am to be sentenced arch 4, 2011 by Federal District Court Judge Coughenour. My attorneys have advised me that letters to Judge Coughenour from those that know me can be very important to the judge in deciding what sentence to impose. Enclosed is a letter from my attorneys explaining the letter writing process in detail. I would deeply appreciate your help.
I have agreed to pay a fine of over $2 million, which is essentially what was left in the account after the most recent market decline. I recognize the judge has considerable discretion to require, in addition to the fine, that I serve a period of probation, home detention, public service, and/or some jail time. I am prepared to accept the Judge's decision. I am most hopeful that he will determine jail time is unnecessary in my case. The judge's decision will be based on what kind of sentence is sufficient to discourage others from cheating on their taxes and on his opinion of what kind of person I am, what kind of life I have led, and if I am remorseful and have received sufficient punishment.As you may have heard or read in the media, the government obtained the names of some 250 United States citizens who have maintained and not reported Swiss bank accounts. My case is the result of those efforts. So far, only 13 people have stepped forward and pled guilty as I have. Of those already sentenced, 4 received prison sentences, have received home detention and 4 have received probation.I think you know the last two years have been particularly difficult for me because of the death of my son, Jesse. I am making every effort to deal with that issue and resulting health problems, and to make a positive contribution to myself and others for the life that I have left. I understand that any incidents that you can recall where I helped others, where I gave back to the community will be helpful. I think comments regarding how sincere my repentance is and how I am suffering as a result of this crime will convince the judge that home detention or probation is enough, and isn't taken as a slap on the wrist. I think that you have a unique perspective on my character and actions since you have known me. I think it will be helpful to mention the work I have done on behalf of the community in keeping the Airport open and our efforts to get scheduled air service for the community. I hope the Judge will sentence me to home detention/work release so I can put this behind me and concentrate on completing this project. Obviously if I'm sentenced to jail the Airport projects will have to languish .I hope to convince the judge that I am an honest person with a good reputation and that this major mistake was a one-time aberration. Being branded a felon, the embarrassment of the publicity and the resulting inability to travel freely is severe punishment to happen
in the twilight of a life.I am embarrassed by my actions and the resulting hurt to my friends and family. Please feel free to just say no to this request as I
recognize that this is my problem, my responsibility and my burden to bear. If you have any questions or thoughts on this please call me. If you choose to write a letter it would probably be easiest if you emailed me a draft that I could forward to my attorney for his input and suggestions. Please call me if there are any questions. Feel free to discuss this with others in the Airport community as any suggestions or assistance available will be appreciated
Thank you again
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Would you write the letter??
 
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If, during the time you have known this person, he has exhibited kindness and good character, then yes, you should do so.

Ultimately, of course, entirely discretionary- whatever your conscience demands.
 
Tom sorry to hear of your troubles. One issue I take with the Judge, and our system, is the statement in your post about "punishment to discourage others". Sorry but I am the kind of person that thinks the punishment should be based solely on the case and the person involved and no consideration whatsoever should be given as how to make the punishment a discouragement for others.

YOU are being sentenced for what you did, not to serve as an example to someone else.

Anyways...good luck with it all.
 
Tom, just to clarify. This is a request from someone else for you to write a letter, correct? If I had 2 million in an offshore account, I for one would not be borrowing airplanes.:D
 
I for 2 would be outta here....!!!
 
tdager said:
Tom sorry to hear of your troubles. One issue I take with the Judge, and our system, is the statement in your post about "punishment to discourage others". Sorry but I am the kind of person that thinks the punishment should be based solely on the case and the person involved and no consideration whatsoever should be given as how to make the punishment a discouragement for others.

YOU are being sentenced for what you did, not to serve as an example to someone else.

Anyways...good luck with it all.
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Good news is, I am pretty certain Tom is not the Bad Boy here; he is being asked to write such a letter for someone else.

As for sentencing, in federal practice, the discretion a judge has is much narrower than once it was, but the judge does still have some discretion. In this context, it is helpful for a judge to know the kind pf person he is dealing with - is it a habitual offender, someone whose persistent disdain for the law and society leads him to serially do bad things; or is he someone who, through bad judgment, bad advice or mistake, committed a criminal act?

It is helpful for a judge to know these things, and it is proper for a judge to take these things into account.
 
It always amazes me how a "person" who is smart enough to be able to generate income to pay a 2 million dollar fine CANNOT spell 'hangar' correctly. The letter sounds like the author is playing on pilots sympathy. Laying a guilt trip like 'help me out and you get hangars built' in about as low as someone can get.

I say..... Life without parole..:hairraise::hairraise:
 
What's the point of going through all the trouble of opening up a discreet Swiss bank account to stash your $2+ million if you have to report it?

THIS IS GOVERNMENT TYRANNY!

I mean if we can't trust the financial advice of Hollywood spy movies....
 
Considering that Tom is based at A.J. Eisenberg Airport, and there is this story regarding Arthur Joel Eisenberg, of Seattle, who has pled guilty to just such charges, I think it's Mr. Eisenberg, not Tom who is the author of said letter.

http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/UBS-Client-Pleads-Guilty-Filing-False-Tax-Return-56683-1.html

Arthur Joel Eisenberg pleaded guilty Dec. 17, 2010 in Seattle in federal court to filing a false tax return. He faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced on March 4.
Eisenberg admitted that he failed to disclose on a tax return he filed in December 2005 that he had financial accounts at UBS in Switzerland. He also failed to report the income earned on his UBS Swiss bank accounts. At the end of 2004, the total balance of Eisenberg’s various UBS accounts exceeded $3.1 million. Eisenberg opened a bank account at the Cayman Islands branch of UBS as early as 1983. The assets held in the account were later transferred to UBS AG in Zurich, Switzerland.
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steingar said:
Tom, just to clarify. This is a request from someone else for you to write a letter, correct? If I had 2 million in an offshore account, I for one would not be borrowing airplanes.:D
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No.... I do not own the airport, or have an off shore account.
 
mikea said:
What's the point of going through all the trouble of opening up a discreet Swiss bank account to stash your $2+ million if you have to report it?
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that brings up a pretty good point, if he weren't trying to dodge the taxes why did he hide his money off shore?
 
Unnecessarily hostile responses in this thread. Can we please be more civil?
 
AuntPeggy said:
Unnecessarily hostile responses in this thread. Can we please be more civil?
- Aunt Peggy
Shooting the approach to Instrument Rating
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I agree. I hope somebody is not incited to commit violence based on this thread.
 
Thanks Scott for the clarification. I must say I would have been a bit surprised if it were Tom, but life can be surprising at times.
 
I don't think I would have the nerve to send out an open letter to my friends and colleagues after being convicted of dodging taxes on $3M worth of offshore accounts. Do I think he should be punished? Absolutely. Do I think he needs to do jail time? Maybe not. Aren't the jails crowded enough already?
 
I guess if we are going to be compassionate lets use a wrong to make a right.......

Judge siezes the 3.1 million,,, turns it over to the airport Tom is talking about, They build their hangars and other improvements. Arthur Joel Eisenberg pleaded guilty and loses all of it in the name of a 'fine'...

Airport wins, judge looks like a reasonable guy, Arthur goes through the rest of his life looking like a crook....... End of story.

BH.
 
Tom-D said:
that brings up a pretty good point, if he weren't trying to dodge the taxes why did he hide his money off shore?
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He was trying to hide from taxes (and whatever else.) He pled guilty.
 
This letter is the latest chapter in the continuing soap opera over the ownership of the airport. Mr Eisenberg owns the second mortgage on the airport, Mr Barns owns the First which he has the county courts agreement that he is able to collect interest and penalties from 199? to present, that makes the first mortgage worth more than the airport. So I do not expect to see him paying off the first, he hasn't in 10+ years so why would he now? I don't see Mr Barns Foreclosing while he is making the interest and penalties.
He knows that some day he will be paid, that is if any one wants to own the airport.

I am but a single tenant renting from Mr. Eisenberg, We tenants do not think very much of our land lord, he painted the hangar I'm in ( a nested "T" hangar) and raised the rent. He rationalized that by telling us it was for our benefit. I told him about 2 years ago that if he wasn't going to fix the leaky roof he might as well tell the renters to move out before the hangar fell on their aircraft. He coated the roof and raised the rent for our benefit.

I mow the grass on the airport for the rent on my hangar, ($225 per month) it's a pretty sweet deal for me because it takes about 6-8 hours with my mower, but the cost of hiring it done by a service would be around $450 so its good for both the owner and me.

I've always said the best thing to happen to this airport is nothing, and that is what I'll do. in regard to this request.

and thanks for the inputs.
 
N801BH said:
Arthur goes through the rest of his life looking like a crook....... End of story.
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When you do the home work on Arthur, you'll know how close you are to the truth.
 
Everskyward said:
I don't think I would have the nerve to send out an open letter to my friends and colleagues after being convicted of dodging taxes on $3M worth of offshore accounts. Do I think he should be punished? Absolutely. Do I think he needs to do jail time? Maybe not. Aren't the jails crowded enough already?
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The smart money around here is he'll get an ankle bracelet, and a stay at home order. I do not believe the operation of the airport will change, nothing has happened in the past, nothing will happen in the near future.
 
I guess the question for Tom is whether or not he thinks the letter-writer is a person of good character who just made an honest mistake, worthy of Tom's support, or not. Only Tom can answer that question.
 
Everskyward said:
I don't think I would have the nerve to send out an open letter to my friends and colleagues after being convicted of dodging taxes on $3M worth of offshore accounts. Do I think he should be punished? Absolutely. Do I think he needs to do jail time? Maybe not. Aren't the jails crowded enough already?
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I am sure that people have been sent to jail for much less. He might do time in a cushy federal prison. I would deduct the cost of incarcerating him from the money he had stashed. Although I think the government takes more money than it should I have accepted this fact and play by the rules. I even report my internet purchases to Michigan and pay the sales tax. If I get audited they might owe me money. I have a hard time being too sympathetic in this case.
 
Ron Levy said:
I guess the question for Tom is whether or not he thinks the letter-writer is a person of good character who just made an honest mistake, worthy of Tom's support, or not. Only Tom can answer that question.
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Some times I enjoy the opinions of others.
 
Character letters - which is in essence what he's asking for - can either be very helpful or very detrimental.

They can be helpful because every single one of us can do something dumb, have a lapse in good judgment, etc., even though we're otherwise overall good people.

They can be very detrimental because they can make us look like weasels.

Compare the following two situations: 1) a college football players who gets in a bar fight with the basketball team over, I don't know, who can benchpress more and somebody comes out of it with a broken eye socket; and 2) a guy who's hidden a whole lot of money to avoid paying Uncle Sam.

If you're the person deciding what sentence to impose, which one are character letters saying "but he's a really good guy" going to help, and which one are they going to hurt?

So, if you're inclined to write the guy a letter, keep that in mind - it might actually be detrimental....
 
Ron Levy said:
I guess the question for Tom is whether or not he thinks the letter-writer is a person of good character who just made an honest mistake, worthy of Tom's support, or not. Only Tom can answer that question.
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It's hard for me to think of this as a mistake. It was a calculated attempt to avoid paying taxes. Now if you are a prominent politician like Charlie Rangel then it is a mistake and no jail or real penalty for him.
 
Obi Heed Kenobi said:
Character letters - which is in essence what he's asking for - can either be very helpful or very detrimental.

They can be helpful because every single one of us can do something dumb, have a lapse in good judgment, etc., even though we're otherwise overall good people.

They can be very detrimental because they can make us look like weasels.

Compare the following two situations: 1) a college football players who gets in a bar fight with the basketball team over, I don't know, who can benchpress more and somebody comes out of it with a broken eye socket; and 2) a guy who's hidden a whole lot of money to avoid paying Uncle Sam.

If you're the person deciding what sentence to impose, which one are character letters saying "but he's a really good guy" going to help, and which one are they going to hurt?

So, if you're inclined to write the guy a letter, keep that in mind - it might actually be detrimental....
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which is probably why he wants all the letters filtered through his attorney first
 
Tom-D said:
Some times I enjoy the opinions of others.
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Well, since none of us know him, it's hard for us to say whether we'd write such a letter or not. In fact, I can say I definitely would not write such a letter for someone I didn't know. Heck, that request sounds an awful lot like those emails I get from Nigeria; what's next -- a request for my bank account numbers?
 
Gary F said:
No. Is it worth watching? My father was stationed at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery Alabama and they have a Federal prison. I have lived in places that were not as nice.
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It's a great movie (a comedy), and there's a great line about the Federal correctional system. :)
 
If you choose to write a letter it would probably be easiest if you emailed me a draft that I could forward to my attorney for his input and suggestions.
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Obi Heed Kenobi said:
Character letters - which is in essence what he's asking for - can either be very helpful or very detrimental.

They can be very detrimental because they can make us look like weasels.
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Looks like he plans for NO detrimental letters to pass him by.
Forward to his attorney for "input" and "suggestions"? Wanna bet any letter that does not make him out the one time offender (which he may well be, just a pretty big offense) won't make it past his attorney. Why not just send your commentary- unfiltered - to the judge and let him (the judge) "judge" for himself? Even if you gave him a glowing tribute to his wonderfulness, if the reader knew it was un-censored, it might mean more.
 
Ron Levy said:
Well, since none of us know him, it's hard for us to say whether we'd write such a letter or not. In fact, I can say I definitely would not write such a letter for someone I didn't know. Heck, that request sounds an awful lot like those emails I get from Nigeria; what's next -- a request for my bank account numbers?
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What's the old saying? when it walks like a duck..........

there is a bunch of info on the internet on his actions in the past when you know where to look, and none show him in a good light.
 
If you are a common schmuck don't expect the government to be easy on you. If you have money and an expensive lawyer you can probably get off more easily.

Mr. Norris ended up spending almost two years in prison because he didn't have the proper paperwork for some of the many orchids he imported. The orchids were all legal - but Mr. Norris and the overseas shippers who had packaged the flowers had failed to properly navigate the many, often irrational, paperwork requirements the U.S. imposed when it implemented an arcane international treaty's new restrictions on trade in flowers and other flora.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/05/criminalizing-everyone/
 
I get requests for reference letters all the time. If I have something good to say, I say it. If I have nothing good, I don't write.
 
A common misconception is that putting money in off shore accounts like the Caymans or Switzerland "hides" it from the IRS. Not so as this gentleman has discovered. But that's not to say that there aren't legal reasons for having off shore accounts and his may have been opened for any of those. The mistake was thinking that the IRS isn't clever or observant enough or that they don't have teeth.

If you're a US citizen, my understanding is that it doesn't matter where you keep your money - if it earns passive returns, you owe an accounting to the IRS. Active business interests of US citizens that are off shore are a different matter and there's lots of valid reasons to not repatriate that money. It's hard to imagine someone with those kinds of assets wasn't represented by a competent tax advisor that would have seen this coming.
 
Tom-D said:
there is a bunch of info on the internet on his actions in the past when you know where to look, and none show him in a good light.
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I guess you've answered your own question. And you can also be pretty sure the government will have presented all those facts to the judge on their own.
 
Keith Lane said:
Looks like he plans for NO detrimental letters to pass him by.
Forward to his attorney for "input" and "suggestions"? Wanna bet any letter that does not make him out the one time offender (which he may well be, just a pretty big offense) won't make it past his attorney. Why not just send your commentary- unfiltered - to the judge and let him (the judge) "judge" for himself? Even if you gave him a glowing tribute to his wonderfulness, if the reader knew it was un-censored, it might mean more.
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Absolutely - the first rule of being a trial attorney, I think before all others, is: never ask a question where you don't know the answer; never present something where you don't know what it says.

Federal judges know that, too. So you've definitely got the factor of "well, here are 3 nice letters, but how many people didn't write nice letters?"

What I was getting at, though, is how even nothing but nice letters can harm you.

In the bar fight example, it's completely plausible that someone of the highest character can do something incredibly stupid. If you get a lot of letters saying what a good guy the defendant is, a judge might say "OK, what we've got here is a guy with no criminal record, who looks to be a good guy, who I think did something incredibly stupid while he was drunk, and there were a whole bunch of other people in the same fight who were just as dumb and just as culpable, and the only difference is that this defendant's fist connected with somebody's eyesocket. While the injury was severe, I don't think a jail sentence is appropriate, so 4 years supervised probation it is."

But, in a tax evasion example, where you have to take multiple steps, each one of which requires deliberation and you know when you do every single one that you're doing it for fraudulent reasons, a judge might say, "what we've got here is someone who did something wrong, knew he was doing something wrong, did it anyway, got caught, and has asked a whole bunch of people to write nice letters so that maybe he won't have as big of a sentence; I find that the guy is an a-hole."

It really depends on the person making the decision, though. You get a hippie, that might not happen. You get somebody like me...well, I'm naturally surly. ;)
 
The offshore tax thing isn't quite as cut-and-dried as it might appear. About 10 years ago somebody (or somebodies) figured out a way to stash offshore money that appeared to meet the IRS rules. Many investment firms set up separate offshore entities (as we did) to legally invest these funds, although only after obtaining copious amounts of disclosures, disclaimers, hold-harmless and indemnifications from clients.

The IRS later ruled that the interpretation was incorrect and started pursuing those who had used it, as well as others who had simply ignored the rules. Somewhere along the line somebody blew the whistle on a bunch of Swiss accounts owned by U. S. citizens and entities, and the previously tight-lipped banks became more cooperative.

If the guy got caught up in a bogus tax-shelter that he thought was legit, that's a point in his favor. If he was simply skating, the points go the other way.

Obi Heed Kenobi said:
Absolutely - the first rule of being a trial attorney, I think before all others, is: never ask a question where you don't know the answer; never present something where you don't know what it says.

Federal judges know that, too. So you've definitely got the factor of "well, here are 3 nice letters, but how many people didn't write nice letters?"

What I was getting at, though, is how even nothing but nice letters can harm you.

In the bar fight example, it's completely plausible that someone of the highest character can do something incredibly stupid. If you get a lot of letters saying what a good guy the defendant is, a judge might say "OK, what we've got here is a guy with no criminal record, who looks to be a good guy, who I think did something incredibly stupid while he was drunk, and there were a whole bunch of other people in the same fight who were just as dumb and just as culpable, and the only difference is that this defendant's fist connected with somebody's eyesocket. While the injury was severe, I don't think a jail sentence is appropriate, so 4 years supervised probation it is."

But, in a tax evasion example, where you have to take multiple steps, each one of which requires deliberation and you know when you do every single one that you're doing it for fraudulent reasons, a judge might say, "what we've got here is someone who did something wrong, knew he was doing something wrong, did it anyway, got caught, and has asked a whole bunch of people to write nice letters so that maybe he won't have as big of a sentence; I find that the guy is an a-hole."

It really depends on the person making the decision, though. You get a hippie, that might not happen. You get somebody like me...well, I'm naturally surly. ;)
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Obi Heed Kenobi said:
... You get somebody like me...well, I'm naturally surly. ;)
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As I'm fairly sure I proved yesterday.... :redface:

(ironically, I misspelled that first "as" - accidentally wrote "ass," must've been a Freudian slip or something)
 
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