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NO MERCEDES, BUT A PLACE TO STAY

October 24, 2003

Last December we reported how one Crystal Foster received a $500,000 refund she wasn't entitled to, how she spent the money (a Mercedes was involved), and how she was reluctant to return the funds to the IRS.

Ms. Foster now has something to show for her efforts, but not what she would have wished for - three years room and board at Club Fed.

A "REPARATIONS" SCAM

It turns out that the 25 year-old Ms. Foster participated in a scheme hatched by her father, an accountant for the Veterans Administration, to claim slavery reparations on her tax return. The tax law has no such credit, but the IRS estimates that it has accidentally paid $30,000,000 in claims for reparations. The $500,000 paid to Ms. Foster may be the largest such accident. The Washington Post reports that "IRS spokeswoman Michelle Lamishaw said yesterday that the IRS received nearly 80,000 tax returns claiming $2.7 billion in nonexistent slavery credits in 2001 alone."

Ms. Foster's father, Robert Foster (or, as he said in court, "Robert Foster, copyright"), received a 13-year sentence for his part in the reparations scheme.

It was an quick conclusion for a criminal tax case. Ms. Foster cashed her refund check on October 29, 2001, and was sentenced less than two years later.

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