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TAX COURT GETS UNWELCOME COVERAGE FROM CHICAGO TRIBUNE

June 24, 2005

The Chicago Tribune reports today on the astounding backroom rewrite of the special trial judge's opinion in the Kanter case:

D. Irvin Couvillion, a special trial judge for the tax court, oversaw the trial of the case in 1994 and filed his findings in 1998. Pursuant to normal tax court rules, those findings were sent to Tax Court Judge Harold Dawson for review and issuance of a final decision.

Dawson found that there had been a fraud, stating in the first paragraph of his decision that he "agrees with and adopts the opinion of the Special Trial Judge, which is set forth below."

But last month, after a five-year court battle, Couvillion's original findings were made public and revealed that Couvillion actually had found there was no fraud and rejected the multimillion-dollar IRS claim against Kanter and his partners, Claude Ballard of Florida and Robert Lisle of Texas.

Prior Coverage: DID WE SAY "ADOPTED?" OH, WE MEANT "ADAPTED."

Hat Tip: TaxProf.

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