Case ID: br_454/html/0880-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In re: Ernest W. WILLIS, Debtor. Ernest W. Willis, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Deborah Menotte, Red Reef, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.
    Nos. 10-11980.
    United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
    April 21, 2011.
    Kevin C. Gleason, Kevin C. Gleason, P.A., Hollywood, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
    John H. Pelzer, Ruden, McClosky, Smith, Schuster & Russell, P.A., David Marshall Brown, Brown, Van Horn P.A., Stephen B. Rakusin, The Rakusin Law Firm, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Michael Richard Bakst, Morris Gary Miller, Ruden McClosky Smith Schuster & Russell, P.A., Heather Ries, Attorney at Law, West Palm Bch., FL, Robert Charbonneau, Eh-renstein Charbonneau Calderin, Miami, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.
    Before PRYOR and COX, Circuit Judges, and WATKINS, District Judge.
    
      
       Honorable W. Keith Watkins, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama, sitting by designation.
    
   PER CURIAM:

Ernest W. Willis appeals the judgment that assets in three of his retirement accounts are not exempt from his bankruptcy estate. The Bankruptcy Code provides an exemption for “retirement funds to the extent that those funds are in a fund or account that is exempt from taxation under section 401, 403, 408, 408A, 414, 457, or 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.” 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(C). The bankruptcy court and the district court determined that Willis engaged in several prohibited transactions under section 408 of the Internal Revenue Code and caused the assets to lose their tax-exempt status. 26 U.S.C. §§ 408(e)(2), 4975(c)(1). All of Willis’s arguments on appeal lack merit, and he has failed to establish that the bankruptcy court committed any reversible error. We affirm based on the well-reasoned opinion of the district court.

The judgment against Willis is AFFIRMED.