From: irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine)
Subject: Re: To the Clinton supporters
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 16:22:27 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.032529.10265@pegasus.com> tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan) writes:
>In article crosmun@crosmun.rtp.dg.com (William Crosmun) writes:
>
><re: somebody's (a bit overzealous reaction to jailing Leona Helmsley)>
>
>>That arrogant cake-eater was tossed in jail for not paying $1,500,000 dollars
>>in taxes over the course of ten years.  During those ten years she did pay
>>$350,000,000 in taxes.

I wonder what her total income was for those 10 years?  But we will probably
never get accurate figures due to her crafty accountant's hiding a lot of
it and laundering it.  Face it, pal, she got LESS than she deserved since
she cheated the government- I would venture to guess that while the conviction
was for $1.5 million, the amount she got away with was as much as 10 to
20 times higher - good fraud is hard to find, and typical convictions are
usually only able to locate about 10% to 15% of the total stolen. (ask
any tax lawyer, and they will also tell you that is why the penalties
seem so harsh!)

>
>William:  I'm with you 100% on this one (late in the conversation also,
>I'll bet) but I said much the same thing when the announced the jail term
>on the news.
>
>Nobody benefits.  If anybody wanted to improve things (and perhaps Leona's
>perspective of the world if one feel's her's is in error) they could have
>had her fine and time commuted if she built a center to help people and
>was made to work there instead of going to jail.

I disagree.  If someone made a legitimate mistake, then the person should
pay the amount plus interest.  If someone committed fraud (like Leona, who
DID do that) they diserve to not only pay it all back with interest and
penalties, but need also to serve jail time.  Some foo-foo center she
really wouldn't care about and would play at just doesn't cut it.  I think
someone's freedom needs to be taken away for some time to make them appreciate
things a bit more (she can take solace that she did not pay her fair share
of the prison...:) )

I suppose you think that Ivan Boesky was wronged, eh?

>
>I can almost guarantee that each of us (including everybody working for
>the IRS) has erred by the same percentage (or worse) on their tax return
>from time to time.

Ah, but she *DELIBERATELY* committed fraud on her tax returns.  A mistake
is a mistake, but a DELIBERATE attempt at fraud needs to be punished.  
I think a telling quote (though conviction was based on much more than
that of course) was her "Taxes are for the little people" quote.

Also keep in mind that she was *caught* stealing $1.5 million.  Al Capone
was caught stealing less than $1000 while it was well known that he really
should have paid *much* more than that. Good fraud is hard to find.

>
>tom
>


-- 
+-------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
| Brent L. Irvine         |These opinions are the opinions of the majority of |
| irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu | space aliens currently in residence in the USA.   |
+-------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
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