Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-03-12
81 North Summer Street.
INTERNAL REVENUE.
a Young Deputy Runs the Office aE-
ter hts Own Hears.
nh7tilljsn25 IS cod sp

ter his Own Hears.
Another case of forgery in high life has
turned up at Paducah, says the Louisville
Commercial. In 1866 the 'chief clerk in
the office of the Collector of Internal Reve-
nue. for the First Congressional District of
Kentucky, was one viii. G. Buntin, who,
having gained the esteem and confidence of
DR.. John d. Kelly, then Collector, had full
control Of the books, lists, reports and gen.
eral management of the collectors office.
No bond was required of Bunlin, and the
young man had everything to himself. He
gratitied his eccentricities, bought consider
able amount of property, dressed well, and
lived high, genteel life.
In 1869 DR.. Kelly was removed, and Bun
tin was highly recommended to Col. John
P. Hall, DR.. Kely's successor. Col. Hall
was delighted with Buntin, and retained
him, with the sole precaution of requiring
bond for $4,000. This trife Buntin was
delighted to give. In 1870 the deputy got
married, and Just about that lime Col. Hall
began to be little suspicious, and without
hesitation limited his surmises to Buntin
himself. This resulted in Buntin's resigna-
ton in the fall of that year, and his speedy
departure for other parts. His books were
ordered to be inspected, and after months
of patient labor a portion of Buntin's
transactions were unearthed, and contin-
ued system of forgery and fraud was dis
covered to have been carried on.
The task was extremely difficult, as the
young man had covered his tracks with a
skill gained from thorough acquaintance
with the forms of reports and returns.
1t was discovered that be was in the habit
Of iur ain mt
lectable, and having received credit for them
from the government, would collect them
himself. He would also make claims for
attachments on assessments, get them allow
ed, and collecting the full amount, pocket
the amount claimed as an abatement for
his own use. The following instances of
his sharp practice and rascality are cited by
the Padueah Rentuckidn Of the It'll inst:
abraham Long, of Roaring Springs,
Trigg county, was assessed, in 1866, in the
sum of S196.70 on his income. This tax
Long paid on the 2Slh of Sept, 1886, but
upon an examination of the record of abate-
ments, it is found that on Feb. u, 1867, a
claim was forwarded to the Revenue Bu-
reau for an abatement (not refundiDg) of
this tax-already paid-on the ground that
the assessment was an error Of the Assist
ant Assessor. The claim was allowed and
the Collector received credit for the amount,
which as stated, had already been collected,
and which never was repaid to Long. This is
proved by the fact that claim was made a
year or two ago by the widow of
Long (deceased) for refunding the same tax
"Another plan was to abate taxes as un-
collectable which had actually been col
lected before the claim was filed. The fol-
lowing is an example of this method: Mob
berly & Monarch, Of McCracken county,
manufacturers of tobacco, were assessed in
September, 1867, for $S25.G0, which was
paid October 20, 1868. On the 22d of May,
1860, claim for abatement was forwarded
to the Department on the ground that it
aCds uncoIectdbIe. This claim was allowed
and the collector credited Herewith. What
makes this case worse is the fact that the
office books show that the money was paid,
while the tax list, which was turned over
to the collector by che assessor, shows that
the original entry, which was doubtless a
credit of the whole amount, had been erased
Nth q knife, and over the erasure was writ
ten this memorandum, claim for abate-
ment, May, '6g.'"
He also made claims for abatement ex-
ceediDg the assessments.
"The worse case discovered so far is
the claim made on the assessment of Jos.
Howard, distiller Of Graves county. In No
vembeF, 1867, he was assessed on 40 gal
Ions of apple brandy, $50 for taxes and $40
$50 per cent? penalty. The original list
IN the Assessors Office shows this, but in
the copy furnished to the Collector the 80
gallons has been raised to l40 by prefxing
the figure - the 'S80' to $3.50 by a similar
ss,the penalty $40 to 'Sl40,' and in the
total where the addition of the tax of $50
and the penalty of $40 is S120 in the origi-
nal, the ~ is changed to a ~ by stroke
of the pen, and the amount then reads
S42O. To cover up this forgery the addl
ton Of the whole column at the foot Of the
page, which Is S266.65, is changed by eras-
ing the figure % and substituting 49, This
erasurs and substitution is repeated at the
top of the next page, where the amount is
carried over, aud at the foot Of the list,
where the figure 50 in the grand total Of
S391.S5 is erased and the figure 81 put in
its place.
''This assessment was carried into Col.
Halls books, by Buntin, and subsequently
returned to DR.. Kelley's books as uncol-
lectable."
A large amount of uncollected taxes
cameIiHto Col. Hills hands, the collection on
which, when made, were passed to DR..
KeIley's credit. The investigation shows
that numbers of these claims had been
abated as uncollectable and credited to DR..
Kelley by the department, making two
credits on the same assessments.
The forged and false assessments are nu- !
merous, and has mixed up matters badly
with the tax payers. Col. Hall conse- !
quently is beset with difficulties, but is de-
ternined to probe the matter to the bottom,
and has proved himself very faithful, Ia |
borious, and efficient officer in the whole !
affair.
There remains yet large amount of |
Buntin's manipulation to overhaul. He |
was last heard of in Philadelphia.
,-er, slapder man asked a friend what |