Evening star., 1926-03-12
BEATING THE INCOME TAX
Uncle Sam Says 1t Can't Be Done.
BY WALTER II. ATKINS

River piers at New York one after
noon. Three United States Customs
bonded trucks appeared at the pier and
offered for shipment $50 barrels OF
''bottled-in-bond whisky for export"
to Havana. 1t came presumably as a
shipment 'in bond" from Canada to
Havana. 1t was in the charge of two
Federal prohibition agents, assigned
to guard the transfer to the exporting
vessel.
One of the whisky barrels dropped
from the sling in the transfer to the
vessel, and crashed to the deck. The
contents was found to be ginger ale,
not whisky. The entire shipment. upon
examination, was shown TO be ginger
ale.
How did the substitution for the
whisky take place, and who engineered
it? This was the job Of the intelligence
agents.
The two Federal prohibition agents.
along with five others. had conspired
to divert the whisky, and to take it's
place on the customs trucks they had
purchased an equivalent number OF
barrels. filed with ginger ale, from the
| manufacturer, near New York. and
| had stenciled the barrels: III. NJ.
Havana. Cuba" The conspirators had
grown fabulously rich by such diver
sions. until they were apprehended.
| The Government vaults were fat
! tened by several million dollars in
| taxes collected from this clique, when
| the source of their wealth was discov-
cred.
An attractive young girl. scarcely
more than 20 years, of rare beauty,
held a $1,000 job in the prohibition
unit. To the surprise of her associ-
| ates, she suddenly blossomed out, one
bright day. IN the rssplendent glory
of $4,000 rings and wearing apparel
bootleg conspirator. She was the
handspring Of q liquor combine that
reaped profits df several million dol
lars a month. The girl amassed a
| fortune in the process.
Girl Held hey Job.
The girl became the associate Of
one of the bootleg kings. Her partner
claimed to make $4,000 a day. His
game was to negotiate whisky with
drawals in wholesale quantities from
bonded distilleries on fake permits
and through use of fake confirmation
forms abstracted from the Govern
ment files by the girl stenographer.
The girl, holding a key Job in the
prohibition directors Office, inter
cepted telegraphic requests that came
to headquarters for confirmation of
withdrawal permits. Confirmation
was wired by the girl to the distil-
| leries in every case in which her
partner was interested.
The master mind in this conspiracy
was trapped in a Washington hotel
one night. along with male con-
| federate and his girl and her female
companion. The male confederate
was an "under-cover' man working
for the Government. He gave the
signal at the proper moment In their
bribe planning and corps of the
| intelligence men rushed in. seizing
the conspirators and discriminating
records carried by the bootleg king
| in his little black bag. The master
mind threw into the lap of the chief
of the raiding party S150.000 in cold
| cash and told him to go out and have
a good time and forget. But these
guardians of the Treasury don't
operate that way. So, prison was the
portion of the master mind and his
| male associates. The girl became the
I Governments chief witness. She Is
now living In seclusion, probably ask
| ing herself If 1t all was worth while.
Much Of her fortune was recovered
in taxes, fines and penalties. as was
the case OF the others.
beC4nO MlluOHhMcSs
In a large city on the Atlantic
coast a group Of wage earners became
millionaires almost overnight through
Illicit liquor importations and sales
to bootleg distributors serving NUM-
ber of interior cities. They fiourished
like the green bay tree. They became
kingpins, financially and politically.
They corrupted city, State and Fed
eral officials. Official palms were be-
ing creased with gold from an appar-
emily unending stream. They had
baffied the best operatives In the
| United States. Then the intelligence
unit of the Internal Revenue Bureau
stepped in. It's 'under-cover" agents
got busy on the ground. They be-
came a part of the combine. Then
things began to happen. Every mem
Der of the combination was nailed
with proof that stood the severest
test. The Government raked in many
millions Of dollars in back taxes. in
the form Of revenue under income tax
laws. as we'll as under the general
revenue statutes applying to Illicit
liuuor transactions. W a 2
tCopyrighA io4o.l -