Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/tax-division
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 00:46:14+00:00

Document:
Thomas Coker graduated with honors from John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois, after receiving a Master’s in Business Education from DePaul University. Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Coker was hired by the U.S. Department of Treasury, IRS, under the Honors Program. From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Coker was a trial attorney with the IRS Office of Chief Counsel in Los Angeles. During that time, he successfully represented the government in the United States Tax Court in numerous cases including, Vallone v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, McKay v. C.I.R., Clausman v. Commissioner, and Finkelman v. Commissioner. In 1988, Mr. Coker joined the Tax Division of this office. Prior to being appointed Chief, Mr. Coker was the Deputy Chief for Civil and Bankruptcy matters in the Tax Division.
In his tenure in the office, Mr. Coker has successfully litigated a wide variety of civil and bankruptcy tax matters, which have resulted in significant published appellate decisions, including Andersen v. United States, 298 F.3d 804 (9th Cir. 2002); PCCE, Inc. v. United States, 159 F.3d 425 (9th Cir. 1998); Han v. United States, 944 F.2d 526 (9th Cir. 1991); Fidelity National Title Insurance Co., 907 F.2d 868 (9th Cir. 1990); and In re Sun World Intern., Inc., 17 B.R. 281 (C.D.Cal.,1998), as well as the successful defense a matter of first impression involving a $5 million tax refund claim in a qui tam action under the False Claims Act in Alderson v. United States, 686 F.3d 791 (9th Cir. 2012). Most recently, in another civil case of first impression in the Ninth Circuit, Mr. Coker obtained a decision affirming a $3.5 million jeopardy assessment issued by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the Department of Treasury against Starbuzz Tobacco, a manufacturer of tobacco products. Mr. Coker has also litigated a number of significant criminal tax cases, including convictions of Motown greats Norman Whitfield and Ronald Isley, and the successful defense of the issue of a district court’s jurisdiction of fugitive status while on probation in United States v. Grant, 727 F.3d 928 (9th Cir. 2013).

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