Last Update:  Friday, 03 December, 2010 09:15

Congressman Gets Illegal Tax Break

A ranking member of the U.S. House of Representative’s tax-writing committee claims a Maryland home—located thousands of miles from the California district he represents—as his principal residence to get an illegal tax break.

Democrat Pete Stark, who has represented northern California in the House since 1973, lies about here he lives to qualify for an annual $3,853 tax break on a home he and his wife own in Harwood Maryland.

Valued at $1.7 million, the 3,600-square-foot waterfront home sits on 6.35 acres and is located about 30 miles east of the U.S. Capitol. To qualify for the state and county homestead tax credit, Maryland homeowners must live in the house at least six months a year and use the address for the legal purpose of voting, obtaining a driver’s license and filing income tax returns.

Stark and his wife are registered to vote in the northern California district he represents and both have California driver’s licenses, according to the national news agency that broke the story this week. Easily reelected in November, Stark is considered the dean of the state’s congressional delegation and he is a senior member of the House’s tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

The influential lawmaker is hardly the only politician who has lied to claim this kind of residential tax credit. Last week Eliot Engel, a Democrat congressman from New York, got busted for declaring a Maryland home in Montgomery County as his official residence.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle illegally claimed a homestead tax break on a $1.9 million Washington residence even though he officially lived in South Dakota. The accomplished tax cheat was forced to withdraw as Health Secretary nominee last month because he had failed to pay $140,000 in taxes on the millions he raked in as a health industry “consultant” after getting voted out of office in 2004.

source: www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2009/mar/congressman-lies-get-illegal-tax-break

I recently read a recommendation that congressmen should wear jackets with patches on them, like professional race car drivers do, to make it easier to tell who "sponsors" them. Great idea, but I think neither the congressmen nor the sponsors are proud enough of the transactions to make them public.

Former Mafia Kingpin: Congress Just Like Us

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 10:38 AM

By: Michael Franzese



The House of Representatives passed a bill last week taxing the bonuses that were paid out to a number of AIG executives at 90 percent. I heard a congresswoman from New York say that congress was "acting in record time" to protect the major shareholders of the company, the American people, against the unbridled greed of the AIG executives.


After all, the government should be calling the shots now. It’s what I would have done when I was on the streets.


Twenty years ago, I would have applauded the government’s move to control the AIG bigwigs. When I was doing business for the Colombo Crime Family, I would often "bail out" a failing company. When the boss had nowhere to go, when no legit lender would lend him a dime, or when his suppliers were threatening to throw him into bankruptcy, he came to me. Mob guys looked for business opportunities like this every day. Great way for us to own a business.


Once the owner took my money, or used my name, I owned him. He wasn’t about to get a pay hike when he owed me money. He wasn’t buying a new car or taking any paid vacations either. I didn’t care how hard he worked. And if he didn’t toe the line, I would throw him out and take the company over.


From what I’m hearing, the government knew about the bonuses some time ago. Some of them even approved of the payouts. Some of them even got campaign contributions from the AIG exec’s. So the tax thing was a good cover up. Good work, guys! It’s a move right out of Machiavelli’s play book.


You know Machiavelli? He’s the Mafia’s champion. As a former capo regime of La Cosa Nostra’s Colombo Crime family, I am very familiar with Machiavelli. For almost 20 years, I lived and conducted business under his philosophy.


“A Prince must have a mind disposed to turn itself about as the winds, able to do good when he can and evil when he must,” Machiavelli wrote. “Still, even though on the inside he is able to scheme, he should appear to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright and religious.”


Sound familiar?


In his sixteenth century treatise entitled, "The Prince," Niccolo Machiavelli wrote those words advising his prince of the "virtues" he must exercise in ruling his kingdom. Seems like convicted money manager Bernard Madoff and some of the CEOs of AIG, Lehman Brothers, Countrywide Mortgage, Enron and a few dozen more of America’s corporate honchos … and now, the government itself has taken Machiavelli's advice to heart in the operation of their respective enterprises.


I would not be surprised to find a copy of "The Prince" on the desks of more than a few of Washington's elite. Would you? Their misguided and in some cases illicit leadership contributed significantly to the financial meltdown of the United States economy, the magnitude of which has not been seen for decades. If you think they will get off scot free, FUGGEDABOUTIT!


At the height of my operation, I was bringing $8 - $10 million a week into the Colombo Family coffers from business interests I had in the gasoline, entertainment, auto and gambling industries. Although I enjoyed success for a time, Machiavelli’s business philosophy eventually brought me three racketeering indictments, $15 million in fines and restitutions, untold legal fees and a 10-year federal prison sentence.


Mob guys ought to be worried. First the government took a tip from them and realized there was big money in gambling. Now the government is taking control of businesses the same way. And they don’t even have to worry about the racketeering indictments they slammed me and my former associates with for doing the same thing. They called it extortion when the mob did it. Seems like I left the life just in time. Too much competition!

04/08/2009 - Judicial Watch

House Ethics Comm. Is A Joke

In a pathetic attempt to appear effective, the joke of a House ethics committee has taken swift action against a congressman’s minor speeding infraction while it repeatedly ignores serious corruption allegations among several prominent lawmakers.

The Committee On Standards of Official Conduct issued a press release detailing its speedy and forceful action against Ohio Democrat Zach Space, who got ticketed for speeding and warned for driving with an expired license in Ohio’s Washington County. To be sure, the committee has never worked so expeditiously.

The panel reveals in the release that it voted against empanelling an investigative subcommittee because the conduct was found to be minor. It further points out that Representative Space publicly acknowledged the violation and paid the associated fine.

Sounds like quite a probe into a serious incident. If only the committee could act so efficiently in matters that truly merit it. After all, when Nancy Pelosi became House Speaker she created an independent ethics watchdog (Office of Congressional Ethics) to disinfect Congress of the culture of corruption she claims prevailed under Republicans.

More than two years after Pelosi was sworn in as speaker, her highly touted ethics watchdog, which has a six-member board, has yet to refer a case to the House ethics committee. Furthermore the office operates in secrecy and details of its so-called investigations will be kept from the public.

Here are a few suggestions that could help Madam Speaker keep her infamous “drain the swamp” promise to turn Congress into the most honest and open in history. A swift probe into veteran New York congressman Charles Rangel’s inappropriate use his office to raise money from corporations with business before him. How about a look into Rangel’s decades of tax evasion, even though he chairs the House committee (Ways and Means) that actually writes the federal tax code?

Here’s another good one; investigate Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha for steering hundreds of millions of federal dollars to clients of a defunct lobbying firm that donated heavily to his campaign coffers. Raided by the FBI earlier this year, the Virginia-based firm (PMA Group) was founded by Murtha’s aide and in 2008 alone the lawmaker steered nearly $300 million in earmarks to its clients.

One way for the laughable House ethics committee to perhaps gain some credibility is to take the same sort of supersonic action against these corrupt lawmakers that it took against the congressman ticketed for driving 65 in a 50 mile per hour zone.