IRS disgrace, Lois Lerner once held a position at the Federal Election Commission. She was helpful to Senate candidate Dick Durbin (Dem-Ill). Lerner used her FEC position to help save Durbin’s US Senate seat back in 1996. Lerner used her govt position and tax dollars to conduct a bogus inquisition into Durbin's opponent for alleged election law violations....creating a shady charge against Durbin's opponent. And it worked. Dicky triumphed and was returned to the Senate.
Fast forward to 2014---Dicky Durbin's running again---considered a shoo-in. But he should start worrying. As far back as 2008, at the presidential debate in Nashville, candidate Obama advanced his signature plan that was ultimately enacted (by an historic straight Democrat party-line vote) into the "Affordable Care Act:
VOTERS HAVE NOT SEEN SUCH LOCK-STEPPING PARTY LOYALTY SINCE 1930-40's ERA EUROPE
http://watchdog.org/93489/clinton-connection-more-money-for-mcauliffe/ Clinton connection: More money for McAuliffe
By Kenric Ward / July 2, 2013
DELAPLANE, Va. – Terry McAuliffe raised campaign cash and talked jobs Sunday at the home of another friend of Bill Clinton — former IRS Commissioner Margaret “Peggy” Richardson.
Richardson is almost symbolic of McAuliffe’s political and business connections. Clinton’s appointee to head the Internal Revenue Service, she now sits on the board of Gulf Coast Funds Management, a funding arm of GreenTech Automotive, the electric-car company McAuliffe formerly chaired and in which he’s still a major investor.
(snip)
http://gulfcoastfunds.com/managementteam/
GCFM (Gulf Coast Funds Management) Board Members
Board Director
Governor
Kathleen Blanco
Board Director
Commissioner
Margaret Richardson
President & CEO
Anthony Rodham
http://watchdog.org/91068/former-irs-commissioner-says-tax-audit-of-virginia-farmer-a-coincidence/
Clinton IRS commissioner: Tax audit of Virginia farmer just ‘a coincidence’
June 18, 2013
EXCERPT
Boneta and PEC settled in 2011, but by then, Fauquier County planners, prompted by PEC, had changed zoning laws to specifically ban Boneta’s sale of fresh fruit, vegetables, beverages and homemade handicrafts from her on-site farm store. That change led to the Boneta Bill.
It also led, in April 2012, to county citations against Boneta – each a claim that Boneta was violating the county’s planning ordinances.
Then came the IRS notice saying that Bryon C. Jose, an IRS agent based in Fairfax, would audit Boneta’s 2010 and 2011 tax returns. Boneta calls that time frame “highly suggestive” because it coincides closely with the heavily publicized litigation concerning the operations on her property.
Boneta asserts the IRS audit is the latest event in a “coordinated effort” aimed at forcing her off her farm.
It’s not just timing that makes Boneta suspicious of the IRS audit, or even the fact that the audit asks for information that was key to the lawsuit PEC filed against Boneta. It’s the presence on the PEC board of directors of Margaret “Peggy” Richardson, a Clinton-era IRS commissioner.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/24/business/clinton-picks-lawyer-to-be-irs-chief.html
Clinton Picks Lawyer to Be I.R.S. Chief
By KENNETH N. GILPIN
Published: February 24, 1993
Margaret M. Richardson, a partner in the Washington law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, was nominated by President Clinton yesterday to be the new Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
A specialist in tax and insurance regulatory law, Mrs. Richardson, who is known as Peggy, has been practicing at Sutherland, Asbill for the last 15 years.
(snip)
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/16/embattled-irs-official-lois-lerners-husbands-law-firm-hosted-an-obama-campaign-organizing-meeting/#ixzz39WaHuzOC
EXCERPT
IRS Exempt Organizations Division director Lois G. Lerner, who has been described as “apolitical” in mainstream press coverage of the IRS scandal, is married to tax attorney Michael R. Miles, a partner at the law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. The firm is based in Atlanta but has a number of offices including in Washington, D.C., where Miles works.
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Re. 1996-8 Lois Lerner: "insufficient staff resources"
(no link)
Senate president explains loan case
Honolulu Advertiser, The (HI) - Wednesday, November 22, 2000
Author: Advertiser Final, Dayton Kevin, Staff
By Kevin Dayton, ADVERTISER CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF
Newly selected state Senate President Robert Bunda said he is fielding questions about a 1996 complaint alleging he received an improper campaign loan from the Bank of Hawaii .
Bunda , D-22nd (Wahiawa, Waialua, Sunset Beach), said he suspects that someone unhappy with Bunda ‘s recent success is resurrecting the issue and he has received a series of recent media inquiries about the case, which was closed in 1997 with no action taken by the Federal Elections Commission.
“Somebody’s looking at it saying, `Hey, look, this guy's going to be Senate president. He ran for Congress many years ago. This is an appropriate time to say, well, this guy's in bed with the bank, or this guy's in bed with certain businesses,’ “ Bunda suggested yesterday.
Bunda , an insurance broker, was selected to lead the Senate last week. As president, he succeeds Norman Mizuguchi, who did not seek re-election to the Senate.
The issue over Bunda ‘s Bank of Hawaii loan dates back to 1996, when he challenged fellow Democrat Patsy Mink for her U.S. House seat representing rural Oahu and the Neighbor Islands.
Bunda said he applied for a $100,000 line of credit from Bank of Hawaii to act as a money “cushion” to help his campaign cover expenses. Bunda , a former First Hawaiian Bank employee, said he had no special ties to Bank of Hawaii .
According to records filed with the FEC by the Bunda campaign, the only collateral pledged for the loan was “future contributions and cash on hand after (the) election.”
Mink filed a complaint with the FEC over the loan in 1996, asking that the commission investigate the Bunda campaign and Bank of Hawaii .
“But for the Bank of Hawaii loan made on June 28th, the Robert Bunda Committee would not have had funds with which to conduct a campaign,” Mink wrote. She argued that meant the bank was the principal financier of the Bunda campaign “in violation of the campaign laws.”
(snip)
http://www.kycbs.net/Bank-of-Hawaii.htm
EXCERPT
Bank executives donated
Among the Bank of Hawaii executives who donated were: Lawrence Johnson, $1,000; Alexander Jamile, $1,000; Tom Leppert, $500; Ruby Otake, $500. Richard Dahl’s wife, Barbara, gave $1,000. Also contributing were four attorneys from Carlsmith Ball, one of the law firms representing the bank. They were: William Atwater, $500; Patricia Devlin, $1,000; Tom E. Roesser, $500; and Tom Van Winkle, $1,000.
Despite the pledge that “all contributions from individuals” be used to pay down the bank loan, it appears from a report to the FEC that only $2,545.30 of the amount contributed was actually sent to the bank. The bank restructured the loan, raising the interest rate to three points above base rate.
A bank official, E. Ebisuya, attested to the FEC, on Aug. 1, 1997, that the Bank of Hawaii loan to the Bunda committee “was made on terms and conditions (including interest rate) no more favorable at the time than those imposed for similar extensions of credit to other borrowers of comparable credit-worthiness.”
Ebisuya also told the FEC that the bank was “aware of the requirement that a loan must be made on a basis which assures repayment ... “
Bunda default lawsuit
On Feb. 11, 1998, the Star-Bulletin reported that a lawsuit was filed in Circuit Court by the bank, charging that Bunda had defaulted on the $100,000 loan. The suit said that as of Jan. 14, the bank was owed principal amounting to $70,487, interest of $2,776, and late charges of $3,581. Interest would grow at the rate of $22.20 daily, said the bank.
Bunda’s committee shook the money tree again in 1998. This time, Henry Peters, a friend of Bunda, contributed $1,000, as did Jeffery Stone, a developer, and Jeane K. Omaye, an asset manager at his firm. But the effort fell short and the debt remained.
At the bank’s 1998 annual meeting in April, a shareholder, Charles E. Frankel, questioned the propriety of the Bunda loan, and later sent a follow-up letter to CEO Johnson about the reported lawsuit against Bunda.
Johnson replied to Frankel in a letter dated June 19, 1998: “There is no suit pending in Circuit Court regarding the loan in question. Bank of Hawaii withdrew its earlier filing when it was determined that the demand letters were not constructively received (a matter of due process) by the owing party before the action was taken. The loan in question was paid in full last month.”
Indeed it was. On May 26, 1998, Bobby Bunda and his wife, Gail, had borrowed $66,000 from National Mortgage and Finance Co. Ltd., taking a second mortgage on their Wahiawa home. They, in turn, loaned the congressional campaign committee $65,637, and the committee paid the bank $65,016.36.
Johnson also wrote in that letter to Frankel: “I would like to make it clear that the bank, in this matter, has acted in compliance with all applicable statutory, regulatory and internal policy requirements. The Federal Election Commission (FEC), in its investigation of this matter, has confirmed this fact.”
That isn’t what the FEC told Congresswoman Mink. In a letter dated Jan. 14, 1998, the associate general counsel for enforcement, Lois G. Lerner, wrote that Mink’s complaint “rated highly enough” for the commission to investigate the matter, but that it had to dismiss the complaint because of limited resources.
The FEC emphasized: “That closing should not be interpreted as a commission determination that your complaint on the issues set forth therein were not significant. Rather, the closing was based solely on the fact that the commission’s inability to investigate the matter in a timely manner was due to insufficient staff resources.”
