The Church filed a civil lawsuit against the Meador Heirs in Whitewright, Texas, seeking return of the Quedlinburg treasures not already back in Germany.
On 7 January 1991, the parties announced in London that they had reached an agreement for the return of the treasures to Quedlinburg. Subsequently, the US Government began investigating the transactions concerning the Samuhel Gospel and Evangeliar manuscripts. This led to criminal accusations against the Meador Heirs and their lawyer, which were dismissed by the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
“After the dismissal of the criminal case, the Internal Revenue Service announced it was seeking $8.6 million in federal taxes, $2.1 million in penalties, and more than $40 million in interest from the estate. The Meadors eventually settled the case on 20 April 2000 by agreeing to pay only $135,000”.
I can understand the need to pay some tax...
I think the attempt to go after them for selling the objects makes no sense since they weren’t the actual people who took the things and merely inherited them after the fact.
IRS tried for way too much, so it makes sense where they settled....though court costs/lawyer fees likely ate up everything else they managed to negotiate.
Shocking to me that a US officer would do this.