In the decision last week, Judge Harry A. Haines of the U.S. Tax Court ruled that the lawyer, Burton W. Kanter, and two associates had accepted kickbacks from the Pritzker family of Chicago, which owns the Hyatt hotels, and then evaded taxes on the payments.
The court found “overwhelming objective evidence” that the three defendants “participated in a complex, well-disguised scheme to share kickback payments.”
Burton W. Kanter was a noted Chicago tax lawyer who counted the billionaire Pritzker family as clients and for years famously paid no federal income taxes of his own. He’s been dead for eight years, but Kanter’s heirs are continuing his grand tradition of beating the Internal Revenue Service.
In December of 2008, Obama’s choice for Secretary of Commerce, Chicago-based business tycoon Penny Pritzker, withdrew her name from consideration in the face of a triple-barreled onslaught.
Did you know that, twenty-four years later, a tax judge ruled that Kanter was the “architect” of “a concerted effort” to profit from kickbacks involving the siphoning off of funds managed by insurance companies? (The hustle included the invention of sham companies—“pure tax avoidance vehicles,” the judge said—the destruction of documents, and “implausible” and “incredible” testimony by Kanter.)
Kanter seems to have specialized in handling the tax aspects of legitimating mob wealth. In addition to founding Castle Bank with Helliwell, he was “energetically at work in California” on the La Costa real estate development, which also involved former Cleveland syndicate member Moe Dalitz, “a part owner of several gambling casinos, including the Desert Inn and the Stardust Hotel.” Block links Kanter to La Costa’s ability to receive major funding from the corrupt Teamsters Central States Pension Fund: “Kanter’s access to the Pension Fund likely came from Allen Dorfman, a friend and business associate. Murdered in 1985 to prevent him from talking about mob investments, Dorfman was an important Fund official and racketeer.”
Membership to Democracy Alliance is exclusive and by invitation-only, reinforcing the group’s commitment to secrecy. Members, who are dubbed “partners,” meet twice a year and are required to pay an initial $25,000 fee and $30,000 in annual dues. In addition, partners must give at least $200,000 each year to Alliance-endorsed groups. It’s at the private, lavish summits that the partners hear presentations from selected left-wing groups pitching their cause to Alliance members who then decide if and how much to donate to them.
But some consider Democracy Alliance’s hidden influence troubling, regardless of its ideological orientation. Unlike election campaigns, which must detail contributions and spending, most of the think tanks and not-for-profit groups funded by the alliance are exempt from public disclosure laws.
“It is a huge problem,” said Sheila Krumholz, the acting executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. She noted that for decades “all kinds of Democrats and liberals were complaining that corporations and individuals were carrying on these stealth campaigns to fund right-wing think tanks and advocacy groups. Just as it was then, it is a problem today.”
The Daily Caller attended their press conference with an iPad, which displayed the Treasury Department’s donation page, to find out if any of the “patriotic millionaires” were willing to put their money where their mouth is.
There is, I suppose, a third possibility. That our patriotic millionaires have not already paid the extra taxes they urge all should be forced to pay. But then of course that would just be nonsense, wouldn’t it? How could anyone insist that not paying such extra would cripple the nation and then not pay that extra voluntarily?
Which brings me to the message to said patriots. You show you’re already doing what you think everyone else should be forced to do and then we’ll talk. Until then……
I want the reader to look at the list presented here. Notice anything? Maybe one should run over tohttp://www.opensecrets.org/ and type in the names of those who appear on the list. What you will find is most if not all are strong Obama supporters.
Basically this group is a sham. A groups devised of those who are “patriotic” when their flavor of President is in Office. A true Patriot stands for Country, not political party, or a particular President.
