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Title: Kill The Messenger Campaign Continues (Joe Banister, Freedom Above Fortune News)
Source:
Freedom Above Fortune News
URL Source: http://freedomabovefortune.com
Published: Jul 18, 2006
Author: Joe Banister
Post Date: 2006-07-18 15:05:07 by Neil McIver
Keywords: None
Views: 76
Comments: 1
Dear Friends: It will probably come as no surprise to you that the tentacles of the federal income tax enforcement apparatus continue to reach far and wide to discredit and silence my whistleblowing efforts at every opportunity and using every resource, this time using the resources of two California bureaucracies, the California Board of Accountancy ("CBA") and the California Department of Justice ("CDOJ"). Detailed below is an account of the latest attack against me. I am again asking for you to pray for me and my legal team as we prepare for this next battle and, yes, I am asking you to pray for those who are trying to do me harm. I am also asking for your financial support as I will again be incurring significant expenses to defend myself (Details Below). You may recall the "disbarment" fiasco in 2003/2004 wherein the IRS claimed it was protecting the "public" from a "disreputable" character like me by "disbarring" me from "practice" before the IRS. But when it came time for the "public" hearing to which I was entitled, the IRS and the administrative law judge sought to convene the hearing on, no joke, a military base located on an island in San Francisco Bay, making it impossible for the "public" to attend. After significant outcry from the very same "public" that the IRS was supposedly protecting that they were being prevented from attending the hearing, the administrative law judge then canceled the hearing altogether, scheduled a "sanction" proceeding and railroaded me into "disbarred" status, which has prevented me from formally communicating with the IRS regarding client disputes ever since. When I appealed my "disbarred" status to the next level, Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, he side-stepped deciding my appeal and incestuously handed the decision-making authority in my appeal back to the IRS, the very agency that had asserted the allegations against me in the first place! Even with the Internal Revenue Service's extraordinary level of control over the decision-making authority in my "disbarment" appeal, the IRS appeal decision recognized the weakness of half of the allegations against me and dismissed them outright. For the remaining allegations, the IRS justified its decision by asserting that it has the authority to prohibit any client from choosing a duly authorized, state-licensed accountant or attorney as their representative simply because the client's opinions or beliefs are not the same as the IRS. Such a justification is, of course, nowhere near adequate, at least not according to American jurisprudence, and the remaining allegations are therefore being appealed. Although the IRS achieved its underhanded goal of marking me with the "scarlet letter" of "disbarred" IRS practice status, the "disbarment" fiasco also exposed a great deal of IRS trickery, injustice and hypocrisy to the thousands of Americans who were following the battle. It appears that the "disbarment" fiasco discredited the IRS much more than it discredited me so the IRS had to cook up another way to "kill the messenger". What the IRS cooked up was to accuse me, in November of 2004, of criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States of America and of criminal preparation of false tax returns, accusations that, if sustained, could have sent me to federal prison and certainly would have discredited me forever. The problem for the IRS was that the accusations were totally false and a jury of my peers, seeing that the charges were false, acquitted me on all charges. In fact, more than one juror commented after the trial that I was more than just "not guilty", I WAS COMPLETELY INNOCENT. Once again the IRS failed to "kill the messenger" and it had no choice but to reach back into its ever-growing and ever-brazen bag of dirty tricks. Some of you may recall the federal state partnership formally forged on September 16, 2003 ( http://www.givemeliberty.org/RTPLawsuit/Update09-14-03.htm ). This cozy little relationship was designed to make the heavy hand of the income tax enforcement apparatus even heavier. Federal and state government's pledged to work together to destroy anyone who questioned the legitimacy of income tax administration and enforcement. Interestingly, the kick-off to this cozy little relationship led to another extremely embarrassing moment for the IRS (http://www.givemeliberty.org/wtp-tv/4MinLinks.htm ). Since the IRS wasn't having much luck at completely soiling my reputation and credibility, it sought the help of a couple of its state "partners" to finish the job, namely the California Board of Accountancy ("CBA") and the California Department of Justice" ("CDOJ"). After over 7 years of whistleblowing efforts, I have learned a great deal about what I have often described as the "income tax enforcement apparatus". The tentacles of this apparatus are much more numerous and far reaching than most law-abiding, liberty-minded Americans could have imagined and those tentacles stretch far outside the walls of IRS offices. Unknown to those of us who thought we were free, these tentacles have been purposely put in place over many decades, almost as if the evil octopus was preparing for the day when Americans would discover the problem but find it impossible to escape. These tentacles are constantly trolling for ways to reach beyond the walls of the IRS to protect the federal income tax from any credible opposition. Unfortunately, credibility is a double-edged sword. When one is trying to blow the whistle on wrongdoing, the more credibility you have the better. By the same token, the more credibility you have the more of a target you become - the worst thing that an evil- doer can have on its hands is a credible whistleblower exposing its misdeeds. The apparatus was unsuccessful in discrediting me with last summer's criminal prosecution but it could not stop there. The federal income tax enforcement apparatus simply cannot coexist with credible people who expose its misdeeds, so rather than correct the misdeeds, the credible people must be destroyed. A former IRS criminal investigator whistleblower in jail was first prize but a former IRS criminal investigator whistleblower defrocked of his credentials and reputation is a nice consolation prize. For you see, CBA holds the keys to something about me that has undoubtedly galled the IRS since the day I resigned from the agency - the fact that I was not only one of their own highly decorated criminal investigators but that I had three letters of additional credibility after my name - "C.P.A." for "Certified Public Accountant". Undoubtedly egged on by the IRS, the CBA is now poised to take some kind of action against my C.P.A. license and the first battlefield was a hearing that occurred July 6, 2006. The hearing was relatively brief. The presider at the hearing was Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Steven C. Owyang from the California Office of Administrative Hearings. The "complainant", Carol Sigmann, of the California Board of Accountancy (CBA), was represented by California Department of Justice (CDOJ) Deputy Attorney General Jeanne C. Werner. Ms. Werner informed ALJ Owyang that the complainant would not be calling any witness to testify and would be proceeding against me solely on the basis of the disbarment appeal decision rendered by the IRS (the decision described above that was supposed to be decided by Treasury Secretary Snow but was delegated back to the IRS for a decision). Some administrative matters were then taken care of and then my attorney Robert Barnes gave a superb opening statement. Ms. Werner objected a couple of times during Mr. Barnes presentation but ALJ Owyang politely allowed Mr. Barnes to finish his statement. ALJ Owyang then instructed both sides to submit opening legal briefs by September 5, 2006 and responses to each others' opening briefs by October 11, 2006. Thus, the period between now and the end of August is of critical importance and this is the period when I most need your help. Here I stand at another crossroads. I hope you will agree that your past prayers and financial support have enabled me and my legal team to beat extraordinary odds against a formidable foe. Up to this point, we have been able to create an incredibly full record regarding how the income tax enforcement apparatus conducts its dirty business. We need to continue building that record and exposing the octopus for what it truly is and what it truly does. I am therefore asking for your help again. It is not easy to withstand these attacks but I know that each proceeding (disbarment, criminal prosecution, abusive tax shelter investigation, CPA license revocation, etc.) brings these dark forces a little farther into the light and exposes them for what they are. I then make the resulting record of these proceedings available for all to see (at http://www.freedomabovefortune.com click on "IRS LOCKOUT UPDATE" in the top center of the screen). Ahhh, the life of a guinea pig! I would appreciate any support you can provide. If your support is spiritual, please give (pray) as often as you can. If you can afford to assist me financially, your help is indeed welcomed and appreciated. Bernhoft Firm ( http://www.bernhoftlaw.com ) attorney Robert Barnes spent significant time preparing for and attending the July 6th hearing and he and Bernhoft Firm principal Robert Bernhoft will be spending many hours in the next few weeks preparing a brief that will properly and adequately address the very important issues in this California Board of Accountancy case. The legal briefs submitted in this case will be made available on my website but first they have to be written, and written well. Make no mistake - the issues involved in this case have huge ramifications for every American, the most significant of which is determining whether Americans will retain the ability and freedom to choose zealous advocates to defend them against government attacks and abuses or be left with only phony, spineless advocates whose fear of being attacked themselves neutralizes any zeal to advocate for their clients. Remember that the octopus is not just targeting you, it is also targeting the professionals who would and could be there to defend you. The Bernhoft firm has already been extremely generous with billing concessions (to the tune of many tens of thousands of dollars) but the level of their concessions has reached a point where help is desperately needed to shoulder the financial burden, especially the burden that will transpire over the next few months. You all have been so very generous with your support and I thank each and every one of you for your ongoing help. A number of you continue to routinely send donations without even being formally asked, for which I am forever grateful. I can assure you that all of your donations have been used and will continue to be used for these ongoing battles. I will continue to provide updates as events unfold. Please support this effort as often and as generously as you can. Details are included below. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continuing support. ****************************************************************** -For those who have received this message as a forward from someone else, you can sign up to receive these messages directly by visiting http://www.freedomabovefortune.com and clicking on "Mailing List". -For those who are unfamiliar with what has transpired to date in this case, especially the recent acquittal on all charges leveled against me, please visit http://www.ninehundred.net/banister/ , http://www.joebanister.blogspot.com and http://www.freedomabovefortune.com (click on "IRS LOCKOUT UPDATE"). You can also find archives of informative radio shows at http://www.hearliberty.com . -Prayers in support of this effort are always welcomed and encouraged. Contributions to my legal defense fund are also welcomed due to the significant costs of defending against multiple and continuing IRS attacks. Checks or money orders are gratefully accepted and can be made payable to "Joseph Banister Legal Defense Fund", and mailed to 1805 N. Carson Street, #188, Carson City, Nevada 89701. Money orders may provide a greater degree of privacy to the donor than checks so use your own discretion based on the degree of privacy you desire. -Visit http://www.ninehundred.net/banister for more information as to how you can obtain information about my recent trial and contribute to my legal defense fund at the same time. -My sincere thanks to those who have prayed for the success of our efforts and/or contributed to my legal defense fund. Your continued support is enabling me to illustrate, in detail and in a very public manner, that the IRS does not prevail against citizens because the agency adheres to the rule of law, but that the IRS prevails against citizens because the agency ignores the law, twists the meaning of the law, and overwhelms the citizen with economic and legal burdens. In a school yard, such tactics are called "BULLYING". In a government setting, such tactics are called "TYRANNY". This effort is the equivalent of ganging up on the bully and sending him to reform school where he belongs.
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#1. To: Neil McIver, *Destroying the Middle Class* (#0)
When I appealed my "disbarred" status to the next level, Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, he side-stepped deciding my appeal and incestuously handed the decision-making authority in my appeal back to the IRS, the very agency that had asserted the allegations against me in the first place! Out of sight, out of mind.
But when it came time for the "public" hearing to which I was entitled, the IRS and the administrative law judge sought to convene the hearing on, no joke, a military base located on an island in San Francisco Bay, making it impossible for the "public" to attend. After significant outcry from the very same "public" that the IRS was supposedly protecting that they were being prevented from attending the hearing, the administrative law judge then canceled the hearing altogether, scheduled a "sanction" proceeding and railroaded me into "disbarred" status, which has prevented me from formally communicating with the IRS regarding client disputes ever since.
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