10 thoughts on “Saturday Blogwhoring Thread”

  5. Here’s a story about the horse breeding tax scam Katee Sackhoff’s dad got involved in:
    http://taxattorney123.blogspot.com/2007/09/arbor-home-builders-sue-portland-tax.html

    Arbor home builders sue Portland tax attorney
    Investment loss – The two construction magnates put $28 million into a horse-breeding operation that collapsed
    Wednesday, September 19, 2007
    JEFF MANNING
    The Oregonian Staff
    Residential construction magnates Dennis Sackhoff and Wally Remmers have sued prominent Portland tax lawyer Joseph Hanna and his firm Hanna Strader over their money-losing investment in a failed thoroughbred horse-breeding operation.
    Sackhoff and Remmers invested $28 million between them in ClassicStar based in part, they claim, on an opinion from Hanna that ClassicStar’s aggressive tax strategy was legal and appropriate. But they now accuse Hanna of malpractice, claiming the lawyer failed to disclose that in addition to representing them, he was getting paid handsome commissions for steering clients into the breeding operation.
    Hanna received $618,000 in commissions from ClassicStar and a firm working on ClassicStar’s behalf in return for the investments from Sackhoff, Remmers and a third plaintiff in the lawsuit, Bryan Nelson, of Bellevue, Wash., the lawsuit claims.
    Steve Ungar, a Portland lawyer representing Hanna, dismissed the claims against his client, saying they are “typical of those filed by parties who have independently made imprudent business decisions, yet down the road, attempt to shift the blame to professionals who have served them in good faith.”
    Ungar denied that Hanna received commissions or any other payments from ClassicStar or anyone else, other than legal fees.
    ClassicStar has since collapsed, eliciting racketeering lawsuits from Sackhoff and Remmers and at least six other clients. The Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service have launched a criminal investigation.
    The Kentucky-based breeder filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, reporting it owed more than $100 million to at least 300 creditors.
    Sackhoff and Remmers own Arbor Custom Homes, the largest residential builder in the Portland area. They were typical ClassicStar investors: wealthy and successful business people.
    In promotional literature, ClassicStar aimed its pitch directly at those in the upper-income tax bracket searching for ways to reduce their tax obligation. Calling itself the “ultimate tax solution,” ClassicStar offered possible enormous profits in large part because of a tax strategy that generated large tax refunds.
    Sackhoff and Remmers, along with Nelson, became aware of ClassicStar in 2004. All three hired Hanna in May and June 2004 to analyze the federal tax implications of the breeders’ program.

  7. Hecate – Day of the Dead is a great holiday. I lived in Chicago for a long time and they have a large Mexican population and there are several festivals and museums where you can get great sugar skulls and other remembrances. It’s on the South Side in the Pilsen neighborhood, or was when I lived there in the Roaring 90s.
    http://www.mfacmstore.com/dayofthedead.html

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