Posted on 04/02/2011 4:05:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A 34-year-old Bowie man acknowledged in federal court Friday that he participated in a ring that distributed more than 17 million black-market cigarettes, a scheme that prosecutors said cost the government more than $2.6 million in taxes.
Chun Chen, who goes by Eddy and owned a carryout restaurant in Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt...
The far-reaching probe became public last fall, when then-Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) and his wife, Leslie, now a council member, were arrested.
Jack Johnson was indicted in February on bribery charges. Leslie Johnson (D-Mitchellville) is accused of destroying evidence......
..Nine people, including three Prince George’s police officers, have been charged.....
Prosecutors have said that Melhi paid then-Prince George’s police Sgt. Richard J. Delabrer, 45, of Laurel and others to safeguard the transportation of untaxed cigarettes and alcohol into Maryland and Virginia....
According to Chen’s plea agreement, Delabrer and another defendant began purchasing untaxed cigarettes from the undercover agent and reselling them.
One buyer was Chen, who then sold the cigarettes in New York, where local taxes are more than $8 per pack, court papers say. Prince George’s police Cpl. Chong Chin Kim, 42, also allegedly bought cigarettes, then resold them to New York buyers.
According to court papers, Maryland at the time imposed a sales tax of $2 per pack, and Virginia’s tax was 30 cents per pack. The Department of Treasury imposed a federal excise tax of $1.01 per pack.
Federal officials wiretapped Delabrer’s county-issued cellphone, and later a personal cellphone, intercepting thousands of calls, court papers say. Authorities recorded many calls about the cigarette and alcohol operation, the documents say, including some between Delabrer and Kim about payments for the contraband cigarettes.......
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ummmm, GE is a darling of liberal elites... the rest of us aren't. They get off scott free because they're 'green' - we pay through the nose...
I remember when I thought $10 a CARTON was expensive! Around the time a carton cost $20 I quit. But by your numbers, a carton in NY today, costs between $110 and $120. Yowza!
They state it this way because cigarettes are actually taxed per cigarette as opposed to per pack or per carton.
That started who knows how long ago, back when different packs contained different numbers of cigarettes.
And I want to know how ya'll get away with that.
I have to pay out of another part of my anatomy.
Why do I keep seeing comments like these on here? A person who understands business should know that corporate taxes should be at zero because anythng above that gets passed on to us the consumer as a cost of doing business. If no business’ paid taxes it would increase margins allow companies to become even more compeitive with each other.
You’re absolutely right.
But I think that Fred is talking about the double standard. Some corporations are forced to pay taxes while the ‘Rat’s darlings are not, like GE.
I’ve seen that argument before.
I think they should increase everyone’s taxes who earn below a certain limit. Maybe they could even impose a tax tax.
You would feel good about shouldering more of the tax liability.
It is only fair.
Seems like it would be cheaper to become a meth or coke addict, or at least about equal. Same with Pot.
bfl
Then you would be assuming that GE is breaking the law, or being allowed to skirt the law. Do you have evidence of either?
I’m not sure what you are getting at. Are you saying I don’t pay taxes?
Out of their own mouths.
No, I don’t mean you don’t pay taxes. And yeah, corporations pass along tax costs down to the final end user. But what guarantee does that get that 0 corp. tax means poor people are going to benefit in the long run? None.
There might be a few more jobs, but the industrial base is shot to hell. It isn’t coming back.
Business generated revenue might be able to stem the debt and even pay it down. But they will raise taxes some way, some how.
EVERYBODY bitches about paying any taxes. But the majority in this country are greedy, self-serving SOB’s unwilling to do anything that might mean helping their neighbors, towns, ciities, states, or country.
It’s all me Me ME!
If anything happens, I think it might as well be the reset button.
The disparity between the rich and poor is increasing.
What is poor man going to do when he can no longer feed , house, and clothe his family? He’s going to crawl off in a hole and die?
I think not.
He’s gong to climb up on rich man’s hill, pop a cap in him, move into his house, screw his wife, and eat his food.
I don’t pretend to have an answer.
But there are a hell of a lot of people of every stripe, in this country, who aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.
I do share your anger. I think these CEO’s with their hundred million dollar paychecks are the problem. I’ve been in the game long enough to know that politics have just as much to do with someone rising to the top as geniue ability. But like you I don’t have a good answer. I don’t want the government telling people what they should get paid. I think people have to police themselves, unfortunately they are doing a bad job of it.
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