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Beanie Baby billionaire balks at the Big House
Chicago Sun Times ^ | 7-10-14 | Kim Janssen

Posted on 07/11/2014 3:46:22 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

Lawyers for billionaire Beanie Baby creator and convicted tax cheat Ty Warner say he’s “a self-made man with a generous heart” and a federal judge was right not to send him to the big house.

Prosecutors were left fuming in January after Warner was handed just two years probation and 500 hours community service for hiding $100 million in secret Swiss bank accounts to con the IRS. In February, they asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to order Warner be resentenced.

But attorneys for the 69-year-old Oak Brook toy industry titan argued in a 57-page court filing Thursday that the government’s unusual appeal should be thrown out.

U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras was right to give Warner credit for his lifetime of “concern and generosity to others,” they wrote.

Kocoras — visibly moved by the 70 letters of support sent by beneficiaries of Warner’s largesse, including charities and sick employees he helped — gushed in January that Warner had exhibited a “depth of humanity” that he had never seen in any other criminal defendant.

(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: beaniebaby; charity; collectibles; irs; taxfraud

1 posted on 07/11/2014 3:46:22 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

His crime was trying to keep the government from looting his money?


2 posted on 07/11/2014 3:49:02 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: from occupied ga

Yes. That’s why they’re so furious that his sentence was so light.

It’s not crime (the real kind) they care about. It’s control.


3 posted on 07/11/2014 3:56:05 AM PDT by sourcery (Valid rights must be perfectly reciprocal.)
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To: sourcery

yup


4 posted on 07/11/2014 3:59:33 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic; All
the Gov't thugs wanted HIS $$$$, for "Bathhouse" 0'Muslim
jaunts to the Queer Bathhouses in South Chicago.

5 posted on 07/11/2014 4:01:15 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a weapon...0'Jihadist/"Rustler" Reid? d8-)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

At least there aren’t two tiers of justice in America, one for the rich and one for the rest of us.


6 posted on 07/11/2014 4:11:46 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: afraidfortherepublic

hey he earned it. IRS is like the KGB.


7 posted on 07/11/2014 4:16:15 AM PDT by dalebert
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To: Wolfie

Hey, the judge was “visibly moved.” It’s all about feeeeeeeeelings.


8 posted on 07/11/2014 4:18:47 AM PDT by Tax-chick (The world has enough land, food, water, clothing, and money. It doesn't have enough love.)
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To: Wolfie

Chicago, Chicago, what a wonderful town, Chicago (blech)


9 posted on 07/11/2014 4:18:57 AM PDT by JohnnyP
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To: Tax-chick

And committing the right kind of crime, apparently.

Wesley Snipes must be pissed.


10 posted on 07/11/2014 4:22:00 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: Wolfie

As my tax professor says, tax avoidance is legal, tax evasion is not. Either way taxes are a bad thing.


11 posted on 07/11/2014 4:32:18 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: from occupied ga

Field guide to tax avoidance

Toy makers: bad

GE: good
Clinton Foundation: good
Denise Rich: good


12 posted on 07/11/2014 4:33:36 AM PDT by relictele (Principiis obsta & Finem respice - Resist The Beginnings & Consider The Ends)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I bet I know which party he contributed to. He’s not exactly getting the Tea Party treatment.


13 posted on 07/11/2014 4:41:36 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Sounds to me like Ty Warner not only wanted to keep some of the wealth he created, but he forgot to pay the political fees. You know, “Campaign Contributions”. Just a few million to the right PACs and he could have saved himself a lot of money and legal costs.
A little like the Microsoft Monopoly case. It disappeared pretty quick just as soon as Bill Gates started throwing money at political campaigns. Relatively small fine and now we have Bill Gates supporting every liberal cause out there plus a few of his own.
14 posted on 07/11/2014 4:55:54 AM PDT by Tupelo
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To: relictele
Clinton Foundation: good

Well what good is being connected to government if you have to be treated the same as everyone else?

15 posted on 07/11/2014 4:59:08 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

He should have been drawn and quartered for turning gun shows into beany baby and beef jerky shows (with a few guns) in the 1990s.


16 posted on 07/11/2014 5:55:11 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!!)
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