(Please Note: This
letter is dated 6/2/02)
Dear
Meg,
I was out at a function in Westport for most of the day and just got in a few minutes ago,
thus the explanation for getting back to you this late.
And no, you will never "annoy" me at any stage during our collaboration(s) so
never give that another thought, ok? :o)
Now, to the first question:
I am assuming you learned all about these violantions from your job as a tobacco company
representative. Is that correct?
Answer:
In part, yes. In other areas, no.
For instance, I was suspicious that the "policy" of The American Tobacco Company
(with whom I was employed for 17+ years) of "pricing" the "for sale"
figure(s) into the advertising pieces, by which the cashiers would ring that amount up at
the register, an amount that, minus the "discount" taken off that particular
store's normally posted retail price, would bring the price rung up at the register below
CT's State Minimum Price, thus defrauding the state of CT anywhere from two cents upwards
to 50 cents or more per sale in lost sales tax revenues.
One of the lawyers who was involved in our Project work phoned the CT state Dept. of
Revenue Services and inquired if any retail outlet in CT was allowed to post a "for
sale" price on either cigarette package or carton sales that went below CT's State
Minimum Pricing structure and he told us no under any circumstances.
If you need any further clarification on this point feel free to phone me.
Your next question:
On your home page, it says, "By the use of as many tobacco company forms, guides and
documents as possible, we will be exposing an incredible array of fraudulent tobacco
industry policies, practices, procedures and false claims." I was wondering if
you have those documents that refer to the sales tax issue on-line? I saw the
documents about advertising, tar and freshness, but I haven't come across the other
documents yet. For instance, do you have available on the web-site the proof you
provided to the IRS?
Answer:
As for any "documentation" on the loss/defraudation of CT state Sales tax ... no
... the "documentation" DOES exist, however, in the form of retail outlet
register receipt tapes that are required to be kept for a number of years for review by
the state for purposes of any audits that may be performed by the Dept of Revenue
Services.
Because the fraud was committed as the "act" of ringing up an illegal "for
sale" price for a package or carton of cigarettes that, by virtue of the
"discount" placed upon that package or that carton by the tobacco company via
it's tobacco company representative in the field, the only way to bring that fraudulent
act to light is to retrieve the register receipt tapes from any store that advertises
"State Minimum Pricing" (and there are THOUSANDS in CT that advertise as such)
and as this fraud continues to this day, finding it is going to be very easy. Again, any
further questions on this matter you should phone me.
As for the documentation pointing to the fraud with respect to the IRS, yes, the document
exists in our web site.
You can see it here:
http://www.rxshuster.org/contigen.htm
The full explanation of the fraud is explained on that page, along with a photo of the
actual American Tobacco Company "Contingency Form" document.
Keep in mind that this fraud also involves defrauding CT state Income Tax revenues, as CT
continues to be deprived it's percentage of all "overages" as it is now going as
"unreported income."
Keep in mind that ALL of the other tobacco companies force their employees to keep the
"overages" (explained on the page hyperlink provided), thus making this crime
"interstate" to each and every state that has a state income tax in addition to
the IRS and the U.S. Treasury still being defrauded out of their share of this
"unreported income."
I'll probably need immunity from prosecution on this issue...seriously...that's one issue
our lawyers have looked at with concern for me with respect to this issue.
Your next question:
Also, I was wondering if you know of any articles in national or local papers or magazines
that have been written on this topic. I did a quick google search, but didn't find
any. I am guessing you have links to them on your site, too. If there haven't
been any, do you know why this story hasn't been picked up yet?
Answer:
Perhaps now you can understand our complete and utter frustration with the media. We have
sent out seven Press Releases to over 3, 769 media outlets dispersed between newspapers,
radio news stations and television news stations, a number of them in CT I might add, yet,
despite several online organizations showing some tepid interest and finally disappearing,
not one media outlet wants to run stories or investigations into these significant issues.
We have decided that is because we brought this to them...we being just ordinary
citizens...what do WE know.
Or they are angry that we brought this to them and that they did not discover this on
their own.
There is NO rational explanation for having in excess of 3,769 individual Press Releases
going out to major and minor media outlets across the spectrum from "brick and
mortar" outlets to online media outlets NOT picking this story up after the volume of
detailed information that we have provided to them.
Your guess is as good as ours.
You will have to fill in the blank on that one.
Perhaps, with your and George's involvement in these issues, perhaps the Waterbury
Republican-American will finally have a substantive content issue to put into their pages
for a change :o)
And perhaps that will be the catalyst for further coverage.
As for your last question:
Finally, where do things stand now with the IRS? You mentioned they had bogus
reasons for not investigating - the expired form, etc. I read the 4 responses from
the IRS. Is anything else going on and do you have any idea why they will not pursue
this?
Answer:
State Representatives Kevin Del Gobbo and State Representative Ron San Angelo promised me
in person, after I met with them and gave them a presentation on the IRS issue and their
(IRS) avoidance in dealing effectively with the federal income tax issue of amounts (with
interest and penalties) exceeding almost $1 Billion Dollars in defrauded federal income
tax revenues alone, by issuing bogus explanations that can be easily disproved again and
again, and then being told by these two state reps that, supposedly, House Speaker Moira
Lyons would be briefed by them and that they all would do everything they could to get
this issue thoroughly investigated at the state and federal levels and then ... silence
... crickets (chirp, chirp) ... nothing ... we never heard a thing from either of them
again.
And then there's George. Same thing ... crickets.
If you went here:
http://www.rxshuster.org/federal.htm
you saw that we provide the name and contact info of the Special Agent of the IRS that I
met with in one of our lawyers offices who determined that our figures were "too
conservative" and he was so outraged that this fraud was taking place right under
their noses and oh how he proclaimed that they were going to nail the tobacco companies
asses to the wall for this and then ... crickets ... nothing ... nothing but bogus claims
that can be easily disproved that this issues was either known to them which we proved
that day just isn't true.
Or that somehow hundreds of millions of dollars (including interest and penalties that he
took great lengths to explain to us that we would NOT be entitled to in our Form 211
filing...a filing that HE insisted we initiate) are not worth taking the time to recover
... and then there's that pesky issue of the fact that this fraud continues to this
day...so the claim(s) they make that this issue is/was/whatever was known to them is
absolute and unadulterated BS.
Or that somehow an investigation of these issues is or was ongoing and that our
information had nothing to do with initiating any such investigations when obviously we
can prove if they didn't have prior knowledge of a scam by the tobacco companies to
defraud them of hundreds upon hundreds of dollars (including interest and penalties) and
that if their (IRS) Special Agent, after making countless phone calls to his main office,
at our request, to find out if any such investigations were taking place to find out that
of course there weren't any ... then how could our information but could ONLY HAVE
initiated a SLEW of investigations that MUST take place but have NOT to date.
This is another one we have been scratching our heads on and have decided that once an
investigation takes place at some state level either in CT or in any number of states we
have been corresponding to informing their Governors and their Attorneys General of these
frauds that perhaps then the IRS will finally be called onto the carpet and a demand be
made as to why they walked away from this leaving damning lies in the form of bogus
documentation/bold-faced lying as to why they continue to avoid this significant issue
that has wide-spread state involvement also in terms of the state income tax moneys being
defrauded to this day!
Perhaps ... just perhaps George might be able to do something about that to finally get
that some light of day.
Well, Meg ... there's your answers to date.
I hope that I have helped to move you along to a better understanding of just how high the
wall is that is being built by so many to try to hide behind.
I have a good ability, however, of knocking walls down. :o)
Talk to you soon..it's late now and I'm going to walk my dogs for the night and turn in.
I hope that your day went well ... weekend too, for that matter :o)
Ciao for Now...
Robb
ps...attached is a Word 97 Document of this transcript for your records.
(See Word 97
Document Meghan Fenn Letters9
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