Kermit Washington Indictment And The Allure Of Zero Overhead Charity
Taking Mr. Washington as at face value, he was moved to be very hands on his charitable activities. When he raised money he wanted it to go directly to the people in need and he emphasized this in his appeals. A fund -raising email that is quoted in the indictment stated: “there is no and I mean no administration cost at all”.
What Mr. Washington stands accused of in the indictment are things like diverting fees that he was entitled to PCA and then PCA funds to personal use. Then there is that software license ebay thing. And there is backdating of minutes. The really oddest thing is aggravated identity theft for listing Teresa Gipson as the Secretary of Project Contact on the Annual Report, without, you know, telling her about it. And then there were the 990s. Don’t get me started.
Some sound administration including if the dollars warranted it reviewed and audited financial statements would have helped Mr. Washington avoid the temptation to fall into these foolish moves. And they are foolish. Regardless of Kermit Washington’s guilt or innocence on the indictment, he will not go down in history as an accomplished fraudster.
When Penalties Are Punitive They Are Not Tax Deductible
BI is a US corporation with a foreign subsidiary that is treated as a disregarded entity (DE). DE’s executives and employees falsified books and records to cover up things of value given to government officials. There were not adequate internal accounting and financial controls to detect and prevent corruption-related violations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. There are about two paragraphs worth of details redacted. I’m sure they would make this post much more entertaining.
BI entered into a consent decree with the SEC to pay a disgorgement of profits from its FCPA violations. Part of the deal was that they could not consent to the penalty while denying the allegations. Then there was an agreement by DE with DOJ consenting to the filing of a Criminal Information and the paying of a monetary penalty for which no tax deduction could be taken. The fine on DE that was paid by BI caused a dollar for dollar reduction in the disgorgement penalty on BI.
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.