Lawmakers 1/7/1982
Lawmakers 1/7/1982
Lawmakers 1/7/1982
Lawmakers 1/7/1982
Paul Duke introduces report on the use of tax documents to provide confidential information on American citizens. Mention of Nixon practice of using IRS for political ammunition. Now, law enforcement claims the reforms preventing IRS information sharing are a hindrance, ask for relaxing the laws for sake of fighting the drug war and organized crime
Lawmakers 1/7/1982
Nov 18, 1981 Senate Committee Hearing Unidentified Law Enforcement official testifying, the $128,000 that the man admitted was drug money, the IRS couldn t confiscate. Senate Committee members sitting on panel, members entering the chamber. Mike Jackson, Convicted drug trafficker, "Most drug smugglers catch themselves." Senator off camera, So because of that tremendous money you get careless and you do things Mike Jackson, Convicted drug trafficker, You develop a syndrome where you think you can get away with anything. And this in turn, you make mistakes, you break your own rules. Charles Dickman, convicted drug smuggler, The pilots were usually paid $20 - $30 per pound for a Columbian trip. Senator off camera, How much did that translate to? Charles Dickman, convicted drug smuggler, Well, say you have 2,000 pounds at $30 a pound, that s $60,000 for a small airplane. Mike Jackson, Convicted drug trafficker, Newspapers publish the fact that that 10% of the people get caught. That means that 90% of them get away. Greg English, Department of Justice, In order to get the Internal Revenue Service involved in this case we had to have them appointed agents of the Grand Jury to act in tandem with the other enforcement people. And that was a process that took a great deal of time. Approximately six months were spent in getting the requisite approvals from the IRS and from the Justice Department in going through the hurdles that are required. We jokingly say in the trade that some of the financial privacy laws are dope dealers relief legislation.
Lawmakers 1/7/1982
Pan across papers that outline privacy bills.
Lawmakers 1/7/1982
December 14, 1981. House Tax Sub Committee. Senator Sam Nunn (D - Georgia), the withdrawal of IRS from joint law enforcement investigations of organized crime, labor racketeers, and narcotics traffickers has had a severely adverse effect upon law enforcement efforts against these criminal groups the court order and written request requirements have created a catch 22 situation. Since Internal Revenue Service agents are forbidden to tell the other agencies of the criminal evidence they gather it is virtually impossible for these other agencies to even know this information exists, much less to describe that information with such particularity that they can satisfied the requirements for a court order or a written request. Representative Charles Rangel (D New York) chairing subcommittee, if in the course of an investigation, one law enforcement agency believes that you re guilty, but has not sufficient evidence to even indict you, and we can now call upon the agency that has collected information that you have voluntarily given them to see whether or not they could reach that objective.. Senator Sam Nunn (D - Georgia), I think there s more to the right of privacy than a tax return. I think I think it includes some degree of safety in one s person and one s property. So I think the American people have a broader expectation of law enforcement than law enforcement is currently capable of delivering. Jerome Kurtz, former IRS commissioner It seems completely clear to me that these provision would divert some agents from their primary job of verifying a tax payers taxable income to digging around for tidbits of information in a tax payers files to refer to the Department of Justice. John Shattuck, ACLU, We are, let me just repeat, absolutely opposed to imposing a requirement on IRS to conduct regular searches to determine whether there is any evidence to that might relate to crime. Now that is what Senator Nunn s bill and the Administration bill would do right now Representative Charles Rangel (D New York) we just can t have the appearance that agencies are walking away from crime merely because the rights of privacy. You don t want it, I don t want it. We re concerned with abuse of that right.