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| 2 Face Penalty in Slave Reparations Case |
| 2003-10-23 |
| Looks like some folks aren’t betting on President Sharpton... WARSAW, Va. - Crystal Foster’s father advised her to spend the $500,000 income tax refund she got two years ago. When the government came looking for its money, the Fosters said it was their rightful reparations, since their ancestors were slaves. Sorry. Wrong answer. Slap the bracelets on him, Muldoon. Though there is no federal reparations program, Foster had spent the money in eight days, buying a $40,000 Mercedes Benz, paying off her student loans and helping her brother pay for his first year at Virginia Tech. 500 Grand in 8 days! Oh, yeah! This is political! Power to the People, baby! Foster’s father, Robert Lee Foster, prepared her tax forms and was convicted along with his daughter of trying to defraud the government. He maintains he did the right thing. Most scam artists do. "Black people are not treated as humans, but as things by the U.S. government," he said in an interview at the Northern Neck Regional Jail. "We were used as resources to enrich this country and we get no inheritance from the wealth we brought." Your ancestors were, you weren’t. If your great great great grandfather was still around I’d have no problem giving him your kids Mercedes. According to the Internal Revenue Service, more than 80,000 tax returns were filed in 2001 seeking nonexistent slavery tax credits, totaling $2.7 billion. More than $30 million was mistakenly paid out in slave reparations in 2000 and part of 2001. Great job by the IRS! Really on the ball! That number dropped significantly last year after stepped-up scrutiny of tax returns and an aggressive media campaign targeted against scam artists promising to secure tax credits for blacks. Like our man Robert Lee, maybe? But the government has also begun quietly cracking down on filers of false claims after years of looking the other way. Looking the other way for years? Why might that be? Foster and his daughter each were convicted in July of conspiracy to defraud the government. Robert Foster also was convicted of four counts and Crystal Foster of one count of making false claims. Both were scheduled to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Richmond on Thursday. Defendants in similar cases have received up to seven years in prison. Free Robert Lee and Crystal! Can’t wait for the website. The case against Robert Foster has taken several bizarre turns. Foster renounced his U.S. citizenship in jail and professed allegiance to the Moab Tiara Cherokee Kituwah Nation, an obscure Charlotte, N.C., group whose members claim they are descendants of African Moors who came to the New World before European colonialists. Good. File your taxes with them and see what your refund is. Got a feeling not as good as Uncle Sugar’s. Foster filed papers in U.S. District Court seeking to vacate the judgment against him based on lack of jurisdiction by the U.S. government. The judge rejected the motion. Foster also tried unsuccessfully to fire his attorney, Thomas Johnson, and hire an "indigenous attorney" who identified himself as justice secretary for the Kituwah Nation. Wonder what an "indigenous attorney" charges per hour? Foster, a 51-year-old tax return preparer, said he endured years of racial discrimination during his career with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Richmond. In 2000, he sued his former employer, claiming he was passed over for promotion as an accountant because he was black. The case was settled for $5,000, leaving Foster bitter. He’s bitter, dammit! "I was picked out to be harassed," he said. "I was always outspoken." Foster, who admitted he called U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams a "white devil" in court, said he doesn’t hate anybody. "But I do hate the actions of some people." Doesn’t sound paranoid to me. The issue of slavery reparations has long simmered in the United States, but some say it may be gaining momentum. Blacks last year filed lawsuits in several states against a number of large corporations, alleging they profited from slavery for two centuries and that blacks should be compensated. If there’s someone around who was a slave up to 1865, by all means, give them the money. More recently, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said that if elected president he would order a study of reparations for descendants of slaves. Well knock me over with a feather... IRS spokeswoman Michelle Lamishaw said the idea of filing reparations claims may have originated with a 1993 Essence magazine editorial urging blacks to seek refunds of $43,206 per household as a delinquent tax rebate. The magazine said the figure was the modern-day equivalent of 40 acres and a mule, which Congress voted to give former slaves following the Civil War. The deal was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson. Who wrote the editorial, Spike Lee? Foster said he increased the total tenfold to account for inflation. According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Foster prepared returns claiming more than $3.6 million in reparations, most for about $500,000 each. ...and he’s a math wiz, too. In the refund that was mistakenly paid out, 25-year-old Crystal Foster claimed she had overpaid taxes on long-term capital gains in 2000. She listed the fictitious "Black Capital Investments" fund of the U.S. Treasury as the source of the gains. Foster received her refund check in October 2001. Prosecutors say only about half the money has been recovered. My oppressed ancestors would’ve wanted me to drive a Mercedes. Johnson, Robert Foster’s attorney, declined to comment on the case. But Foster said from jail he did not believe he broke the law. "This was not an effort to defraud the U.S. government," he said. "This was purely a protest against the U.S. government." Duly noted. Enjoy your seven years. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #14 ROBERT LEE Foster? Yeah, decended from Stephens lesser known brother who made a fortune in the blackface biz. Known only to history as the name of the famous racin steamship Robert E. Lee. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-10-23 8:07:12 PM |
| #13 Three hots and a cot, such a deal. Only problem is that I am sure that there will be a fine, too. Kinda wipes out the Rape-a-Nation's profit. Now she will be playing rock hockey in the big arena for less than minimum wage. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-10-23 5:08:53 PM |
| #12 Foster had spent the money in eight days, buying a $40,000 Mercedes Benz, paying off her student loans and helping her brother pay for his first year at Virginia Tech. Damn! Tuition must have gone up at VA Tech, or she had one heck of a student loan. Now we have to pay for their incarceration. |
| Posted by: B 2003-10-23 4:52:51 PM |
| #11 Buys an automobile from the "ethnically tolerant" Germans. Then pays tuition to a school in the very State famous for slavery. Bold statement brave soldier, bold statement indeed. |
| Posted by: Braniac 2003-10-23 4:01:48 PM |
| #10 As a descendant of a Cherokee, I'm offended by some band of kooks using "Cherokee" in the name of their cult. Where can I sue? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-10-23 3:32:27 PM |
| #9 Raj, thanks for the correction. I'll have to rewatch Undercover Brother and catch up on THE MAN and his henchman Feather. Solid! |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-10-23 3:17:15 PM |
| #8 Oh, this is just great--the way she got that $500,000 refund is by claiming she paid $500,000 in taxes that same year and was due the refund! Is the IRS aware of these computer thingies we have nowadays? Maybe they could buy a few? I think I'll claim I paid $100 million in taxes and am due a full refund. That should buy me a nice life and a new ID--I wouldn't be sitting here waiting to be caught! |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-10-23 2:45:38 PM |
| #7 ROBERT LEE Foster? Irony overload.... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-10-23 2:25:49 PM |
| #6 Rantburg Interoffice Memorandum To: Yank From: Raj RE: Use of slang Old reference: the man New reference: THE MAN Thanks. |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-10-23 2:21:01 PM |
| #5 "I was picked out to be harassed," he said. "I was always outspoken." Foster, who admitted he called U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams a "white devil" in court, said he doesn’t hate anybody. This kills me. He was picked out because he's a jerk, not because he's African American. His whole life he's probably been treated badly because he's a loud mouth jerk (and racist from the sound of it) and he's blamed it on the man. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-10-23 2:03:47 PM |
| #4 Wow, the good news is that the fact that some of these claims actually got through will take a load off my mind as I scrounge the tax form for deductions each April. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2003-10-23 1:59:53 PM |
| #3 ...the Fosters said it was their rightful reparations, since their ancestors were slaves. I thought their ancestors were: ...African Moors who came to the New World before European colonialists. Which is it? |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2003-10-23 1:57:57 PM |
| #2 "More than $30 million was mistakenly paid out in slave reparations in 2000 and part of 2001." Now why did I not think of that? If they pay that out they probably don't check any ethnicity box. Come to think of it, there is no ethnicity box on a 1040! RACISM I SAY! |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2003-10-23 1:55:40 PM |
| #1 Where's my money? My ancestors suffered because they couldn't find jobs. That was a direct result of blacks taking the jobs at lower wages. I DEMAND REPARATIONS! |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-10-23 1:36:12 PM |