Happy Holidays: The IRS Gave The Money Back

Just in time for the holiday season, the IRS gave a restaurant owner named Carole Hinders, of Iowa, back the money that they had confiscated last year, because it looked as if she was attempting to manipulate the amounts of her bank deposits in order to skirt banking laws. Her bank deposits were often just a little bit shy of $10,000; and it looked as if she was manipulating them, or "structuring" them, in order to avoid creating records. Often, this is associated with money laundering and is done by drug dealers. Carole Hinders wasn't involved in either.

The Internal Revenue Service was unable to prove intent, and actually gave her money back to her last week. Luckily, Hinders had support and representation; hopefully, small business owners can learn from this.

Northeast Kansan Covers For Criminal

Christi Marie Hout is a bank teller in Lawrence, Kansas who was charged with embezzlement and will most likely have to face whatever music Kansas plays for that crime, but something of which enablers of all stripes should take note is that her boss, Karolyn J. Stattelman, is also charged in this crime.....not initially for stealing anything herself, but for covering for Hout.

Something the friends and relatives of crooks and criminals do not seem to clearly understand is that when a crook is violating the law and violating the rights of his or her victim, it is unlawful to stand by and watch, without saying anything. It becomes perjury, false statements, and sometimes contempt of court when a "loyal friend" not only enables the crook, but hides evidence and covers for the crook. This applies to small indiscretions, such as allowing someone who is on probation for drunk driving (ahem......Quail Road, Frankfort Kansas) to take the wheel despite active alcoholism, to the Catholic priest who covers for parishioners who commit hate crimes or sex crimes and counsels the victims to blame themselves! Yeah, hello Northeast Kansas, once again.



Here in the video is another case of aiding and abetting. This one involves a teenage girl named Danielle Locklear, who disappeared in March of this year, and was found in April, in the South River, in North Carolina. Her boyfriend murdered her and tossed her in the river, and his buddy knew about it and said nothing. Later, after she was found, the truth came out, and even though the "loyal friend" did not commit the actual murder, he is facing murder charges.

Karolyn J. Stattelman is planning to appear in court today, to change her plea. It's hard to say whether this strategy will actually help her case or not.

Kansas Gas Station Forced Customer To Pay Twice

A gas station in Kansas sold $85.11 to a customer over the weekend. She paid with a MasterCard; which, she was told, was declined. So she settled the transaction with her Visa. After getting back into her vehicle, she called the bank through which her MasterCard line of credit is extended to find out why her card was declined. Imagine her surprise when she was told that the transaction was not declined at all, but approved, and had already been paid! The customer service representative told her to go back inside the gas station and request that the transaction be voided and her money credited.

The customer went back inside and told the clerk about the phone call to the bank. The clerk insisted, despite the bank's claim that the sale was approved, that the sale had been declined. The clerk also claimed that she "did not know" how to credit a transaction! The customer then requested that she call her supervisor to resolve the conflict of having been forced to pay twice. The supervisor got the number of the bank from the customer and promised to call the bank. A few minutes later, the customer called him back, and he said that he had called the bank and that he had been told that the transaction did not go through. Then, he told the customer that he would not "pay" her anything, and asked her if she "scammed money off credit cards for a living"!

Meanwhile, back at the bank, the customer was later told that the supervisor had never called. So....at this writing, it quite looks as if he lied. A customer was forced to pay twice for her a purchase of $85.11, and then accused of "scamming credit cards for a living". This city in Kansas prides itself on being a quaint small town with a friendly atmosphere, by the way. An accusation of theft to an honest person certainly does not qualify as "friendly", and the whole interaction, from an approved purchase being reported as declined, and twice as much money extorted as was actually owed very much reeks of credit card fraud and possibly of identity theft.

The FBI has a special unit to assist victims of credit card fraud and identity theft; the link is here:http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/victim_assistance/fincrime_vic. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission keeps a record of each and every complaint received. While it does not get involved in conflict resolution, it watches for patterns of practices, such as telling customers that approved credit cards have been declined and double billing and double charging customers. This could easily have been a deliberate attempt to scan as many credit cards, for information on magnetic strips, as possible, during a day's time.

One More Reason To Omit Mitt

 

Actually, when the Constitution was first drafted, while marriage was considered to exist between a man and a woman, women were still considered chattel and did not have the right to vote, own property beyond their wedding dates, or bank their money in a lot of places in America. It's beautiful that we have all been able to move beyond those days, and bring the Constitution with us. Marriage would actually be better defined as between two adults, (heavy emphasis on the word adults) of sound mind.