Date: Feb 13, 2014 10:38 PM
Subject: IRS Insider Blows Lid Off “Culture of Corruption”
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Subject: IRS Insider Blows Lid Off “Culture of Corruption”
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Thursday, 13 February 2014
14:55
IRS Insider Blows Lid Off
“Culture of Corruption”
Written by Alex Newman
As a growing cloud of perpetual mega-scandal
continues to swirl around the embattled Internal Revenue Service, an IRS
insider who has worked as an attorney at the tax agency’s Office of the General
Counsel for over 26 years is now blowing the whistle on what he says is
systemic, massive corruption as well as routine abuse of taxpayers. In an
explosive exposé posted on Power Line, William
Henck accused the agency — currently under fire for targeting political groups
the Obama administration disagrees with — of embezzlement, bullying elderly
taxpayers, retaliatory audits, scams, and more.
While the establishment press has failed to notice the
corruption allegations so far, analysts are already calling for a special
prosecutor to properly investigate the charges and restore accountability.
Based on the accusations laid out in the warning to the public, IRS attorney
Bill Henck has tried unsuccessfully to have authorities investigate and deal
with the corruption. When nothing significant to rein in the abuses happened,
he eventually went to the press. Despite exposure of some of the lawlessness in
at least two major newspapers, however, the scams and abuses victimizing
taxpayers continued, Henck said. He was then subjected to a “retaliatory audit”
by IRS officials for his efforts, he added.
“I have personally witnessed improper giveaways of billions of
dollars to taxpayers with inside access at the agency, bullying of elderly
taxpayers, the cover-up of managerial embezzlement and misappropriation of
thousands of dollars in government funds, and a retaliatory audit,” Henck wrote
in his blistering account of the decades he spent working at the IRS, which was
published on February 6. “I have also heard credible accounts of, among other
things, further improper giveaways, blatant sexual harassment, and
anti-Semitism. All of these matters have been swept under the rug.”
Henck said he had no personal knowledge of
the IRS being used as a political attack dog to target conservative
organizations and individuals. However, he also noted that the “environment
within the agency is ripe for such activity and there is nothing to prevent it
from occurring.” Further down in the letter, the IRS attorney also said he
fears that the stories told by ordinary citizens of IRS abuse due to political
views are true. In fact, Henck added, based on what he has experienced while at
the agency, it would be “naïve” to think that IRS executives would draw the
line at politically motivated harassment while engaging in everything else he
described.
Of course, the latest IRS scandal involving harassment and
targeting of Tea Party groups for extra audits and scrutiny to muzzle the
voices of Americans in elections is now well known. One of the key players in
the lawlessness — or at least the fall person, depending on one’s point of view
— was senior IRS official Lois Lerner, who pled the Fifth Amendment to avoid
testifying and incriminating herself. Countless analysts and critics suspect
the corruption went much higher — potentially all the way to the White House.
More recently, Dr. Benjamin Carson, who lambasted Obama to his face during a
National Prayer Breakfast last year, accused the agency of retaliating against
him and his family for the criticism.
“The IRS has investigated me. They said, ‘I want to look at your
real estate holdings.’ There was nothing there,” Dr. Carson told Newsmax TV
this week. “‘Well, let’s expand to an entire [year], everything.’ There was
nothing there. ‘Let’s do another year.’ Finally, after a few months, they went
away. But they’ve come after my family, they’ve come after my friends, they’ve
come after associates.” He added: "We live in a Gestapo age, people don’t
realize it. But what I say is the Congress has to, at some point, step up to
the plate.”
Henck, who still works at the agency, says the “vast majority”
of his colleagues at the IRS are honest and do their jobs in a “conscientious
manner.” However, what he called the “culture of corruption” within the agency
goes beyond the typical “share of bad apples and misconduct” that exists within
other organizations. “What separates the IRS is its junkyard dog ferocity in
covering up misconduct,” he said. “There is no accountability for IRS
misconduct and people within the agency are scared to speak out and also
believe, with considerable justification, that such action would be futile” —
not to mention potentially fatal to their careers.
Among the scandals Henck described within the agency is abuse of
taxpayers, who he said “were denigrated in writing as ‘upper class twits’.”
Despite weaknesses in the IRS’s legal positions, he continued, at least one “cadre
member” on an IRS team argued that “the taxpayers in these cases were typically
elderly and could be forced into settling their cases.” Henck had suggested in
one of the cases that the IRS concede due to errors in its position, but
higher-ups refused. Other revelations include how lobbyists meet with top IRS
officials to organize schemes benefiting their clients, how taxpayers are being
ripped off using a variety of scams, and much more.
“I am reporting the information stated above because as a federal
employee, I took an oath to the United States. I have a legal and moral
obligation to report this information,” Henck said after detailing multiple
abuses at the agency. “All Americans should be concerned when IRS officials see
themselves as above the law because they are, in fact, above the law. The
misconduct described above is united in the complete lack of accountability on
the part of IRS officials.”
Citing the allegations made by Henck and other recent scandals
surrounding the administration, Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker said it was time for
serious action. “These charges deserve official investigation, and because the
Eric Holder Department of Justice cannot be trusted to appoint someone with an
interest in getting at the truth, the charges ought to be part of a special
prosecutor's mandate,” he wrote, adding that Congress should investigate. “Of
all government agencies, the IRS has the most arbitrary and easily-abused
power. Corruption within its ranks cannot be tolerated, for it has the
potential to metastasize rapidly into banana republic tyranny.”
“The mess at the IRS must be taken very, very seriously, or else
we shall lose our republic,” Lifson continued. “It is now time for the House to
investigate and loudly call for a special prosecutor.” While Henck’s
allegations have spread rapidly across the Internet and the alternative media,
the establishment press and lawmakers in Congress do not appear to have noticed
yet. However, as the scandals surrounding the IRS continue to grow, it is
becoming increasingly obvious that there is much more than just smoke. In fact,
it is amazing that what appears to be a raging inferno has been allowed to burn
for so long without any serious efforts to stamp it out.
Incredibly, as if the tsunami of scandals plaguing the agency
was not enough to at least rein in the lawless behavior, the IRS is now openly
seeking to re-write its “regulations”
in a brazen effort to silence
conservative Americans. Around the world, meanwhile, the agency is
seeking to impose a radical U.S. tax regime known as FATCA on every bank and
government on Earth. Canadian authorities recently capitulated, and Russia’s
Vladimir Putin government is now negotiating a “data-sharing” deal
with the IRS as well. All of it is being done without any statutory
or constitutional authority whatsoever, according to lawmakers and experts. It
is past time for Congress to get involved.
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New
American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached at anewman@thenewamerican.com.
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