Shomoko
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NYRA aided and encouraged tax evaders - 2005/12/20 23:13
Reported recently in the Thoroughbred Times, 16 New York Racing Association mutuel clerks have pleaded guilty to filing false federal income tax forms. As usual it was ignored or moronically dismissed by the industry shills and semi-literate addicted gambling cretins in this forum.
Aside from the guilty pleas, more troubling was the revelation in
association officials for more then two decades.
The scheme involved workers taking between $9,000 to $25,000 a year out of the track cash draws for their personal expenses. Then track officials give them statements saying that they were missing the money at the end of the day.
The clerks weren`t even disciplined or fired for taking money, but instead the money was deducted from their paychecks and association officials gave them statements that the cash was spent for "non-reimbursed business expenses".
At the end of each year, NYRA issued to its employees Short Certifications, certifying the dollar amount received from its employees as reimbursements for account shortages. Several of the defendants provided the certifications to the IRS in support of the fraudulent deductions they took on their tax returns for unreimbursed employee expenses. [Source US Attorney press realease]
This allowed the clerks to claim an illegal federal tax deduction that otherwise could not have been claimed. It could only be claimed with the assistance of NYRA officials.
The practice was started in the 1970`s by employees and officials in an attempt to buy labor peace during bitter management-employee strife.
Sources say that as many as 200 employees of the racing association had taken advantage of an estimated $20,000,000 tax evasion scheme agreed to by employees and association officials in 1979 to ensure labor peace.
According to NYRA, they are now fully cooperating with the federal investigation, but note that Terry Meyocks, president of the NYRA, said yesterday that those same mutuel clerks who pleaded guilty to tax evasion ARE STILL ON THE JOB, and officials have not decided how they might be disciplined.
Also take note that NYRA only began to audit regularly just recently after 20 years of official blindness, assisting tax cheats with forms, and failing to discipline several ticket clerks who regularly had taken as much as $25,000 from their cash bins over the year.
Only those who had the largest amount of tax fraud in the scheme were prosecuted, therefore many clerks currently working at NYRA tracks who willingly participated in the scam will still keep their jobs since there will be no conviction. The tax fraud apparently finally ended after a federal investigation spurred the audits. about two years ago.
Interesting what was not reported in the TTimes article was that association officials were fully aware of this scheme. Certainly it`s a very important detail that could impact a license to operate a racetrack, but somehow that was omitted by the TTimes. These folks apparently know when to keep their mouths shut
Last year, four mutuel clerks, who also just happened to be the HEAD OFFICERS of the mutuel clerks union, were convicted of money laundering at NYRA tracks.
The latest tax evasion convictions are another black eye for NYRA. It`s underscores their derelect management, lack of oversight, and lack of integrity. There will be more convictions to come.
It`s yet another example of the institutionalized corruption that permeates horse racing at the highest levels.
Current report: http://community.webtv.net/thunderbooly/Weeklybreakdown
Breakdown report: first year http://community.webtv.net/thunderbooly/Horseracinginjury
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