This morning, the OC Register reveals that Street oversaw the bankruptcy of Fruehauf Trailer Corp's pension fund. Well, all of that went south, and now taxpayers may end up spending $7 million to bail out the fund.
It appears that Street was paid handsomely for his work. According to the Reg,
Operating with virtually no oversight, Street ran the trust for seven years, more than twice its expected life span, while ringing up hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses. He also enjoyed such perks as a trust-owned SUV with XM radio.
"This is way out of line," said Richard Marshack, an Orange County bankruptcy attorney who frequently worked as a trustee. "You don't need a Phi Beta Kappa to tell you that."
This is standard stuff in the Fuentesphere.
Check out the article: $7 million bailout
2. DUELLING POWWOWS. I do hope you're all planning to attend the Shootout at the OC Corral--monday afternoon, from 2-5, at Saddleback College.
While that's happening, George W will be hangin with some of Tom's pals at the Orange County Business Council, at the Hyatt Regency (Irvine). None of us is invited, I'm sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if Tom is there. And John and Don and Nancy. It's gotta be a Republican magnet.
Local right-wingers are hopping mad because W has decided to carry water for his rich friends re illegal immigration. Those politicians who are trying to ride the latest anti-immigrant wave will want to be there to look displeased. They'll squawk, too.
See the Reg article: Rough neighborhood
I sure hope this George W shindig doesn't keep the trustees away from the big district POWWOW. Trust me, you don't wanna miss the powwow.
I wouldn't be surprised if Tom offers a prayer and then pulls out a paint ball gun and splatters every single liberal busybody in the room.
2 comments:
Thanks, Jonathan. It's good to have friends in high places--or at least friends in places that are populated by those who are in high places.
HMMMMMMMM. I think Chriss has been driving down a wrong way street.
Street Admits Hiring Illegal Aliens. Hmmm. Not only a violation of Federal immigration law, but potentially an offense for which he could lose his standing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. One has to wonder…did he pay back taxes to the state and Federal government. How can someone who violates tax laws expect to be taken seriously as the OC Treasurer? To paraphrase Jerry McGuire – Show me your tax returns!
See the following WSJ Article:
Many Worry About Illegal Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Suddenly, working parents are coming out of the closet.
Zoe Baird's withdrawal as attorney general nominee has triggered guilt among many who, like her, employ illegal immigrants as nannies or pay their household help cash under the table, skipping Social Security taxes. No longer comfortable with the excuse that "everyone does it" and worried that their reputations could be hurt, they're rushing to attorneys and accountants for advice on how to come clean.
"There's a Zoe Baird scare" erupting, says Michael Maggio, a Washington immigration lawyer who in recent days has received numerous calls from professionals worried that they'll be exposed. Adds Brian Rohan, an editor at the Irish Voice newspaper in New York: The flap has "certainly put the fear of God in people. It's going to be tougher to find a job for undocumented workers, many of whom are our readers."
Chriss Street, an investment banker in Corona del Mar, Calif., and his wife, Victoria, used to employ illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America to care for their three children and clean their home, but no longer do so. "We're not trying to be holier than thou, but these people are really criminals," says the 42-year-old Mr. Street. "They're going to be deported."
In the past, he admits, he and his wife never bothered to determine the status of their nannies and maids. "We didn't want to know and conveniently we didn't ask," paying their help in cash. The Streets have switched to an independent maid service that handles both immigration issues and tax work.
Kelly Fisher, president of North Shore Nannies Inc. in Chicago, says that in recent days new clients have specifically requested U.S. citizens, not foreigners. Some fear they can't trust agencies to screen out illegal immigrants. In Atlanta, a telephone operator with the Internal Revenue Service says she received at least 10 calls late last week from nervous employers worried about not paying Social Security taxes for their nannies. And on line at downtown Boston's Social Security Administration office on Friday afternoon were a couple, their two young children and 16-year-old European babysitter who'd worked for the family for a year and was applying for a Social Security card. "We want to do this correctly," said the father, a businessman who wouldn't give his full name.
Also concerned are armies of people who have weekly house cleaners, gardeners, cooks or occasional nighttime babysitters -- and who may never before have realized they're subject to an array of tax rules. The Social Security tax requirement applies to any household employees paid more than $50 a quarter. Employers who pay more than $1,000 a quarter must also pay federal unemployment tax as well as various state taxes.
"All these years I thought I was in the clear with my house cleaner because I thought she was an independent contractor," says one New Yorker who declined to be identified. "You'd have to be nuts to handle all that paperwork for someone who comes in a morning a week. But am I going to be liable to some kind of big bill with interest and penalties some time down the road?" she worries.
No one expects mass confessions. The IRS estimates that about two million families employ domestic workers but only one-quarter of them file required taxes. While the costs of non-compliance can be enormous -- the penalty for failure to pay Social Security tax can be 100% of the tax due, plus the tax itself and interest -- there has been little enforcement. Nor has the Immigration and Naturalization Service made the search for illegal nannies and maids a priority.
"Zoe Baird is just somebody who got caught," says George Handelsman, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, who doesn't expect a nationwide change of heart. "Everybody wants the cheap labor. Nobody wants to admit it." Moreover, few parents are apt to fire cherished nannies who've established close ties with their children. "There's a tremendous intimacy in having someone work in your home," and parents typically look for personal chemistry above all, says Robert Mann, owner of the Sandra Taylor employment agency in Beverly Hills, Calif. Agrees one New York mother who employs an illegal Polish immigrant to care for her eight-year-old son: "The only job she can get is under the table, and she's a wonderful caregiver."
Still, hiring practices in the home have overnight become a litmus test of character, much as drugs and draft status have been. Indeed, over the weekend, two Republican candidates for governor in New Jersey -- Christine Todd Whitman and W. Cary Edwards -- admitted they'd employed illegal aliens in their homes to care for children and an elderly parent, and failed to pay Social Security taxes on their wages. "Anyone with political aspirations is going to say they can't afford to break the law anymore," says Marianna Bagge, director of the National Academy of Nannies in Denver.
Executives won't be exempt either. "You can bet that a lot of chief executives have been lying awake worried about this and now there will be some questions asked of their senior teams," says Patricia Cook, managing director of A.T. Kearney Inc. in New York. While CEOs are unlikely to police middle managers, top executives who represent their companies in the public eye will be told to clean up their acts, she says. Reputations on the Line Also on the line are attorneys and accountants whose professional reputations rest on their adherence to the law. One Washington accountant says he's suddenly nervous about a Panamanian man who cleans his house once a week. "I don't know if my wife asked him for his green card. He doesn't speak very good English," he says, adding that "as soon as the Zoe Baird story came up, I asked my wife if we have a problem. If someone had me before a Senate committee, I suspect I wouldn't have a solid case with what I know now."
Others who've felt tinges of guilt about their illegal arrangements with nannies and maids are being nudged into action. One New York editor who'd planned to file social security taxes for her American nanny but "hadn't gotten around to it," says "this has put it into the active file."
Many nannies and other domestics don't want their employers to be legitimate because they earn so little they want to pocket it all and not pay their own taxes. But those who've followed the law are angry that it took Zoe Baird to force the issue. June Simon, a 63-year-old Pittsburgh nanny, says she has always asked employers to pay Social Security on her wages "because it's the right thing to do" and she wants something to fall back on in later years. One couple she worked for refused and she "left after a year with bad feelings. I was told I could sue them but I didn't want to get into that." At tax time, she says "I always get socked" but wouldn't think of not paying up.
Coming clean is apt to be expensive. The IRS doesn't grant amnesty to families who admit they've been negligent in paying taxes. "The person will have to pay all back taxes, penalties and interest, but we won't prosecute," says IRS spokesman Wilson Fadely.
The situation is stickier when dealing with illegal immigrants. An employer must get certification from the Labor Department and then file a work-visa petition with the INS. But the government grants just 10,000 visas a year to unskilled workers, so the process typically takes four or five years according to the INS -- and during that time the illegal immigrant isn't supposed to work and faces deportation.
The new awareness of the pervasiveness of underground domestic employment could prompt a push for reform on immigration as well as tax laws. "There's a lot that can be done to ease tax filings," says Thomas P. Ochsenschlager, a Washington partner with accountants Grant Thornton. Among the suggestions: fewer forms and less frequent filings. 25 January 1993 The Wall Street Journal
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