Tag: Thomas

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Politics

Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas says federal marijuana legal guidelines could also be outdated

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says federal marijuana laws may be outdated

Clarence Thomas, Assistant Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, listens during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, the United States, on Monday, October 26, 2020.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Monday that federal laws against the sale and cultivation of marijuana are inconsistent, making a national ban unnecessary.

“A ban on the interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or appropriate to support the federal government’s piecemeal approach,” wrote Thomas, one of the court’s most conservative judges, in a statement.

The court’s decision not to hear a new case related to tax deductions alleged by a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado prompted Thomas to issue a statement relating more broadly to federal marijuana laws.

Thomas stated that a 2005 judgment in the Gonzales v. Raich, which stated that the federal government could enforce the ban on marijuana possession, may be out of date.

“Federal policy over the past 16 years has severely undermined its rationale,” added Thomas. “The federal government’s current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that both tolerates and prohibits the local use of marijuana.”

Thomas referred to several guidelines that contradict the 2005 ruling. These include Justice Department memoranda from 2009 and 2013 stating that the government would not interfere with state marijuana legalization programs or prosecute individuals for marijuana activities if it was in accordance with state law.

He added that since 2015, Congress has repeatedly banned the Justice Department from using federal funds to meddle in the implementation of state medical marijuana laws.

“Given all these developments, one can understand why a normal person might think that the federal government has withdrawn from its once absolute ban on marijuana,” he wrote.

With 36 states allowing medical marijuana use and 18 recreational use, Thomas claimed marijuana companies do not experience “equal treatment” under the law.

The problem is a provision in tax law that prohibits companies that deal in marijuana and other controlled substances from deducting their business expenses. The IRS is cracking down on marijuana companies like the Colorado medical marijuana dispenser by conducting investigations into their tax deductions.

“Under this rule, a company that is still in the red after paying its workers and leaving the lights on could still owe a sizable federal income tax,” wrote Thomas.

The judiciary also found a consequence of the federal marijuana ban, stating that most marijuana companies operate entirely in cash due to restrictions preventing state financial institutions from providing banking services to these companies. This makes these companies more vulnerable to break-ins and robberies, according to Thomas.

All of these questions regarding federal marijuana laws threaten, Thomas argues, the principles of federalism.

“If the government is now satisfied with allowing states to ‘act as laboratories, then it may no longer have authority to enter the[t]The central police powers of the states. . . Define criminal law and protect the health, safety and wellbeing of its citizens, “said Thomas.

Legal experts like Joseph Bondy, a cannabis law expert on the board of directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marihuana Laws, agreed with the judiciary’s testimony, predicting that arguments about the injustice of federal marijuana laws would continue. Law & Crime reported on Monday.

While Bondy noted that Thomas’ testimony may not have actual legal implications, he told Law & Crime that it was still “sending out a message that may temper the views of some people in Congress,” including “one of our Republican senators.” “

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Health

Thomas Brock, Whose Discovery Paved the Method for PCR Exams, Dies at 94

Thomas Brock, Whose Discovery Paved the Way for PCR Tests, Dies at 94

PCR technology, which requires cycles of extreme heating and cooling, can multiply small segments of DNA millions or even billions of times in a short period of time. It has proven crucial in many ways, including identifying DNA at a crime scene and, more recently, determining if someone has Covid-19.

“PCR is fundamental to everything we do in molecular biology today,” said Yuka Manabe, professor of medicine in the Infectious Disease Department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Mullis would not have been able to perform PCR without a rock-stable enzyme.”

Updated

April 22, 2021, 7:27 p.m. ET

Thomas Dale Brock was born in Cleveland on September 10, 1926. His father, Thomas, an engineer who ran a hospital boiler room, died when Tom was 15 years old, driving him and his mother, Helen (Ringwald) Brock, a nurse, into poverty. Tom, an only child, took jobs in stores to help her.

When he was a teenager, his interest in chemistry led him to set up a small lab with a friend in the attic of a barn behind his house in Chillicothe, Ohio, where he and his mother lived after his father died. There they experimented with explosives and toxic gases.

After completing his training in the Navy’s electronics training program, Dr. Brock received three degrees from Ohio State University: a bachelor’s degree in botany and a master’s and Ph.D. in mycology, the study of fungi.

Dr. Brock spent five years as a research microbiologist with the Upjohn Company before being hired as an assistant professor of biology at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland. After two years he became a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s medical faculty. In 1960 he moved to the bacteriology department at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he taught medical microbiology.

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Politics

Hedge fund chief Thomas Sandell settles New York tax fraud declare

Hedge fund chief Thomas Sandell settles New York tax fraud claim

The hedge fund founder Thomas Sandell paid a whopping $ 105 million Tuesday to settle claims he fraudulently evaded New York and state taxes on more than $ 450 million for fees earned.

The settlement – which will reward a whistleblower with more than $ 22 million – is the largest recovery in New York State history under the False Claims Act.

This state law was amended more than a decade ago to allow claims related to intentionally evaded taxes.

Swedish-born billionaire Sandell, who did not admit wrongdoing, tried to evade his liability for tens of millions of dollars in taxes paid to the city and state for the 2017 by his firm Sandell Asset Management Corp. fees earned were said to have been owed.

The $ 105 million settlement covered both taxes and damages, according to Attorney General Letitia James and City Company attorney James Johnson. The whistleblower’s reward is 21 percent of that amount.

“The greed that has made it possible for a man not to pay his fair share of taxes is amazing,” said James.

“Thomas Sandell and his company got New York taxpayers out of the tens of millions of dollars in a single year – putting a huge strain on our system and forcing ordinary New Yorkers to bear the cost,” said James.

Chris Doyle, an attorney who represented Sandell in the false claims lawsuit, told CNBC, “Mr. Sandell and his companies have declined to comment.”

Sandell closed his hedge fund in 2019 and turned it into a family office.

In 2007, Sandell’s company agreed to pay more than $ 8 million to settle claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission Asset Management for improper short sales in connection with trading in a New Orleans-based holding company following the hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In the most recent case in New York, officials said that due to a change in the rules for 2008 regarding the recording of deferred fee income in 2017, Sandell was required to record approximately $ 450 million in such income and pay taxes on that money to the state and the city to pay.

“To avoid this liability, Sandell left New York to live in London from August 2016 to mid-2019,” said a press release.

“And while SAMC continued to operate in New York City, Sandell and SAMC have taken steps to create the impression that SAMC is no longer operating in New York City, often with the assistance of an international accounting firm.”

As part of the program, officials said Sandell, with three employees, opened a “Shell office” in Boca Raton, Fla., Which he and his company claimed was SAMC’s only American operation.

Despite the fact that they agreed to a determination by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company’s main place of business continued to be New York City.

Even after several consultants, including an accounting firm that had prepared its taxes for years, warned Sandell that “his tax position was problematic,” he still claimed he did not owe New York taxes on fee income, a 2017 press release said.

Randy Fox, an attorney for the whistleblower who sued Sandell for tax evasion under the False Claims Act, declined to identify the person or individuals who formed the limited liability company Tooley LLC named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit .

When asked what his client or clients would do with the $ 22,050,000 reward – a fraction of which Fox will receive under a contingent fee agreement – the attorney said, “I don’t know.”

“At least buy a nice bottle of champagne,” added Fox.

Fox was the founding director of the New York Attorney General’s Taxpayer Protection Office.

He said Sandell’s alleged circumvention was suspicious because he “already had access to an amazing tax break” that allowed him to invest the money earmarked as fees in an unqualified retirement plan that could generate returns for years before that Charges levied had to be declared for tax purposes.

Fox reported that 49 states allow whistleblowers to sue under false claims that provide rewards for reporting fraud to government agencies.

However, the law only limits about half of these states to compensation for fraud related to government Medicaid programs.

Fox said that until recently, New York was the only state that allowed false claims for damages for any type of fraud. Some states don’t prohibit tax claims for false claims, but they don’t encourage such actions, he said.

“The big question on my mind is why are all these states leaving money on the table … when you think about the difference between taxes paid and taxes owed,” said Fox.

He said the estimated shortfall in actual federal taxes owed versus taxes paid is $ 380 billion annually.

A less accurate estimate is that New York State loses $ 10 billion annually in taxes that should have been paid, he said.

“Tax revenue pays for vital city services. When a deadly pandemic has gutted the economy and weighed heavily on our city’s budget, every dollar counts,” Johnson said.

“Hedge funds, like everyone else, are required to pay taxes, and if they are not, we will use our legal tools and strategies to hold them accountable. Period.”