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Dr. Hinder Joins Hogan & Hartson's Berlin Office
Law Firm News | 2007/05/01 23:42





Hogan & Hartson LLP announced today that Dr. Jens-Uwe Hinder will strengthen the firm’s Berlin office. Dr. Hinder joins Hogan & Hartson from Hammonds, where he has practiced as a partner and the head of the tax practice since 2002. An experienced international transactions partner, Hinder will play an important role in the further expansion of Hogan & Hartson’s national and international tax practice in Germany.

Dr. Hinder advises national and international businesses and has extensive experience in the structuring of real estate transactions. Additionally, he focuses on international tax planning, advising on tax matters related to M&A transactions, tax structuring of funds, and settlement (transfer) prices.

“We are delighted that Dr. Hinder is joining our Berlin office,” said Dr. Gernod Meinel, managing partner of the firm’s Berlin and Munich offices. “Due to the constant increase of our advisory activities related to international transactions, we are experiencing an increased demand for integrated tax advice. After strengthening our tax practice in Munich with the addition of Sebastian Kost as well as expanding our private equity practice with Dr. Uwe Steininger, we have now gained a highly qualified partner that is the ideal addition to our transactional team in Germany.”

“By moving to Hogan & Hartson, I have the opportunity to further develop the tax practice of a global law firm and to expand it on an international level. In addition to this attractive challenge, I have been inspired by the professional competence of the Hogan & Hartson team as well as the friendly atmosphere at this firm,” commented Dr. Hinder.

Dr. Hinder, who is both an attorney and a tax consultant, studied at the universities of Bonn and Freiburg and received his doctorate degree at the University of Münster. His legal career started 1991 at Brandi, Dröge, Pilz & Heuer in Detmold, Germany. After completing his Master of Laws degree at the University of San Diego and the second state exam in law 1995, Dr. Hinder worked at KPMG, followed by joining the law firm of Schmidt Hampel-Dorrmann Schmidt in 1999 and joining Hammonds in 2002.


Man pleads guilty in slaying of gay teen
Court Feed News | 2007/05/01 23:23
One of three defendants accused of killing a teenager because he was gay has pleaded guilty to capital murder, prosecutors said. As required by state law, jurors will still hear testimony in an abbreviated trial and a judge can sentence Christopher Gaines, 22, to death or life in prison without parole. Gaines likely will get life in prison because of the plea deal he entered on Monday, prosecutors said.

Authorities have said Gaines and two others attacked Scotty Joe Weaver at his trailer in 2004.

Prosecutors said they beat, strangled and cut the 18-year-old before setting his body afire, and the extent of Weaver's injuries pointed to the attackers' distaste for his sexual orientation.

Gaines will not testify at the trial set to start May 7, but jurors will watch a video recording of his confession, defense attorney J. Clark Stankoski said. Lawyers have not said whether Gaines will testify against his two co-defendants, Robert Porter and Nichole Kelsay, who are scheduled to be tried separately later this year.

The slaying drew interest from gay rights groups, and hundreds of mourners attended a vigil for Weaver in Mobile after the killing. Anti-gay groups picketed outside the Crossroads Church of God, where Weaver's funeral was held.



Andrea S. Kramer to Receive Founders Award
Law Firm News | 2007/05/01 22:36





On Wednesday, May 3, 2007, Andrea S. Kramer, a McDermott Will & Emery partner based in the Chicago office, will be presented with the first "Founders Award" from The Women's Treatment Center (TWTC).  Ms. Kramer, a founding member and board chair of TWTC, has been supporting TWTC for 16 years.  During her tenure, TWTC has expanded its programs and services to further erase the barriers to treatment of women with children.

Ms. Kramer has practiced law for nearly 30 years.  She is a member of McDermott’s Tax Department; head of its Financial Products, Trading and Derivatives Group; and co chairs its Energy Services Group.  She is active in Firm management, serving as chair of the Firm’s Gender Diversity Committee and a member of its Management Committee.  In addition to her many legal accomplishments and her family life, Ms. Kramer has found the time and energy to be extremely active in community and charitable activities.  Earlier this year in recognition of her outstanding community service, the Anti-Defamation League awarded her its Women of Achievement Award, and the Cook County Board of Commissioners awarded her its Unsung Heroine Award in 2004.  She serves on the board of DanceArt.  She recently co-founded the Women's Leadership and Mentoring Alliance and plays a leading role in the Chicago Bar Association's "Call to Action," designed to increase opportunities for women lawyers.

The mission of TWTC is to provide women with a continuum of care, recovery tools, and parenting skills to maintain a sober lifestyle as they rebuild their lives and futures and mend the bonds with their families.  The scope of this treatment includes social services, medical care and mental health services, which are offered without regard to race, creed, color, sexual orientation, disability, national origin or ability to pay.  TWTC is one of the few substance abuse programs in the United States that can accommodate children in residential treatment, making TWTC particularly responsive to the needs of chemically dependent mothers.  For more information, visit www.womenstreatmentcenter.org.



Federal Court Shuts Down So-Called “Warehouse Bank”
Lawyer Blog News | 2007/05/01 22:26

A federal court in Seattle has shut down a nationwide “warehouse banking” scheme whose promoter falsely promised customers they could legally hide their income, assets, and identities from the Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department announced today. The warehouse bank, known as Olympic Business Systems (OBS), is operated by Des Moines, Wash., resident Robert Arant. The court order, called a preliminary injunction, was signed on April 27 by Judge Marsha J. Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. A temporary restraining order freezing Olympic’s assets was previously signed on April 17 by Chief Judge Robert L. Lasnik. The court orders were initially filed under seal, but the court today ordered them unsealed.

In papers filed in support of obtaining the injunction, the government alleged that Olympic deposited almost $28 million of customer funds into accounts that OBS maintained in its own name at commercial banks. Olympic allegedly used the funds to pays customers’ bills and expenses while promising to leave no paper trail.

Judge Lasnik’s order held that Arant “is or should be aware that courts have repeatedly held that warehouse banks are tax evasion schemes.” A California federal court in 2004 permanently closed a similar warehouse bank. Details about that case are available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv04785.htm. In 2005 a federal court in Oregon sentenced operators of a warehouse bank to prison, after their criminal convictions. Details are available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv05070.htm.

WWW.USDOJ.GOV



Bush vetoes war spending bill with pullout timetable
Law & Politics | 2007/05/01 18:35

U.S. President George W. Bush Tuesday vetoed a war spending bill that aimed to set a timetable for American troops to withdraw from Iraq, branding the bill "unacceptable." In a national television speech to explain his veto, the second during his six-year presidency, Bush said the bill "would mandate a rigid and artificial deadline for American troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq."

"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing," he said.

The Democratic-led Congress sent Bush the bill on the fourth anniversary of his "Mission Accomplished" speech, during which he declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.

The war, however, has dragged on, and has claimed the lives of over 3,300 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

The bill, which would require the Bush administration to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by Oct. 1, with a goal of ending U.S. combat operations there by next March, was designed to provide nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars for American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year.

Bush said setting a deadline for withdrawal "is setting a date for failure," and that was "a prescription for chaos and confusion."

Urging the Democratic-led Congress to give his troops buildup plan in Iraq "a chance to work," Bush also expressed his desire "to work with the Congress to resolve this matter as quickly as possible."

Bush and congressional leaders from both parties would meet at the White House Wednesday on the spending bill.

He warned that without a war-funding bill, the military "has to take money from some other account or training program so the troops in combat have what they need" and to "consider cutting back on buying new equipment or repairing existing equipment."

Democrats immediately rebutted Bush's veto.

"The president may be content with keeping our troops mired in the middle of an open-ended civil war, but we're not -- and neither are most Americans," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid said the president's refusal to sign the war spending bill was "his right," but he "has an obligation to explain his plan to responsibly end this war."

"We had hoped that the president would have treated it with respect," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

"Instead, the president vetoed the bill outright, and, frankly, misrepresented what this legislation does," she said.

Acknowledging there was "great distance" between the White House and Congress, Pelosi also expressed the wish to work with Bush to "find common ground" on the war funding bill.

Without sufficient votes in both chambers of Congress to override Bush's veto, Democrats were considering writing a new war spending bill that would provide funding to U.S. troops but also set certain benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet, news reports said.

Bush announced a reinforcement plan in January by sending over 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq to help quell escalating sectarian violence there, but his plan has met strong resistance from Congress, and the Iraq war, now in its fifth year, has become increasingly unpopular with the U.S. public.

A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in April found that 57 percent of respondents now felt the Iraq war was a mistake, against 41 percent who said it was not.

In a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week, 56 percent of those interviewed said they agreed more with the Democrats on a deadline for troop withdrawal, against 37 percent who said they agreed with Bush that there should not be a deadline.



Business owner pleads guilty to tax evasion
Lawyer News | 2007/05/01 18:25

The owner of a landscaping and contracting business in Monmouth County has pleaded guilty to tax evasion, admitting that he evaded more than $300,000 in federal income taxes, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced. According to a press release from Christie's office, Christopher M. Aldarelli Sr., 40, of Howell, appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark on April 13 and entered a guilty plea to Count Two of an indictment which charged him with willful tax evasion for calendar year 1999. He also admitted evading taxes for other years.

Aldarelli was arrested in February on an indictment charging him with three counts of tax evasion for calendar years 1998, 1999 and 2000. Chesler scheduled sentencing for Sept. 13.

The count to which Aldarelli pleaded guilty carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $100,000, according to the press release. The remaining counts will be dismissed, however, all of the conduct (known as relevant conduct) described in the indictment will be taken into consideration when Chesler imposes sentence.

The indictment sets forth that from 1998 through 2000, Aldarelli ran two corporations, Aldo 1 Landscaping and Lawn Service Inc. and Aldarelli Enterprises Inc., which performed a large volume of paving, construction, high-end landscaping and lawn-cutting work for private residences and municipalities.

Aldarelli admitted during his guilty plea that because these businesses were "S" corporations, he was required to report any income derived from the businesses on his U.S. individual tax return. The indictment further set forth that for the three years in question, Aldarelli reported that he owed tax in the amount of just under $15,000 for the three years combined.

For calendar year 1999, Aldarelli reported taxable income in the amount of $66,232 with a resulting tax in the amount of $12,121. During his guilty plea, Aldarelli admitted that he intentionally failed to include an additional amount of nearly $300,000 in personal income he received during 1999 on that tax return in an effort to evade paying income taxes, according to the press release. He also admitted that for calendar years 1998, 1999 and 2000, he owed an additional total tax of approximately $317,000 on the basis of income he failed to report.

Aldarelli admitted that this additional income stemmed from the receipt of cash for work his companies performed which he did not report, as well as from cash he withdrew from business accounts but used for personal expenses. He also admitted to writing checks to himself from the business accounts which he used for personal and non-business-related expenses, according to Christie.

The guilty plea of Aldarelli represents the latest conviction to arise from Operation Bid Rig, the same investigation which has led to charges being filed against more than 18 officials in Monmouth and Ocean counties over the last several years, including convictions of the former mayors of Asbury Park, Ocean Township, West Long Branch, Brick Township, Hazlet and Keyport.



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