D-Day For Milton

Hey! Our buddy Milton Street gets sentenced today; he could end up in jail for up to three years. And Brian Hickey has a great interview with the man up on PW. While I’m catching up on a few things you should totally read it.

Milton: No Such Thing As Taxes

Fox’s Good Day Philadelphia showed Steve Keeley’s interview with everyone’s favorite member of the Street family, Milton, this morning at some ungodly hour. Milt talked more about his protest of the income tax, a view the Inquirer found somebody to compare to the Holocaust:

Daniel B. Evans, a trust and estate lawyer in Philadelphia, has called these protesters “tax deniers.” “Just like Holocaust deniers attempt to rationalize and justify their refusal to accept an indisputable historical fact… tax deniers attempt to rationalize and justify their refusal to accept indisputable historical facts,” Evans writes on a Web page he has maintained on the subject since the 1990s.

Evans’ Tax Protester FAQ even has its own webspace! Since it’s been around since the 1990s, I figured it’d be something like geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/4885/.

Closing arguments in the Milton Street trial are today. Only a short time before Uncle Milty walks out of court a free man and celebrates by opening up a hot dog cart.

Did Milton Just Save Himself?

Oh, Milton.

The Milton Street trial had gotten a little boring. Okay, two Neiman Marcus employees testified Street bought $11,000 worth of merchandise in cash — but it was at King of Prussia, not Franklin Mills. (Ex-mayor John Street goes to the movies there.)

The rest of the trial, we got testimony that led to reports like this: “Others, such as Rose DiOttavio, president of CoreCare Behavioral Health Management Inc., which operates the Kirkbride Center psychiatric hospital in West Philadelphia, testified that Street was paid $5,000 in 2001 to try to arrange a payment schedule for the company’s large debt to the Philadelphia Gas Works and an additional $18,000 to do the same with the city on its back taxes.” See? That’s about as interesting as one can make that sentence.

But — Hallelujah! — Street testified, and it was like March in Moorestown all over again. People were flocking to the scene to see the show. (Again, think of how great a city we’d be with City Councilman Milton Street all over the news.)

Milton somehow became a tax resister yesterday, saying he had examined the evidence and decided there’s no requirement for citizens to pay a federal income tax. The courts have routinely and unanimously thrown out any “tax protester” claims, ranging from alternate readings, things like “the state of Ohio didn’t ratify the 16th Amendment” and wild conspiracy theories. Me, I’d guess Milton is trying to emulate actor Wesley Snipes (pictured). Yes, even though the courts have consistently ruled against tax protesters, Snipes got off earlier this month. (Ron Paul pays his taxes, as far as I know; he just wants to eliminate them once he’s president.)

Street based his tax protest on the “OMB control number argument,” which is point 4.4 on Wikipedia’s list of statutory tax protester arguments. Basically, some tax forms don’t contain a number from the Office of Management and Budget control, and some people think this allows them to not have to pay their taxes. Are you really surprised that, among all the tax protest arguments Street could have chosen, he chose one of the stupidest?

Later, Street said if someone just showed him the law, he would plead guilty. Then he called all of the prosecution’s witnesses liars. Oh, and he got a black bag full of cash in a hotel like he was a college basketball recruit.

More »

Milton Street’s Trial Has Begun!

Apparently Milton Street isn’t the celebrity I thought he was, as jury selection only took one day. Testimony begins today in the ex-mayor’s brother’s fraud trial.

So here’s the backstory; this is summed up the best I’ve seen it so far:

Later in 2002, court records show, PAS awarded a subcontract to Street’s company Notlim Service Management. The subcontract, worth up to $3.2 million, was to maintain the airport’s baggage conveyor systems, Jetways, and passenger transport vehicles. It was work in which Notlim - Milton spelled backward - had no experience. The solution, prosecutors allege, was for Notlim to hire PAS workers already doing the work and get $166,000 monthly as a minority subcontractor. Notlim then reimbursed PAS $133,000 for using its employees, according to prosecutors, and Street pocketed the $33,000 balance.

But in June 2003, when Philadelphia news media published accounts of the Notlim airport deal, Milton Street announced his withdrawal from the relationship at his brother’s request, saying it would “raise questions about the appropriateness of the subcontract because of my relationship to the mayor.” To replace that lost income, prosecutors allege, Street, aided by Velardi, defrauded Thanh Nguyen, owner of V-Tech Services Inc., a facilities maintenance firm. Street allegedly got more than $80,000 from Nguyen by promising him Notlim’s $3.2 million airport subcontract - despite the fact that the business relationship no longer existed.

Oh, Milton. The trial was scheduled to start at 9:15 this morning, so it should already be rolling! Don’t worry; yours truly will be heading over to the trial sometime next week.

Testimony to start in Milton Street’s federal fraud trial [Inquirer]

Milton On Trial: It Begins Today!

It’s an Ash Wednesday miracle! Jury selection begins today in the trial of New Jersey’s Milton Street, with opening arguments expected as early as this afternoon.

Milton is not charged with impersonating a public figure or making up a story that all the people attending his rally were shot and couldn’t make it. He’s accused of using the influence of his brother to get money for doing nothing. Then, to top it off, he allegedly didn’t pay any taxes on it.

Milton said last year the charges against him were political (or, rather, “politics”) while discussing these charges and the city’s attempt to get back taxes from him: “I’m saying to you that the city solicitor has an invested interest in this election. And his interest is that I don’t get elected. And he came out with these false allegations…. The government will never in a thousand years prove that I had two million dollars. They’ll never prove that. Never, never, never, never, never, never, never!”

The two people who lost to Milton Street in the City Council primary last May remain in hiding.

Milton Street Set to Go to Trial on Fraud and Tax Charges [KYW 1060]
Milton Street Blasts City’s Tax Case Against Him [KYW 1060]