Based on newly-discovered, secret documents from German archives, diaries and newspapers of the time, Gun Control in the Third Reich presents the definitive, yet hidden history of how the Nazi regime made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate power. The countless books on the Third Reich and the Holocaust fail even to mention the laws restricting firearms ownership, which rendered political opponents and Jews defenseless. A skeptic could surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the National Socialist regime certainly did not think so—it ruthlessly suppressed firearm ownership by disfavored groups.
Gun Control in the Third Reich spans the two decades from the birth of the Weimar Republic in 1918 through Kristallnacht in 1938. The book then presents a panorama of pertinent events during World War II regarding the effects of the disarming policies. And even though in the occupied countries the Nazis decreed the death penalty for possession of a firearm, there developed instances of heroic armed resistance by Jews, particularly the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Tax Preparer Verlean Hollins Pleads Guilty and Sharon Anzaldi Sentenced to Five Years in Prison in Separate Federal Income Tax Fraud Cases
A former Chicago tax preparer pleaded guilty to filing nearly 3,200 false federal income tax returns for clients, while in a separate case in federal court yesterday, a suburban tax preparer was sentenced to 63 months in prison for fraudulently claiming more than $8 million in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service. The unrelated federal prosecutions serve as a reminder to tax preparers and taxpayers alike to comply with the law as the 2013 tax season gets underway.
“With tax season upon us,
I want to assure taxpayers that the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division is focused on protecting revenue by identifying and investigating abusive tax return preparers. While most return preparers are honest and provide excellent service, a few unscrupulous tax preparers file false returns to defraud their clients and the United States government,” said James C. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago.
“Today, we remind dishonest tax preparers: we are watching your activities. These cases should send a loud message to any dishonest return preparers who might be thinking of engaging in criminal activity, and taxpayers should choose carefully when hiring a tax preparer,” Mr. Lee added.
The guilty plea and sentencing were announced by Mr. Lee; Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In one case, Verlean Hollins, who owned Taxes Etc. Inc., a tax preparation business located in the 2300 block of East 71st Street, between at least 2010 and 2012, pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns. Hollins, 43, of South Holland, who was charged on December 19, faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a fine of nearly $800,000 when she is sentenced on April 22 by U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan.
Hollins admitted that for calendar years 2009 through 2011, she filed a total of 3,193 individual income tax returns for clients, each of which falsely claimed higher education tax credits. As a result, she falsely claimed refunds totaling more than $3.372 million for her clients, the majority of whom paid her approximately $125 to prepare their returns, although her fee ranged between $25 and $400. The vast majority of Hollins’ clients never indicated that they or a dependent were eligible for a college tuition credit, and among the small number of her clients who were eligible for the tax credit, none provided any documents to support eligibility.
Hollins’ plea agreement anticipates an advisory federal sentencing guidelines range of 46 to 57 months in prison, and she agreed to a fine of $798,250. Each count of assisting in the preparation of a false federal income tax return carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine or an alternate fine of twice the gain or twice the loss, whichever is greater. In addition, defendants convicted of tax offenses must pay the costs of prosecution and remain liable for any taxes and interest, as well as a civil penalty up to 75 percent of the taxes owed. The court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaarina Salovaara.
In a separate case, Sharon Anzaldi, 67, of Elmwood Park, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $851,142 in restitution to the IRS for filing 13 false federal income tax returns for herself, friends, and family that fraudulently claimed refunds totaling more than $8 million and caused the IRS to actually pay more than $1 million in bogus refunds.
Anzaldi, who represented herself and was convicted at trial last summer, is associated with the sovereign citizen movement. She was ordered to begin serving her sentence on February 25 by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber. Evidence at trial showed that in one instance, Anzaldi charged a couple $31,000 for her “services” for filing a fraudulent tax return that they simply went along with and did not really understand. The couple returned the bulk of their fraudulent refund but continue to accrue penalties and interest on the amount they spent before returning the money.
Convicted at trial with Anzaldi were her son, Phillip DeSalvo, 42, of Bartlett, who was sentenced to 30 months in prison, and Steven Latin, 51, of Crystal Lake, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel Cannon and Dylan Smith.
“With tax season upon us,
I want to assure taxpayers that the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division is focused on protecting revenue by identifying and investigating abusive tax return preparers. While most return preparers are honest and provide excellent service, a few unscrupulous tax preparers file false returns to defraud their clients and the United States government,” said James C. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago.“Today, we remind dishonest tax preparers: we are watching your activities. These cases should send a loud message to any dishonest return preparers who might be thinking of engaging in criminal activity, and taxpayers should choose carefully when hiring a tax preparer,” Mr. Lee added.
The guilty plea and sentencing were announced by Mr. Lee; Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In one case, Verlean Hollins, who owned Taxes Etc. Inc., a tax preparation business located in the 2300 block of East 71st Street, between at least 2010 and 2012, pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns. Hollins, 43, of South Holland, who was charged on December 19, faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a fine of nearly $800,000 when she is sentenced on April 22 by U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan.
Hollins admitted that for calendar years 2009 through 2011, she filed a total of 3,193 individual income tax returns for clients, each of which falsely claimed higher education tax credits. As a result, she falsely claimed refunds totaling more than $3.372 million for her clients, the majority of whom paid her approximately $125 to prepare their returns, although her fee ranged between $25 and $400. The vast majority of Hollins’ clients never indicated that they or a dependent were eligible for a college tuition credit, and among the small number of her clients who were eligible for the tax credit, none provided any documents to support eligibility.
Hollins’ plea agreement anticipates an advisory federal sentencing guidelines range of 46 to 57 months in prison, and she agreed to a fine of $798,250. Each count of assisting in the preparation of a false federal income tax return carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine or an alternate fine of twice the gain or twice the loss, whichever is greater. In addition, defendants convicted of tax offenses must pay the costs of prosecution and remain liable for any taxes and interest, as well as a civil penalty up to 75 percent of the taxes owed. The court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaarina Salovaara.
In a separate case, Sharon Anzaldi, 67, of Elmwood Park, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $851,142 in restitution to the IRS for filing 13 false federal income tax returns for herself, friends, and family that fraudulently claimed refunds totaling more than $8 million and caused the IRS to actually pay more than $1 million in bogus refunds.
Anzaldi, who represented herself and was convicted at trial last summer, is associated with the sovereign citizen movement. She was ordered to begin serving her sentence on February 25 by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber. Evidence at trial showed that in one instance, Anzaldi charged a couple $31,000 for her “services” for filing a fraudulent tax return that they simply went along with and did not really understand. The couple returned the bulk of their fraudulent refund but continue to accrue penalties and interest on the amount they spent before returning the money.
Convicted at trial with Anzaldi were her son, Phillip DeSalvo, 42, of Bartlett, who was sentenced to 30 months in prison, and Steven Latin, 51, of Crystal Lake, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel Cannon and Dylan Smith.
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Nashville Fugitive, Corey Taylor, Arrested by Chicago Police
Chicago police Wednesday night apprehended a fugitive from Nashville who was wanted for terrorizing a family inside their Glenrose Avenue apartment on Monday evening in Nashville.
Corey Taylor, 26, was spotted by a Chicago officer inside the victim’s 2005 Chevrolet Malibu. He was taken into custody without incident and is being held on Nashville warrants charging five counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated robbery.
The 71-year-old victim reported that he met a man, known to him only as Corey (subsequently identified as Corey Taylor) at a bus station downtown a few weeks prior. He had allowed Taylor to sleep on his couch for a few days prior to a fight breaking out Monday. During the fight, Taylor was alleged to have pulled a knife, threatened to kill the 71-year-old and his family and prevented them from leaving the apartment. Taylor ultimately took several watches, a cell phone, cash and the victim’s car keys before fleeing.
Follow up investigation by Detectives Dennis Shepherd and Rick Heiman led to the positive identification of Corey Taylor as the suspect. It was learned that Taylor had ties to Chicago, which prompted an alert being sent to Illinois authorities.
Taylor’s return to Nashville is pending.
Corey Taylor, 26, was spotted by a Chicago officer inside the victim’s 2005 Chevrolet Malibu. He was taken into custody without incident and is being held on Nashville warrants charging five counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated robbery.
The 71-year-old victim reported that he met a man, known to him only as Corey (subsequently identified as Corey Taylor) at a bus station downtown a few weeks prior. He had allowed Taylor to sleep on his couch for a few days prior to a fight breaking out Monday. During the fight, Taylor was alleged to have pulled a knife, threatened to kill the 71-year-old and his family and prevented them from leaving the apartment. Taylor ultimately took several watches, a cell phone, cash and the victim’s car keys before fleeing.
Follow up investigation by Detectives Dennis Shepherd and Rick Heiman led to the positive identification of Corey Taylor as the suspect. It was learned that Taylor had ties to Chicago, which prompted an alert being sent to Illinois authorities.
Taylor’s return to Nashville is pending.
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Robert Gates is Strikingly Candid with "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War"
From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vividly written account of his experience serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Before Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House in 2006, he thought he’d left Washington politics behind: after working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happy in his role as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty. Now, in this unsparing memoir, meticulously fair in its assessments, he takes us behind the scenes of his nearly five years as a secretary at war: the battles with Congress, the two presidents he served, the military itself, and the vast Pentagon bureaucracy; his efforts to help Bush turn the tide in Iraq; his role as a guiding, and often dissenting, voice for Obama; the ardent devotion to and love for American soldiers—his “heroes”—he developed on the job.
In relating his personal journey as secretary, Gates draws us into the innermost sanctums of government and military power during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, illuminating iconic figures, vital negotiations, and critical situations in revealing, intimate detail. Offering unvarnished appraisals of Dick Cheney, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Presidents Bush and Obama among other key players, Gates exposes the full spectrum of behind-closed-doors politicking within both the Bush and Obama administrations.
He discusses the great controversies of his tenure—surges in both Iraq and Afghanistan, how to deal with Iran and Syria, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Guantánamo Bay, WikiLeaks—as they played out behind the television cameras. He brings to life the Situation Room during the Bin Laden raid. And, searingly, he shows how congressional debate and action or inaction on everything from equipment budgeting to troop withdrawals was often motivated, to his increasing despair and anger, more by party politics and media impact than by members’ desires to protect our soldiers and ensure their success.
However embroiled he became in the trials of Washington, Gates makes clear that his heart was always in the most important theater of his tenure as secretary: the front lines. We journey with him to both war zones as he meets with active-duty troops and their commanders, awed by their courage, and also witness him greet coffin after flag-draped coffin returned to U.S. soil, heartbreakingly aware that he signed every deployment order. In frank and poignant vignettes, Gates conveys the human cost of war, and his admiration for those brave enough to undertake it when necessary.
Duty tells a powerful and deeply personal story that allows us an unprecedented look at two administrations and the wars that have defined them.
Before Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House in 2006, he thought he’d left Washington politics behind: after working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happy in his role as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty. Now, in this unsparing memoir, meticulously fair in its assessments, he takes us behind the scenes of his nearly five years as a secretary at war: the battles with Congress, the two presidents he served, the military itself, and the vast Pentagon bureaucracy; his efforts to help Bush turn the tide in Iraq; his role as a guiding, and often dissenting, voice for Obama; the ardent devotion to and love for American soldiers—his “heroes”—he developed on the job.
In relating his personal journey as secretary, Gates draws us into the innermost sanctums of government and military power during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, illuminating iconic figures, vital negotiations, and critical situations in revealing, intimate detail. Offering unvarnished appraisals of Dick Cheney, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Presidents Bush and Obama among other key players, Gates exposes the full spectrum of behind-closed-doors politicking within both the Bush and Obama administrations.
He discusses the great controversies of his tenure—surges in both Iraq and Afghanistan, how to deal with Iran and Syria, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Guantánamo Bay, WikiLeaks—as they played out behind the television cameras. He brings to life the Situation Room during the Bin Laden raid. And, searingly, he shows how congressional debate and action or inaction on everything from equipment budgeting to troop withdrawals was often motivated, to his increasing despair and anger, more by party politics and media impact than by members’ desires to protect our soldiers and ensure their success.
However embroiled he became in the trials of Washington, Gates makes clear that his heart was always in the most important theater of his tenure as secretary: the front lines. We journey with him to both war zones as he meets with active-duty troops and their commanders, awed by their courage, and also witness him greet coffin after flag-draped coffin returned to U.S. soil, heartbreakingly aware that he signed every deployment order. In frank and poignant vignettes, Gates conveys the human cost of war, and his admiration for those brave enough to undertake it when necessary.
Duty tells a powerful and deeply personal story that allows us an unprecedented look at two administrations and the wars that have defined them.
Christmas Eve Homicide Suspect Captured
Maurice Jamar Bentley, a Savannah man wanted for Murder and Aggravated Assault by the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department (SCMPD), was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service Savannah Office of the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and members of the SCMPD Precinct 3 Tactical Investigations Unit.
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