Filing # 60341814 E-Filed 08/14/2017 11:05:00 AM RECEIVED, 08/14/201711:08:49 AM,Clerk,Supreme Court BOAND's EXIJIBIT No
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Filing #60341814E-Filed08/14/201711:05:00AM RECEIVED, 08/14/201711:08:49 AM,Clerk,Supreme Court BOAND'S EXIJIBIT No. REVISED JANUARY 10, 2017 FERGUSON, DONALD L. 30380 BOARD EXHIBITS 1. List of Exhibits 2. Public Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Recommendation dated July 1, 2013. 3. Public Report and Recommendation dated July 17 ,2013. 4. Order of Supreme Court of Florida dated February 13,2014. 5. Certified copy of the updated Florida Bar Application, including all amendments, executed on February 10,2016. 6. Specifications and Procedures for Formal Hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. 7. Answer to Specifications 8. Formal Hearing Transcript held April 12,2013. 9. Transcript of investigative hearing held May 18,2012, with attached exhibits. 10. Certified copy of the Florida Bar Application, including all amendments, executed on January 12,2011. 11. Statement of Rehabilitation executed on May 16, 2016. 1s1 L I read the notice of reLease. In ttre uBBer Lef t-hand 2 corner is this box and it' says: "This notice of 3 reLease of federal tax lien rel-eases yoll from alL 4 federal taxes owed, in add.ition to pena].ties and' 5 interest. " And iE cited to sections of the IRS Code. 6 I iruned.iately went to the sections of the 7 IRS Code to make sure that what I was reading was 8 what I was assimiLating. And. sure enougrh, it says 9 ttrat wfuen you receive this notice, it means ttrat your 10 s].ate is clean 11 And so I assumed. that that was their way of L2 granting my petition for BenaLty abat'ement, aLthough 13 ttrey never resBonded. d.irectly, in l-igrht of the amount, L4 ttrat I paid 15 a. And 15 A. and. begran to govern my life accord.ingly. L7 A. ttrat was APriL the 4th of ?OLA? 18 A. Yes. 19 a . I 'm Looking at GeneraL Corrnsel Page 15I , 20 and. it appears to be the langruagre in here to whieh I 2L beLieve you aLIuded was "ttas satisfied the taxes 2 Listed below and aLl- st,atutory additions. " 3 Did you think 'rstatutory additions" eovered 4 penaLties and. interest? 25 A. That's exactLy what the code teLLs you it FRIEDMAN, LOMBARDI & OLSON COURTREPORTERS L52 1 says. 2 Q. Did, in fact,, it turn out, that such was the 3 case? 4 A. Not at a1L. A substantiaL period. of time 5 Bassed., aborrt a year, and. I get this letter from the 5 IRS. And basical-Iy it. said. something Like: We were 7 just joshingr, yoll stiLL owe the money, by the way.. 8 And, you know hey, you know, just because you got 9 that notice of fed.eraL tax Lien release, p.s., yourre 10 not released. 11 Arrd I was I was I was shocked, to t2 Q. Sir, Irm Looking at your April gth, 2OL2 13 amendment a: your aBp1-ication that starts of f : "Orx, L4 Saturd.ay, March .31, 2OL2, I received a l-et,t,er from 15 ttre IRS notifying me that I owed 88,000 in taxes from L6 L997." L7 Is that the correspond.ence to which yorr're 18 al].uding? 19 A. Yes, sir. I innrediateIy -discLosed it to 20 the Board,. 2L Q. Did you chalLengle that? 22 A r ctr-cl'. 23 A. How did you challenge it? 24 A. I chaffengrea that by filing there is 25 a I Learned, there is a specific rRS form. I fiLed FRIEDMAN, LOMBARDI & OLSON COURT REPORTERS ls3 1 t.hat form, I rolIed up my sleeves did. some researctr 2 and found. case l-aw that, said that if ttre IRS mislead.s 3 you in writing, you have a rigrht to contest the Lien. 4 r tl.en filed all of ttrat with the Betition, all of 5 t,tre d.ocurnent,s that I had sent in to tl.e IRS and 6 receiwed. from. the IRS and I requested. a due Brocess 7 hearingr. 8 A. I arn now looking, sir, at your amendment 9 d.ated Augrust L4, 20L2, which is aLso Bart of Board. 10 s<lribits. You aIlud.e in there to f ilingr a Form 843 11 on ilune 5th, 2OL2, is that ttre d.ocrrment you're L2 resBond.ing to 13 A. Yes, Mr. Weiss, it is. L4 a. or referring to. 15 Apparently on Augrust the 13th, accord.ing to 15 your amendment, you receiwed. a letter from them L7 saying: rrWe have reduced. it to $27,7O0i " is that 18 accurate? 19 A. It's accurat,e. I have no-. idea how they 20 arriwed at that f igrrre, but I was just grateful. 2L A. What is the status of that, 27,70A tod,ay? 22 A. I fiLed another form with the rRS 23 maintaining my position on t,he abatement issue and. 24 the case Law that r attached to my filingr with ttre 25 fRS and f requested a hearing. FRTEDMAN, LOMBARDI & OLSON COURTREPORTERS L54 1 I received. a Letter from them that f a.m 2 going to receiwe tlrat hearing, it's going to be out 3 of ttre Plantation office in Fort Laud,erdale and st,and, 4 by. And that,s where it is, as I sit here this 5 morning. 5 a. You say it ' s going t,o be out of ttre ,l Pl-antat,ion office? I A. Yes. 9 Q. Ottrer than that, and. ttrat is 527 ,7 00 . 10 A. A Lot of money. 11 Q. But ot'her than that, do yorr lrave any L2 outstand.ing obligations to ttre IRS? 13 A. I d.on'.t L4 Q. ABril .Lhe 15th is this coming Monday. 15 A. It, is. 15 a. I might add., that's the 40th anniversaqir of L7 my first date with my wife. 18 Are you goingr to fiLe your tsax retrrrn on 19 time on April the 15th? 20 A. I arn. f hawe LE, I just received. it ttre 2L ottrer d.ay. I'm going to ctreck the numbers this 22 weekend. after Boca HelBing Hands and. then iL's going: 23 to be deBosited. in the maiJ-box, deLivery confiruration 24 on Mond,ay. 25 Q. Did Mr. HiLL, your CPA wlro testified. by FzuEDMAN I.OMBARDI & OLSON COURTREPORTERS 155 1 deposition, prepare your tax returns? 2 A. He did, sir. He's been my accountant since 3 1,989 4 O. I'm going to move backwards just a tad' from 5 your release from Prison. 6 Year 2000, yotr're incarcerated the entire 7 year, are You not, sir? I A. I am. 9 A. Wtrat was your income for the year 20OO? 10 A. f receiwed, one Eee, it sLemrned' from a 11 client ttrat, I had represented. years before, I beLiewe L2 I had he didn't have any money, I secured the fee 13 by way of a mortgaEle. I think it was a second. L4 mortgrage, actual.ly, on a piece.of property that he L5 owned.. And as Luck wouLd hawe LE, in 2OOO, whiLe I'm 16 incarcerated., he sold. ttre proBerty and. for:urard.ed. a L7 ctreck for $30, 000 to get a satisfaction of t'hat, 18 mortgagre, which I, of course, signed, and' 19 a. rn 2000, was it 30,000 or-- 38,000? 20 A. Oh, because there were two. It was one or 2L ttre ottrer. 22 O. ALL right, sir. 23 In 1999, d.id you have a sim:iLar event? 24 A. I don I t think it was ' 99 . 25 Q. WeLL, let me reBhrase it. FRIEDMAN, LOMBARDI & OLSON c O U RT R EP O RT E R S 155 1 A. Yes. 2 a. whiLe you were in prison, did. you hawe two 3 ewents 4 A. r did. .. 5 Q. -- where you receiwed. checks? 6 A. f did.. One was for 30r0OO and. one was for 7 $38,000, and that was a simiLar situation where I had 8 it, coLLateraLized. in some way. I don't rea1Ly 9 remember the detaiLs, but it a1so was paid- 10 Q. Where that did those checks go? 11 A. St,raight to my wife. L2 Q. And f or wtrat were they used,? 13 A. To support her and. NicoLe. L4 Q. oid yqu have subsLant,ial obligation to your 15 mottrer and. mother-in-Law at the time? L6 A. We d.id we did. Tb.ere was no way I couLd. L7 hawe mad.e it through al1. this without my moth.r "rra 18 my mottrer-in-1aw. My mother's 88 and, my L9 mother-in-Law is 84. 20 Q. Did. you use any of that money to pay t,axes? 2L A. f couLdn't . I just couLd.n, t, . My wife was 22 so backed up on Baying biJ.Ls and, the the 1.igrht 23 bill was day-to-d.ay. Irm incarcerated., I,m not able 24 to earn any income, so the answer is no. 25 Q. Prior to you going to prison for the t,ime FRIEDMAN LOMBARDI & OLSON COURT REPORT R5 Ls7 1 Beriod. from, rougtrl-y, September of 'g4 until you went 2 to prison, f believe it was Augrust of '99. 3 A. It was. 4 a. How did you make a living? 5 A. Worked as a Baral-egaL part of the time.