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Miller. In this telephonic conference, Mr. Gazi confirmed Mr.
Kauffman’s authority to represent petitioners. In a separate
conversation with Mr. Gazi on the evening of May 15, 2003,
Mr. Kauffman went over respondent’s settlement offer and urged
that petitioners should accept it; he opined that because of
petitioners’ financial situation, they should be able either to
work out an offer in compromise or else eventually pursue
bankruptcy. According to Mr. Kauffman’s testimony, Mr. Gazi
authorized Mr. Kauffman to settle the cases.
The next morning, May 16, 2003, Mr. Kauffman telephoned Ms.
Miller and advised her that “we’ve got permission to settle and
we’ve got an agreement”, pending his review of some documentation
and a review of the calculations. Later that day, after the
parties had reported the settlement agreement to the Court in a
telephonic conference, Mr. Gazi telephoned Mr. Kell. According
to Mr. Kell’s notes, Mr. Gazi had “called J.K. [Jay Kauffman] and
was told continuance granted to 6/30/03. J.K. and M.M. [Monica
Miller] were also told to settle.” Mr. Kell pointed out to Mr.
Gazi “the advantages of settling and then doing a Chapter 7 in
three years and a day from the assessment date.” Mr. Kell and
Mr. Gazi had no further communications until November, as
described below.
On June 15, 2003 (after the decision documents had been
lodged with the Court and shortly before the stipulated decisions
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