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Sentinel EPE recycler, and never prepared any kind of formal,
written analysis of the venture. In the end, Becker Co. and
petitioner relied upon representations by insiders to the
Plastics Recycling transactions, and neither Becker Co. nor
petitioner hired any independent experts in the field of plastic
materials or plastics recycling. Accordingly, we consider
petitioners' arguments with respect to the Mollen case
inapplicable under the circumstances of these consolidated cases.
Petitioners also rely on two recent decisions by the Court
of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that reversed this Court's
imposition of the negligence additions to tax in a pair of non-
plastics recycling cases: Durrett v. Commissioner, 71 F.3d 515
(5th Cir. 1996), affg. in part and revg. in part T.C. Memo. 1994-
179 and Chamberlain v. Commissioner, 66 F.3d 729 (5th Cir. 1995).
The taxpayers in the Durrett and Chamberlain cases were among
thousands who invested in the First Western tax shelter program
involving alleged straddle transactions of forward contracts. In
the Durrett and Chamberlain cases, the Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit concluded that the taxpayers reasonably relied upon
professional advice concerning tax matters. In other First
Western cases, however, the Courts of Appeals have affirmed
decisions of the Tax Court imposing negligence additions to tax.
See Foulds v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-489 (the well-
educated taxpayer failed to establish the substance of advice,
and the purported adviser lacked tax expertise), affd. without
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