Estate of Philip Meriano, Deceased, Anita Panepinto, Administratrix - Page 42

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               On March 25, 1993, the Court set this case for an oral                 
          status report at the Motions Session of the Court in Washington,            
          D.C., on June 23, 1993.  At that hearing on June 23, 1993,                  
          Tupitza informed the Court:                                                 
                    The bonds that we are talking about are bonds                     
               that, in our position, were stolen twice.  They were                   
               stolen first by the housekeeper and taken out to                       
               California, and then, when they were recovered, the                    
               attorney and his accountant investigator stole them a                  
               second time.  We litigated with that attorney all the                  
               way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.  He has been                    
               disbarred for not returning this money.10  He has                      
               disappeared.11  I have no idea where the man is.  He                   
               filed for bankruptcy at one point and sought to                        
               discharge this in bankruptcy, and then that bankruptcy                 
               was dismissed.                                                         
                    Our position, at some point, is going to be that                  
               this is a theft loss to the estate, and that is                        
               probably going to be the narrow issue that we are going                
               to be left with out of hundreds of other issues that we                
               started with.                                                          
               There is no credible evidence in this record to justify                
          petitioner's assertion of theft by Lynch and/or Reardon. We                 
          regard the claim as made out of whole cloth.  Whether from bias             
          toward Lynch or from determined obfuscation to reduce the                   
          estate's tax liability, petitioner had tried, albeit                        
          unsuccessfully, to make its evidence fit a Procrustean bed in its           
          effort to establish a theft loss.  To support its allegation that           


          10        Lynch has never been disbarred from the practice of law           
          by any jurisdiction.                                                        
          11        Lynch never "disappeared" or made himself unavailable             
          to petitioner.  In fact, he was subpoenaed by petitioner and                
          testified at trial.                                                         




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