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the asset purchase agreement was paid and offered implausible
explanations for the failure. At trial, however, petitioner
claimed that Kathleen Murphy never sold Pieces of Eight to
Michael Van Heemst. The sale transaction seems to have been
fabricated by petitioner. During the course of the audit, which
the record indicates began during or about October 1990,
petitioner claimed that Michael Van Heemst was the current owner
of Pieces of Eight. At trial, however, petitioner testified that
Ms. Murphy was the owner of Pieces of Eight at the time he told
the agent that it was owned by Michael Van Heemst. Moreover, the
record contains a sale agreement dated September 3, 1990,
pursuant to which petitioner, as transferee for a company to be
incorporated, purports to purchase the assets of Pieces of Eight
from Michael Van Heemst. During 1992, Ms. Murphy found the
agreement hidden in petitioner’s files and apparently provided it
to respondent.
At trial, petitioner claimed that Ms. Murphy and Kathleen
Murphy initially agreed that Kathleen Murphy would be the owner
of Pieces of Eight but later decided Ms. Murphy would own the
business. Petitioner also claimed at trial that Ms. Murphy used
the name Kathleen Murphy as an alias and always owned the
business. Petitioner makes the same claim on brief, although
elsewhere on brief seems to admit that Ms. Murphy and Kathleen
Murphy were different persons. In one portion of his brief,
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