- 167 - However, petitioner's stated belief about these funds has little to do with the issue of who earned the income. We are unwilling to base a finding solely upon petitioner's testimony that there was a WHIP Swiss bank account for the benefit of an Iranian Government official to which most of the Lockheed commissions were sent (an arrangement which, we note, may have been illegal) and that these commissions were directed to such an account merely because petitioner was following that official's instructions. Aside from the $610,000 withdrawal in 1978, petitioner has failed to convince us that he did not actually receive any of the WHIP funds. Moreover, regardless of where the WHIP funds actually went, they were earned primarily through the efforts of petitioner via his contacts with the Iranian Government. First, WHIP was entirely subject to petitioner's control: The formation of this entity was his idea (or so he informed the then Prime Minister of Iran); he set up the entity; and he managed the entity in that Price Waterhouse was subject to his control in connection with the management of WHIP. There is no evidence that Diesel Power earned these funds. Second, petitioner handled the WHIP accounts as if they were his own, moving funds around from location to location at will, and finally withdrawing the remaining $610,000 for himself in 1978 in an attempt to obtain disputed funds from Diesel Power. This is hardly the behavior that petitioner wouldPage: Previous 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 Next
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