Anthony G. and Shirley A. Olbres - Page 46

                                       - 46 -                                         
          prepared correct returns for those years, but did not.  Petition-           
          ers are willing to share some responsibility for what they claim            
          are Mr. Dennett's errors in preparing their 1986 and 1988 re-               
          turns.  For example, they admit that the cash receipts journals             
          that they claim to have given to Mr. Dennett in connection with             
          his preparation of those returns may have been misleading because           
          those journals did not reflect all of Design Consultants' and/or            
          White Star's receipts.  However, they maintain that any errors in           
          those journals, which Ms. Olbres was responsible for maintaining,           
          would have been due to her negligence, and not due to her intent            
          or the intent of Mr. Olbres to commit fraud.                                
               We turn first to petitioners' contention that Ms. Olbres may           
          have been negligent, but not fraudulent, in maintaining the cash            
          receipts journals.  Petitioners claim, among other things, that             
          any errors in maintaining those journals arose because Ms. Olbres           
          was inexperienced and untrained in maintaining the cash receipts            
          journals and because she had certain unidentified distractions.             
          For example, Ms. Olbres claims that she did not understand that             
          the title "cash receipts journal" was no longer accurate when she           
          stopped recording all of Design Consultants' and/or White Star's            
          receipts in the cash receipts journals that she maintained and              
          instead recorded in those journals only their respective receipts           
          that were deposited into the Indian Head business checking                  
          account.  On the record before us, we are unwilling to accept               
          petitioners' explanations.  Although Ms. Olbres took no college             




Page:  Previous  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  Next

Last modified: May 25, 2011