- 20 - Petitioner and Logan agreed to meet at a restaurant in Emoryville, California, to further discuss the transaction. Logan brought an undercover DEA agent who was posing as a drug distributor with him to the meeting. Petitioner met with Logan; however, he did not agree to purchase the marijuana, because he recognized immediately that Logan's confederate was a Government agent. Petitioner argues that the fact that he did not purchase the marijuana is proof he was not involved in the business of buying and selling illegal drugs. We disagree. In the recordings, petitioner's response to Logan's initial offer to sell him the marijuana was, "I've got people bugging me about that exact material right now and I ain't got a line on it." Petitioner's statement indicates that he had an existing customer base that depended on him as a source for marijuana. Thus, the evidence supports a finding that although petitioner was in the business of buying and selling marijuana, he was not interested in buying it from a DEA agent posing as a drug distributor. We have stated that we doubt petitioner's credibility and that we find his story of the source of the unreported income implausible. Furthermore, we find that the evidence supports respondent's contentions that the likely source of petitioner's unreported income was the sale of illegal drugs. Accordingly, we find that respondent has met his burden of proving an underpayment by clear and convincing evidence.Page: Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Next
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