- 317 - the receivables for nominal amounts in order to claim false bad debt deduction losses and offset additional income reported on his returns and the returns of the conduit entities. Tenth, as discussed previously, Kanter's testimony at trial was implausible, unreliable, and sometimes contradictory. We did not find it credible. Finally, other factors that support a finding of Kanter's fraud include, but are not limited to, manipulations of deductions and income between various corporate, partnership, and trust entities to conceal not only his income but the income of others; failure to account for payments for services; and the use of the various artifices to divert the payments to his children and trusts benefiting his family. Kanter's substantial understatements of income over an 11-year period, his intentional misdirection of income, and his deliberate mischaracterizations of the transactions are clear and convincing evidence of his fraudulent intent to evade taxes, particularly in light of his legal education and experience and overall tax sophistication. See Scallen v. Commissioner, 877 F.2d 1364, 1370-1371 (8th Cir. 1989); Sisson v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-545, affd. without published opinion 108 F.3d 339 (9th Cir. 1996); Wheadon v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1992-633. The transactions involved here were masquerades, concealing the true character of the payments. In reality, an attorney andPage: Previous 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 Next
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