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able to recall the precise amount of the monthly mortgage loan
payment (i.e., $38.55) that was required with respect to the
first house that petitioners purchased in 1960. We believe that
Mr. Mifsud's inability to remember the amount of petitioners'
alleged cash hoard that they deposited into their bank accounts
during each of the years at issue is attributable to the fact
that they did not make such deposits.
Another aspect of Mr. Mifsud's and Ms. Mifsud's testimony
that we found to be implausible and not credible relates to their
assertion at trial that they made bank deposits during the years
at issue from their cash hoard because of Ms. Mifsud's strong
fear that their house in Florida would be burglarized, which fear
was precipitated by the 1979 robbery at their house in Michigan.
Petitioners' testimony rings hollow. If, in fact, Ms. Mifsud's
fear that petitioners' house in Florida would be burglarized were
as strong as petitioners testified, we cannot fathom why they
would have continued to keep large amounts of cash in their house
throughout the 1980's and the years at issue, as they contend
they did.
On the record before us, we find petitioners' contention
that the source of the bank deposits at issue during the years at
issue was their cash hoard to be implausible and inconsistent
with and/or not supported by objective evidence in the record.
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