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opinion sub nom. Anderson v. Commissioner, 106 F.3d 406 (9th Cir.
1997), and cases cited therein.
Petitioners also concede that Strohmeier served no
meaningful function as “manager” of Hillside Farm. Similarly,
there is no evidence that Strohmeier’s successor, Ellering,
served any meaningful function as manager of Hillside Farm.9 In
fact, there is no evidence that Hillside Farm ever conducted any
business at all.10
Upon the alleged creation of Hillside Farm, no economic
interest passed to any beneficiary other than petitioners. Nor
does the record establish that the subsequent purported transfer
9 Petitioner testified that Ellering made “some” decisions
about farm activities, but he was unable to offer specific
examples, stating that “we just talked about the weather, and see
what would be the best thing to do.” He testified that his sons,
rather than Ellering, made all decisions about when to plant
crops, cut hay, and such. Dale Zachman testified that there had
been instances when the purchase of new farm machinery had been
“delayed” for Ellering’s approval, but when questioned he could
not recall a specific instance.
10 On brief, petitioners seek to attribute to Parnell and
Armageddon the activities of the Noskes, arguing that Parnell and
Armageddon controlled Hillside Farm’s “checkbook” through the
agency of the Noskes. Petitioners have not established, however,
that the Noskes were in fact the agents of Parnell or Armageddon.
There is no mention of the Noskes in the Declaration of Trust.
There is no evidence that the Noskes were authorized to or
actually did assume the fiduciary duties allegedly imposed on the
corporate trustees under the purported trust documents. Rather,
the totality of the evidence strongly suggests that the Noskes
provided petitioners with bookkeeping services, for which they
were compensated, and bad advice as part of a conspiracy to
defraud the United States, for which they were imprisoned.
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