- 11 - sented in pertinent part as follows: In June 2001 the undersigned [Mr. Wise] contacted the Petitioners and related that although he had filed a petition with the Tax Court, on their behalf, at the request of their accountant James Binge, he did not have a signed representation agreement with them. Following that conversation an agreement was forwarded to the Petitioners. After several weeks another call was placed to the Petitioners who indicated that they were having second thoughts about continuing the repre- sentation and were exploring “non-traditional” alterna- tives with James Binge. At that time the undersigned explained that the opportunity to meet with an examiner was rapidly evaporating and that formal discovery was immanent [sic]. The undersigned further explained the burden of complying with discovery and the possible sanctions for failure to comply. The Petitioners were urged to consult another tax practitioner and it was suggested that reliance upon the recommendations of James Binge may not be in their best interest. Follow- ing that conversation the undersigned contacted the Petitioner’s examiner and requested that their file be held for a couple of weeks in case they changed their minds. On July 16th [2001] the undersigned contacted James Binge and was advised that the Petitioners did not wish to continue the representation and that the undersigned was not to attempt to contact them. The undersigned was informed that replacement counsel in the person of Marc Lehotsky * * * had been selected. The undersigned contacted the Petitioners who verified that they had made arrangements to have Mr. Lehotsky represent them and that they were aware that a Branerton conference had been set for the 17th [of July 2001] with District Counsel’s office but that they did not wish to participate in such meeting unless they could be represented by their accountant James Binge. The undersigned related that he would not participate in the conference under those conditions. 3(...continued) were “the same reasons” set forth in Mr. Wise’s respective motions to withdraw in the cases at docket Nos. 10001-00 and 10002-00.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011