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case.7 See Bresler v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 182, 188 (1975),
Pollack v. Commissioner, 47 T.C. 92, 108 (1966), affd. 392 F.2d
409 (5th Cir. 1968), and Wichita Terminal Elevator Co. v.
Commissioner, 6 T.C. 1158, 1165 (1946), affd. 162 F.2d 513 (10th
Cir. 1947), to the effect that the failure of a party to offer
available testimony gives rise to the inference that it would
have been unfavorable to his contention. Accordingly, we review
Becker’s testimony in the Jaroff case below and consider the
extent of his expertise and the likelihood that he gave special
assurances or guarantees to petitioner or petitioner’s partners.
7 The colloquy concerning petitioner’s counsel’s failure to
provide Becker’s testimony about his close relationship with
Cohen and Feinberg is as follows:
THE COURT: I didn’t hear you mention Mr. Becker’s name
as a witness.
MR. RIZEK: We are not going to call Mr. Becker as an
additional witness. I think the 300 pages or so that
we stipulated to in the supplemental stipulation are
more than adequate to cover any points we wanted to
establish with Mr. Becker.
THE COURT: Well, that may be, but you’re going to talk
a lot about how these parties all had a relationship
with Mr. Becker and all that sort of thing and you’re
not calling Mr. Becker?
MR. RIZEK: We are not calling Mr. Becker. We don’t
think it’s necessary, Your Honor. I don’t think
there’s going to be any doubt at the conclusion of the
evidence that’s presented here that these Petitioners
had fairly long standing relationships independent of
this particular transaction with Mr. Becker.
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