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missing in 2002, and Cox convinced us that one of his evidently
not-quite-rehabilitated employees stole one of the duffels, no
doubt thinking it contained cash instead of canceled checks,
receipts, and bank statements. (That employee disappeared
shortly thereafter.) It was also about this time that Spiller
died after heart surgery, preceded by what Cox thought to be a
serious (and probably illegal substance-related) illness, leaving
him without his long-time accountant when the IRS began its
audit. Cox quickly did the right thing and hired a new
accountant, Katie Beal, to help recreate his business records.
Beal had few of the original receipts, and none of the checks or
bank records to review, as they had been in the stolen duffel
bag. But her careful piecing together of the available
information corroborates Cox’s story.
We conclude that the records really were stolen. Cox
credibly explained the circumstances regarding their
disappearance: it is quite believable that an ex-convict who had
access to the area where most of the records were kept might take
the duffel bags thinking there was more in them than just
records. And what written evidence exists supports Cox’s story.
He had kept the general ledger for Washington Car upstairs at his
shop, and Beal and he got copies from the bank of the statements
that had been stolen. Our close side-by-side scrutiny of those
statements and the general ledger shows that the ledger
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Last modified: May 25, 2011