- 6 - 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 ledgerPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011