Practical and Practice issues for Professionals who practice in the area of taxation. Moral, social and economic issues relating to taxes, including international issues, the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, state tax issues, etc. Not for "tax protestor" issues, which should be posted in the "tax protestor" forum above. The advice or opinion given herein should not be relied on for any purpose whatsoever. Also examines cookie-cutter deals that have no economic substance but exist only to generate losses, as marketed by everybody from solo practitioner tax lawyers to the major accounting firms.
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — As Ukraine's tax chief tells it, the billion-dollar theft was planned at a see-through plastic table in a vault of sound-proof steel.
The table and six matching transparent chairs sit in a secret chamber on an upper story of the Tax Ministry in Kiev. It was the epicenter, he and other tax officials say, of a massive fraud suspected of squeezing 130 billion hryvnias ($11 billion) from Kiev's coffers over the past three years — an amount equal to more than half a year's tax revenue for the entire country.
Disciple of the cross and champion in suffering
Immerse yourself into the kingdom of redemption
Pardon your mind through the chains of the divine
Make way, the shepherd of fire
Exhibit A is the steel vault built into the center of the Tax Ministry, just across from Bilous' office. He said it was here that Klymenko and his cronies worked out how to divide the spoils of a system that had some 1,700 companies in its clutch. The secret chamber was equipped with a white-noise generator to beat eavesdroppers, and plastic furniture that allegedly helped make sure nobody was recording the goings-on.
Using transparent furniture to beat surveillance "is straight out of the old-school, Eastern Bloc, counterintelligence playbook," said Vince Houghton, curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington. East Germany's intelligence service, for example, kept transparent furniture in a chamber at its embassy in Rome.
It appears these guys knew what they were doing!
"My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line." -- David Mamet
Exhibit A is the steel vault built into the center of the Tax Ministry, just across from Bilous' office. He said it was here that Klymenko and his cronies worked out how to divide the spoils of a system that had some 1,700 companies in its clutch. The secret chamber was equipped with a white-noise generator to beat eavesdroppers, and plastic furniture that allegedly helped make sure nobody was recording the goings-on.
Using transparent furniture to beat surveillance "is straight out of the old-school, Eastern Bloc, counterintelligence playbook," said Vince Houghton, curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington. East Germany's intelligence service, for example, kept transparent furniture in a chamber at its embassy in Rome.
I'm guessing that what caused the whole scheme to unravel is that they forgot to use the most important piece of high-tech anti-spy technology of all.......
.......the CONE OF SILENCE.......
......................from the TV series Get Smart!........
"Sorry about that, Chief!"
"My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line." -- David Mamet
You know, every time I hear someone mention the name of the country, "Ukraine," I have a twisted, perverted, an almost overwhelming desire to conjugate it!
Regarding the title of the thread, "How to do it, Ukraine style", I seem to remember from my vast store house of knowledge of "Things Ukrainian" that when they do it Ukraine style, whoever has the hryvnia gets to be on top.
Or, maybe it's: "whoever has the biggest hryvnia gets to be on top".
I'm not sure. I did it Ukraine style so many times over the years, it affected my memory.
"My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line." -- David Mamet
What’s really tricky is learning how to say “hryvnia! hryvnia! hryvnia!" clearly, forcefully, and quickly -- without accidentally giving yourself a Ukrainian “hervnia”.
"My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line." -- David Mamet
"Hryvnia, Hryvnia, Hryvnia" sounds like the noise an old collective farm tractor makes when someone is trying to start it.
Actually, "hryvnia" comes from the Russian "grivennik", which is their term for a ten-kopek coin (much as the "dime" is our name for a ten-cent coin).
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture." -- Pastor Ray Mummert, Dover, PA, during an attempt to introduce creationism -- er, "intelligent design", into the Dover Public Schools
Almost want to lock the thread before Famspear pops out a limerick....
Disciple of the cross and champion in suffering
Immerse yourself into the kingdom of redemption
Pardon your mind through the chains of the divine
Make way, the shepherd of fire
JamesVincent wrote:Almost want to lock the thread before Famspear pops out a limerick....
Not much danger of that, I guess. It's hard to fit "hryvnia" into a limerick.
If anyone could figure out how to fit that into a bad limerick you could.
Disciple of the cross and champion in suffering
Immerse yourself into the kingdom of redemption
Pardon your mind through the chains of the divine
Make way, the shepherd of fire
You really had to stretch to find that one, heaven help us!!!!
The fact that you sincerely and wholeheartedly believe that the “Law of Gravity” is unconstitutional and a violation of your sovereign rights, does not absolve you of adherence to it.