California's Missing Sales Tax Money
By Judd McIlvain, Broadcast Journalist � 2006
The State of California has a new "Sales Tax Smoking Gun" that it
cannot explain.� Missing Sales Tax funds that were not found by the
California Board of Equalization (the state tax office) but tracked
down to a big New York Bank by Californiaa small business.� The Sales
Tax money should have never been deposited to the bank. No one is
saying who directed those thousands of state dollars to the JP Morgan
Chase bank in New York.
The trail of the missing money started in March 2006 when the
California Board of Equalization demanded to know why a small Southern
California Business has not paid its August 2005 quarterly sales tax
payment. The small funeral business responded that it had paid its
sales tax in the amount of $4,191 in August 19, 2005 in the form of a
Wells Fargo Cashier�s Check made out to the State Board of
Equalization.� The state BOE told the company they had never received
it.� The funeral company said it had sent the cashiers check directly
to the BOA in the US Mail.��
The small company got a copy of the cashed check and to its total
surprise the sales tax check make out to the State of California was
cashed by JP Morgan Chase Bank.� When the company confronted the Wells
Fargo Bank Officials about how JP Morgan Chase Bank endorsed its sales
tax check make out to the state, the bank officials had no answer.� The
funeral director said the check was mailed in the US mail to the BOE in
the state�s own envelope. He said there was no mix up and that the
funeral home had no mail going to JP Morgan Chase Bank.
When I contacted BOE officials they told me they had no idea how
the check mailed to the BOE was cashed by JP Morgan Chase.� The bank
kept the money for almost seven months and did not mention the sales
tax money until the small business got a copy of the endorsement on the
back of the BOE cashiers check that showed it had been sent to the
bank.� JP Morgan Chase Bank has sent the funeral business back the
$4,191 so it can be sent again to the California BOE.�
There are many unanswered questions like? First, why did Wells
Fargo cash a California Board of Equalization sales tax cashiers� check
that was endorsed by JP Morgan Chase Bank?� Second, if the check was
mailed in a BOE envelope in the US Mail how did it get to someone who
would endorse it as a JP Morgan Chase Bank check?� And finally what did
JP Morgan Chase Bank cash the cashiers� check and keep the money
secrete.� These questions need to be answered right away.� Someone
apparently knew what they were doing when the endorsed the check and
then routed to JP Morgan Chase Bank funds.� What fund got the stolen
sales tax money?� Are there other sales tax checks that have been
stolen when small businesses sent them to the BOE.� The sales tax
payers of the State of California have the right to know who is ripping
them off.
The BOE officials say it is not their fault that they did not get
it and the taxpayer may have to pay a penalty.� Should JP Morgan Chase
Bank pay a penalty for taking the check that was clearly made out to
the Board of Equalization of the state of California.�
Update:� The last time I talked with the BOA they said they could
no longer talk to the news media about the missing tax money.� The
taxpayer said he was not charged a penalty but at last check the New
York Bank had not returned the money.
It is still a mystery how a New York Bank can cash a sales tax check
made out to the state of California and keep the money.
Update December 27, 2006: the New York Bank has returned the money
to the small business in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, CA.
Investigation Filed Dec. 27, 2006. |
