Will Castroneves Jury Return Verdict on Tax Day
The jury in Indy race car driver, Helio Castroneves trial, deliberated for a third day yesterday and return today for a fourth day of deliberation. We're taking bets (not really) that this jury will, in a cruel irony either for the government, or for Castroneves, return a verdict today – tax day – April 15.
Historically, the IRS tries to get the most bang for its buck, and it will try to schedule as many guilty pleas as possible around tax day. It will be either a huge victory for the government on tax day, or a huge defeat. The tincture of time will tell.
Castroneves filed yesterday a Motion for Mistrial that outlines the difficult legal questions the jury has been struggling with the last three days.
On Friday, April 10, the jury submitted this question:
“Better define: when does 'unconditional vested right to income' occur.”
On Monday, April 13, the jury requested that it be supplied a copy of the transcripts of the testimony of tax attorneys Fred Feingold and Mark Berg.
And, yesterday, April 14, the jury submitted the following questions:
- 1.“Legally define: 'beneficial owner' how it pertains to a corporate entity.”
- 2. “Legal define: 'deferral of income' specifically are there requirements and/or limitations to make a 'stop payment' a 'deferral of income.' "
- 3. “Does asking someone with whom you’ve entered into a contract with to 'stop payment' before contract commences count as a 'deferral of income.'”
Following the supplemental jury instruction given yesterday in response to those last three questions, Castroneves filed the Motion for Mistrial objecting to the judge's answers to the second and third questions, which stated that Penske was the employer. Quite frankly, my reading of the judge’s jury instruction yesterday is that it was pretty defense favorable. I’m thinking we’ll have a verdict today.
