Helio's been a bad boy!

[Mark in Oshawa]

Rex. FYI. Conrad Black is a Canadian/British Subject.. (born in Canada, took up UK citizenship to attain a Lord's chair from the Queen). He is a multi-billionaire or was before his many companies started to fall on hard time. He owned many newspapers in the US, most prominently the Chicago Sun-Times. He was indicted on a laundry list of felony charges including wire fraud, tax evasion and the like. He was convicted on just a fraction of those charges. It was a major story in Chicago last summer. He is now doing time in Club Fed for 6 years.

Where is this a similar situation to Helio? He was a foreign national living in the US at the time. He was somewhat famous (Helio moreso) and unlike Helio VERY well connected. Donald Trump, Martha Stewart and Warren Buffett are friends of Blacks. When He was indicted, he flew in from Toronto (where he still had some offices) to surrender himself to authorities. He gave up his passport and was at no point shackled of cuffed until he was CONVICTED and being sent to jail.

Helio as far as I know was NOT shackled or cuffed. At no point in this thread ( and I may have missed something but I doubt it) was there any concrete proof given of this. The IRS are nasty to deal with and often overzealous but they are NOT the arresting authority. The DA's office orders the arrest or serves the warrant of arrest. If Helio was treated like a thug, I would suggest it is the DA in South Florida who is trying to score points with the electorate by embarassing Helio, but since I have seen no pictures of Helio in cuffs, I am going to assume (silly me I know) he was treated with respect, the same way Conrad Black was. He cant leave the US, but lets face it, Helio is a celeb and would be hard pressed to buy a plane ticket without someone figuring out who he was.

He is technically a flight risk but I think he is quite willing to face the music. He is claiming he was duped. I have no idea and nor does anyone on this board. That said, I agree with JAG that people who don't watch what is being done on their behalf as far as taxes are concerned don't get my sympathy really...but that said, he deserves a fair trial. God knows the jurors will have their eyes glazing over in the first 15 minutes Iam sure....

It isn't any wonder the IRS kicks ass at putting people behind bars...half the jurors convict the schmuck just to get the hell away from all the lawyers...

[chuck34]

This cuffs/shackles thing is kind of dumb. He doesn't necessarily need to be deemed a flight risk for this type of treatment. It very well could be that whatever judge he went in front of mandates that all accused are placed in restraints while in court, or it could be a federal mandate. The judge could have been scared before by someone he/she didn't think was dangerous. So now he/she doesn't want to take a chance. Or maybe it's just a Federal court mandate. Or maybe it's simply because he's a foreign national. Does anyone really know.

[gofastandwynn]

Meanwhile Rep. Charles Rangel (D) is under investigation for hiding income from rental property from the IRS, and he leads the House committee responsible for the federal tax code. Don't see him in shackles.

[MDS]

Meanwhile Rep. Charles Rangel (D) is under investigation for hiding income from rental property from the IRS, and he leads the House committee responsible for the federal tax code. Don't see him in shackles.

Words are fun!

Investigation:to make a systematic examination ; especially : to conduct an official inquiry

Indictment: a formal written statement framed by a prosecuting authority and found by a jury (as a grand jury) charging a person with an offense

Rangel has not been handcuffed because his investigation is ongoing. Helio was shacked because his investigation is complete, and there is enough evidence to cause a grand jury to issue an indictment, two entirely seperate things.