Harlan Crow headlines return to national papers this week as the local developer refuses to cooperate with Senate investigators.
Investigators from the US Senate Finance Committee are trying to determine if Crow used his superyacht as a tax deduction vehicle. The yacht’s registration says it is part of a for profit entity.
The wealthy often lower their taxes buying and operating their jets and yachts.
Crow follows the formula through a company that purported to charter the yacht. Per Pro Publica, the way Crow uses the yacht raises questions about his compliance with the tax code.
Pro Publica reports that Crow generally paid an average income tax rate of 15% per IRS data in their possession.
Crow lawyers argue that the US Senate investigation violates the separation of powers between Congress and the courts.
Harlan Crow Headlines Continue Bad National Press
Earlier this year it ProPublica reports Crow had a close relationship with Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas. A relationship fed with lavish gifts.
Specifically, it appears these trips on the Crow superyacht are gifts that would total in the thousands of dollars. These gifts would require a gift tax form.
These gifts could result in higher taxes for Crow including penalties, but the larger question looms. What did he gain by these tax advantageous gifts.
Earlier reports also show Crow holds a second citizenship. This is not illegal, but is referenced as a cash for citizenship scheme.
Harlan Crow second citizenship news makes news internationally. The Intercept and Pogo jointly reported that Crow holds a second passport for St. Kitts and Nevis yesterday.
Crow bought his citizenship in a cash for citizenship scheme. This makes him a dual citizen of both the United States and St. Kitts and Nevis.
Crow made recent headlines as a longtime benefactor to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas owns a second passport.
St. Kitts and Nevis is known as a tax haven known for impenetrable financial secrecy.
A whistleblower provided documents showing Crow and his brother Trammel paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the second citizenship status.
Experts on financial transparency say the island’s tax regime would make tracking Crow assets nearly impossible. This includes gifts to Supreme Court justices, such as Clarence Thomas.
Harlan Crow Second Citizenship Issues
Crow is in headlines because of multiple financial gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The dual citizenship status purchased complicates questions about his compliance with federal tax laws. It also draws into question transparency over his gifts to Justice Thomas and potentially others.
Other Side Dallas will continue to post updates on this story as they become available.
Dallasite buys Supreme Court of the United States per a ProPublica article late last week alleging Harlan Crow paid for lavish trips for Clarence Thomas.
Per the ProPublica report, Justice Thomas has accepted luxury trips consistently for twenty years from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow.
Thomas has not disclosed those trips which breaks a long-standing norms for judicial behavior.
The Crow-Thomas trips included island-hopping through Indonesia on a superyacht and annual summer stays at a private Adirondack resort.
ProPublica says the extent and frequency of gifts to Thomas has no known precedent in the history of the Court.
This brings some to question how a Dallasite buys Supreme Court access.
The ethical lapses make Dallas’ ‘normal’ ethics issues almost boring.
Justice Thomas issued a brief statement.
“Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” Thomas said.
His statement continues, “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”
“Justice Thomas likes to focus on the language of authoritative texts, and that’s not what he’s doing,” said Kathleen Clark. Clark is a legal ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis.
Dallasite Buys Supreme Court: Just One Issue?
Beyond the questions related to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are Crow’s own decisions on interior decorating.
Crow’s garden includes statues that appear to celebrate world dictators.
Statues of World Dictators
Statues in what some call the “Garden of Evil” are Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito.
Additionally, Crow has two paintings by Adolf Hitler and a signed copy of Mein Kampf. This is in addition to other assorted Nazi paraphanelia.
