According to the San Francisco Business Times (thanks, Tom, for passing this on to me), VSP has retained former U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr to handle their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over their tax exempt status. You’ll remember this guy as the former judge who was appointed to the Office of Independent Counsel to investigate the suicide death of Clinton’s deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater land transactions by Bill Clinton. He later submitted to Congress the Starr Report, which led to Clinton’s Impeachment on charges arising from the Monica Lewinsky scandal. As I recall, his final report cost you and me about $30million. Does anyone recall a return on that investment?
I find Starr an interesting choice. What’s evident is that VSP feels that this is a matter worth fighting and investing your money in. My guess is that they’ve concluded that it’s cheaper to fight the tax exempt status to the Supreme Court rather then pay the taxes. In the end, my bet is that they will lose their battle, but settle on an amount substantially less then their back taxes. It’s a logical strategy.
Stay tuned.
Al Cleinman
PS: Have an idea or comment for the blog? Please don’t hesitate to send them my way. You can reach me directly at [email protected].
