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In his
opening statement today, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on
Oversight, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) said it was “shameful” and “a disgrace” that
a number of private corporations who received a portion of the billions in
capital infusion through the controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)
owe back taxes. Two of the firms owe over $100 million each. The
Oversight Subcommittee researched 23 of the top TARP recipients out of the 470
companies that received federal support. Chairman Lewis suggested a
complete review of the tax status of these companies might be very
revealing.
Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General of the
Troubled Asset Relief Program, and Gene Dodaro, Acting U.S. Comptroller General
did testify. During testimony, Barofsky indicated that more investigation
would have to be done, but that within TARP contracts corporations did have to
affirm that they were current on their taxes, and that if they accepted TARP
money knowing that taxes were owed, it could be a federal crime. The
subcommittee will continue to work on this matter.
Press is advised that the names of private companies
that owe back taxes cannot be revealed by law.
Following is the Chairman Lewis’s opening statement made earlier today:
“To date,
the Troubled Asset Relief Program has given more than $300 billion to private
companies and there are plans to give billions more.
“Taxpayers
have no sense that there is any control over this money. They have no
idea what, if anything, they will get in return. This entire program is
based on trust – trust in the givers and trust in the takers. At this
point, there is no
trust.
“To get money from Treasury, banks and others must sign a contract that states
they have no material unpaid Federal taxes. Treasury did not ask these
banks and companies to turn over their tax records. Treasury relied on
the signed statements when it agreed to invest billions of taxpayer
dollars. When you or I go to the bank to take out a mortgage
to buy a house, we are asked for our tax returns. They’re not going to
just take our word for it, and we are not asking for millions of
dollars.
“The
Subcommittee looked at the top 23 TARP recipients. We found that thirteen
of them owed more than $220 million in unpaid Federal taxes. Two
companies owe over $100 million each. How can this be? If we looked
at all 470 recipients, how much would they owe?
“Are they
signing contracts knowing that they owe taxes but thinking they will not get
caught? Did then-Secretary Paulson turn a blind eye? Either way, this is
shameful. It is a disgrace. The American people are fed up, they
are fired up, and they’re not going to take it anymore. As Members of
Congress, we shouldn’t take it anymore
either.
“We want to
get to the bottom of what is going on here. The taxpayers deserve nothing
less than the truth. The oversight work that our witnesses are doing is
so important. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on their
oversight efforts, and, most importantly, what Treasury needs to do to restore
the public trust in this program.
“Thank
you.”
[attached chart]
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CONTACT:
Brenda Jones
(202) 226 - 4673
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