Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) demanded answers from the promoters of a fraudulent “tribal tax credit,” after they obtained a recording of an investor call showing the scam may be far larger than previously known. Billy Long, Trump’s nominee to lead the IRS, reported earning $65,000 for his work related to the scheme.
The call between White River Chief Financial Officer Jay Puchir and 100 or more investors provides new evidence that the company could not provide its own investors with clear proof that the “tribal tax credit” was legitimate. White River could not provide investors with a definitive government document or government point of contact willing to validate or authenticate the legitimacy of the “tribal tax credits” sold by White River.
The call also contains evidence of a potentially corrupt lobbying scheme between White River and incoming Trump Administration officials to authorize millions in so-called “tribal tax credits” the IRS claimed “do not exist.” During the call, Puchir claims he will use his “contacts” in the new Trump Administration to gain favorable treatment on regulatory approvals from the IRS and other federal agencies, including a potential private letter ruling from the IRS. Puchir also claims to have contacts at the SEC that will help White River get its stock publicly traded again after being delisted on the OTCQB stock market.
“We believe the investor call contains evidence of a corrupt lobbying scheme between White River and incoming Trump Administration officials to authorize millions in so-called “tribal tax credits” the IRS claims do not exist,” wrote Cortez Masto and Wyden. “During the call, Puchir claims he will use his ‘contacts’ in the new Trump Administration to gain favorable treatment on regulatory approvals from the IRS and other federal agencies, including a potential private letter ruling from the IRS.”
Last month, the senators called for a criminal investigation into the tax credit scheme, after the IRS informed Democratic Finance Committee Staff that “these tax credits do not exist.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
As the former top law enforcement official in Nevada, Senator Cortez Masto has been a leading voice fight fraud throughout her career. She sounded the alarm on increasing check fraud scams, which cost consumers millions of dollars each year. She introduced legislation to protect and support whistleblowers reporting wrongdoing to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and her bipartisan legislation to deter disruptive and potentially harmful phone calls and texts was signed into law in 2020.
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