On a personal level, I liked Judge Mark V. Holmes before I ever met him. And when I met him at the Tax Court Judicial Conference a couple years ago (hi), I liked him even more, despite his grammatical lapses. But I can comment on a Judge’s orders in an impersonal way, being sure the comments are made and taken in good part.

Today I am surprised that Judge Holmes is not surprised by the behavior (or rather, non-behavior) of Yaroslav Kirik & Galina Kirik, Docket No. 21292-13, filed 10/17/19.* Seems like a corporation owned or controlled by Yar & Galina, and Yar & Galina themselves, were the subject of some criminal investigation. Since 2014, said criminal investigation seems to be on hold, no explanation given.

But after Yar’s & Galina’s counsel bailed a year ago, the lines of communication went dead.

“We have not been able to speak with petitioners since then, and they have not submitted updated contact information. We have no phone number or email address for either petitioner, and we ordered each petitioner to file updated contact information by April 19, 2019. They did not do so. In May we ordered them to show cause why we should not dismiss the cases for failure to prosecute. A check of the Court’s docket in this case shows that petitioners have still not responded to our order….” Order, at p. 1.

So Judge Holmes tosses Yar & Galina for want of prosecution.

Judge, with a $3.5 million decision, including Section 6663 fraud chops, plus interest from 2007-2009, hanging over them, are you surprised that Yar & Galina took off?

Reminds me of the old joke. If I owe you $500, I gotta worry; If I owe you $5 million, you gotta worry.

*Yaroslav Kirik 21292-13 10 17 19

Edited to add, 9/2/21: “Yar & Gal hired new counsel, and appealed the toss to 2 Cir. They lost.