Judge Gale must feel like he’s Mr. Fred Rogers’ successor, as he has to deal with an imaginary attorney and an unnamed witness who claims he saw him, although nobody else has. Benjamin Soleimani and Sharyn Soleimani, T. C. Memo. 2023-60, filed 5/15/23, claim Ben had multi-millions in Tehran real estate that his uncle bought for him as nominee, because Ben was on  the Islamic Republic’s hitlist as a chum of the ex-Shah.

The Republicans grabbed the real estate, so Ben and Sharyn claim a whopping capital loss in the year when the alleged grab took place. IRS says no, so enter Mohammad Ali Soltanpour, Esq.

MoAli was retained by Witness 1, a compatriot of Ben’s. Witness 1 dares not speak his name as he still has contacts with the Republic. Witness 1 claims MoAli produces ” a document from the ‘State Organization for the Registration of Deeds and Real Estates,’ dated September 24, 2008 (Registration), and a  ‘Declaration Sheet’ from the ‘Justice Administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Central Branch),’ dated October 16, 2008 (Declaration).” T. C. Memo. 2023-60, at p. 3. These show that Ben supposedly got the properties just before the revolution, and were grabbed in year at issue by the Republicans.

Except.

“Respondent engaged an expert and submitted his report. Respondent’s expert’s report concluded inter alia that Mohammad Ali Soltanpour was a fictitious person. He visited the addresses listed for Mr. Soltanpour in Tehran; no one at those addresses had any knowledge of anyone by that name. He tried the phone numbers listed for Mr. Soltanpour and encountered the same. Finally, he researched Iranian Bar Association listings and found no entry for anyone by that name. Indeed, the bar number given for Mr. Soltanpour on the Declaration had never been issued to anyone, according to Iranian Bar Association records. The Report further concluded that the Registration and the Declaration were forgeries because, inter alia, they were purportedly issued to a nonexistent Iranian attorney with a fictitious bar number, they stated property values in U.S. dollars, and two of the properties referenced in the documents as owned by petitioner before their confiscation by the Iranian government could in fact be traced in Iranian property records, and those records showed that the properties had at no time been owned by petitioner or the Iranian government. (Respondent’s expert was unable to find any records pertaining to the third property.)” T. C . Memo. 2023-60, at p. 6.

Given a chance to rebut, Witness 1 waffled. MoAli was an assumed name, and Witness 1 wasn’t sure now whether he’d met MoAli or some Iranian broker. Finally, even Ben’s and Sharyn’s expert witness agreed that no one could get those documents out of the Republican government with a phony attorney and phony Bar number. And the Republicans wouldn’t state property values in US dollars.

So both Registration and Declaration, translated from the Farsi, are found to be Farsical (sorry guys, the devil made me do it).

IRS has some problems with the CPAF for Boss Hossery, and Judge Gale takes up two (count ’em, two) pages unscrambling the examiner’s frittata, T. C. 2023-60, at pp. 10-11. At the end of the day, he sustains the substantial understatement chop.

Taishoff says Ben and Witness 1 were lucky I wasn’t the judge.