Lawsuit: Adjourned Commonwealth of Redmont v. Edogawa_ConanUwU and henry_ngo [2021] FCR 111

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nnmc

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IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
CRIMINAL ACTION


Commonwealth of Redmont
Prosecution

v.

Edogawa_ConanUwU and henry_ngo
Defendants

COMPLAINT
The Prosecution alleges criminal actions committed by the Defendants as follows: The Defendants are accused of holding $480,000 in a company balance for the sole purpose of tax evasion.

I. PARTIES
1. nnmc (Prosecuting Authority)
2. Edogawa_ConanUwU (Defendant)
3. henry_ngo (Defendant)

II. FACTS
1. On October 23rd 2021, Edogawa_ConanUwU withdrew $480,000 from company BestBuy. According to server records, 11 seconds after that, henry_ngo deposited that exact amount of money into a company called taxheaven2.
2. Edogawa_ConanUwU owns the company BestBuy
3. henry_ngo owns the company taxheaven2
4. The company name taxheaven2 clearly implies that it is meant to be a tax haven so that the Defendants can evade taxes on the $480,000. taxheaven2 does not appear to be tied to any legitimate business operations.

III. CHARGES
The Prosecution hereby alleges the following charges against the Defendant:
1. Defendant Edogawa_ConanUwU is charged with violating Law 10.2 - Tax Evasion. Edogawa_ConanUwU is attempting to evade taxes on their $480,000
2. Defendant henry_ngo is charged with violating Law 17.13 - Accomplice to a Crime. henry_ngo is an accomplice to the tax evasion by being the owner of the company in which the funds are being held in to evade taxes.

IV. SENTENCING
The Prosecution hereby recommends the following sentence for the Defendant:
1. The Prosecution recommends Edogawa_ConanUwU be fined a total of $105,003.49. The breakdown of that fine is explained as follows. As per the Taxation Act, we recommend the maximum fine of $10,000 for the crime of tax evasion. As per the calculations of the DEC Secretary (Evidence #2), the evaded tax bill comes out to $95,003.49. As per the Proceeds of Crime Act, courts may order a fine to recover any proceeds obtained from criminal acts. Therefore, we recommend a fine of $95,003.49 in order to recover the proceeds from the tax evasion. Combining those 2 fines, the Prosecution recommends a total fine of $105,003.49 for Edogawa_ConanUwU

2. The Prosecution recommends henry_ngo be fined $7,500. As per the Taxation Act, the maximum fine for tax evasion is $10k and as per the Accomplice Act, the maximum fine for accomplices is 75% of the punishment for the offense that they were an accomplice to. 75% of $10k is $7,500.

Evidence #1: A Google Sheets showing server records for BestBuy, taxheaven, and taxheaven2. Rows 138 and 181 show the tax evasion. Link: DEC investigation 1
Evidence #2: Same Google Sheets as above, but click on the 2nd sheet/tab which is called "justification" to see the calculations of the tax bill

By making this submission, I agree I understand the penalties of lying in court and the fact that I am subject to perjury should I knowingly make a false statement in court.

DATED: This 6th day of November 2021
 
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WRIT OF SUMMONS

The Defendant,
@Edogawa_ConanUwU and @henry_ngo , are required to appear before the court in the case of The Commonwealth of Redmont v. Edogawa_ConanUwu and henry_ngo. Failure to appear within 48 hours of this summons will result in a default judgment in favor of the plaintiff.

I'd also like to remind both parties to be aware of the Court Rules and Procedures.​
 
I am open to an in-game trial. Do both parties like to have this?
 
Your Honor, seeing as there has been a major change at Lovely Law, everything is still being sorted out into its new structure. In addition to those unique circumstances, this is a case of complexity that will take time to review. As such, we ask for a 24-hour extension to prepare the defense.
 
I will grant it you have a bit less than 72 hours to put a response on the forum. Please also answer the question if you want an in-game trial, as well the Prosecution.
 
I am interested in doing an in-game trial for this case. What dates and times would work for you, Your Honor? From there, we can see narrow it down based on what works for the Defense and I.
 
My schedule is very hectic right now, so I would like to see if there are any dates available that work for both of us. I am open to the idea, and I will tentatively say yes, contingent on finding a date and time that works for all of us.
 
There will be an in-game trial at Thursday at 11 pm CEST/6 pm EST.
 
Because of the Defendant is unable to do an in-game trial on Thursday, we will move on to the forum. I ask the Defendant for an answer to the complaint within 36 hours.
 
IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
ANSWER TO COMPLAINT

Commonwealth of Redmont
Prosecution

v.

Edogawa_ConanUwU and henry_ngo
Defendants

I. ANSWER TO COMPLAINT
1. Edogawa_ConanUwU pleads not guilty to the charge of Tax Evasion.
2. Henry_ngo pleads not guilty to the charge of Accomplice to a Crime

II. DEFENCES
1. The companies described by the Prosecution are both legitimate companies, created pursuant to all regulation at the time of their inception.

2. The company BestBuy, used by Edogawa_ConanUwU, does legitimate business, and is an active company with in-game stores, and frequent transactions.​

3. The Prosecution implies that there is no possible reason for having any money in a company, other than for the purposes of tax evasion, by ignoring the fact that sales add money to the company’s balance as well as deposits since BestBuy sells goods not through a personal balance, but a company one.

4. The name of a company does not set in stone its entire purpose, and to assume otherwise is ridiculous, especially when considering that the company was created before the DEC put restrictions on new companies.

5. The Prosecution has provided no evidence that taxheaven2, the company described in the lawsuit, serves no legitimate purpose. In fact, it is used as a source of investment in the Onyx Exchange.

6. The overuse of hasty assumptions by the Prosecution have led to the following issues with the entire court case:
a. The Prosecution blatantly ignores the function of a company, and suggests that the entire balance of the company ought to be penalized by the price of taxing it as though it were a private balance, which is outright absurd given Redmont’s lack of a corporate tax law;
b. The Prosecution has failed to consider the possibility of a company name that was not taken seriously, and instead chooses to insist, baselessly, that the company is only set up for use as a personal bank account.
c. The Prosecution uses incredibly questionable math to arrive at a conclusion, that even if the primary Defendant were found guilty, he should be fined in excess of $105,000. This is completely unjustified, because as stated in point A, the State has failed to differentiate between alleged tax evasion, and business transaction as a company. The records provided are limited, and as such should not be considered as damning evidence of tax evasion.

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By making this submission, I agree I understand the penalties of lying in court and the fact that I am subject to perjury should I knowingly make a false statement in court.

DATED: This 8th day of November, 2021

(Edited for formatting)
 
Last edited:
I would also like to add that Lovely Law and HugeBob are representing the two defendants:
Edogawa and henry agreeing to representation.png
 
OPENING STATEMENT

Even if Best Buy has a few legitimate business activities going on, that does not excuse the obviously illegitimate tax evasion. A legitimate company that commits a crime cannot hide behind its legitimate operations to evade justice. It's also noteworthy that while the Defense is providing proof of a few sales being made by Best Buy, they have provided absolutely no justification for why the $480,000 was transferred to a company called TaxHeaven2.

While Best Buy has some legitimate operations, the Defense has provided no proof that TaxHeaven2 has any legitimate operations whatsoever. There has been neither in-game nor Discord advertising of a company called TaxHeaven2. There appear to be no plots owned by, no Discord server run by, no chestshops registered to TaxHeaven2. All of this begs the question: is TaxHeaven2 a legitimate company with a silly, joking name like the Defense claims? The answer is a resounding no. TaxHeaven2 is solely meant to evade taxes like the name clearly implies.

The Defense pointed out that company balances should obviously have plenty of money in them due to business operations. However, there's something strange that can be seen in the 2 photos showing the creation dates of the 2 companies. BestBuy, the company which has some actual operations and sales, has roughly a meager $3.5k in the company balance. Meanwhile, taxheaven2, a company with no obvious operations, is flush with over $160k in cash for no clear reason. These balances are exactly the opposite of what you might expect. Shouldn't Best Buy have more cash in its balance since it actually has operations? Unless, of course, BestBuy profits are being transferred to taxheaven2 in order to evade taxes.

In regards to the 2 photos showing the creation dates of the 2 companies, it does not matter. Companies are continuously existing and operating entities. Just because they were founded before a business regulation went into effect does not mean that they are exempt from such a regulation, because they are continuously existing and operating over time. For example, a hypothetical real-life company that was founded centuries ago is not exempt from modern-day child labor laws, just because they were founded before child labor laws were passed. They can not be punished retroactively for violating child labor laws when those laws did not exist, but once the laws exist, from that point forward they are bound by those laws.

OBJECTION

The Defense has provided a photo of an investment in the Onyx Exchange. However, that investment is only worth a little under $115k, which is far less than the $480k strangely transferred to TaxHeaven2. Furthermore, this investment is shown in the photo coming from a personal balance. It does not appear to come from the TaxHeaven2 company balance. Therefore, this photo does not appear to be related to this case which only concerns the company balances of BestBuy and TaxHeaven2, not the personal balance of any individual. The Prosecution objects to this photo on the grounds of lack of relevance, and we ask that the photo be struck from the record.
 
Thank you and can the Defendant present a rebuttal to this objection?
 
REBUTTAL

The Prosecution has argued that the photograph provided of a $115k is not relevant, with regards to TaxHeaven2's legitimacy as a business. I refute these arguments on the following bases:

1. Just because a company does not dump its entire balance into a transaction in one go does not, and cannot possibly, mean that the company is fraudulent. That is a glaring flaw in the Prosecution's argument for irrelevance, and should be grounds for overruling in and of itself.

2. The evidence provided is merely used as proof that the company has a purpose, and it does so. The Prosecution assumed that TaxHeaven2's entire purpose was for nefarious tax evasion in the initial complaint, and the screenshot shows otherwise, by showing large-scale legitimate business activity. Thus, it was made relevant by the Prosecution, and the photo is relevant in a case of alleged financial misconduct.

2. The Prosecution suggests that there is no relevancy because the transfer shown is from a personal balance. I will explain, very simply, why it is. The money used in this investment in the Onyx Exchange had to be transferred to _Zab_'s balance in-game. The easiest way to do this with verification was to send it directly through /pay or /offlinepay and then take a screenshot. Therefore, it is a very basic link between the owner of a company used for financial speculation and the owner of a major stock exchange.

3. Furthermore, as TaxHeaven2 belongs to henry_ngo, and the legality of its purpose is disputed, a personal transfer made on behalf of TaxHeaven2 by henry_ngo should be perfectly admissible.
 
Objection overruled, The Defendant may present his opening statement. Please do this within 48 hours
 
OPENING STATEMENT

The Prosecution has claimed this case to be a clear-cut example of tax evasion. However, to do so is to blatantly ignore much of the nuance and reality of the situation. First and foremost, the Prosecution has alleged that the company BestBuy is illegitimate because of either its high balance, or more recently its low balance. The State has contradicted itself in this regard, and I would like to note that neither having a high balance, nor a low one, should be used as an indicator of legality or legitimacy.

Furthermore, the Prosecution has argued that there is “no proof” that TaxHeaven2 has any legitimate purpose. This argument is negated by the inclusion of the photograph showing investment in the Onyx Exchange by the owner of TaxHeaven2. The State has thus failed to even remotely show any impropriety in the financial dealings of TaxHeaven2. At this point, it is important to also address the claims of a lack of advertising, chest shops, and real estate being conclusive evidence that a company is a front. That claim lacks serious merit, and I would like to point out that as a financial-based company, there is no need for either real estate or chest shops.

As to the pictures referenced by the Prosecution, there is no link between the balances of the companies and the legitimacy of the business they conduct. As should be obvious by the nature of the documents, the images are snapshots of the companies taken for the sole purpose of showing their creation dates. The balances of any given company fluctuate frequently, so much so that it is not even worth considering the shown balances as any evidence of anything. Additionally, as I have already stated, TaxHeaven2 is a company that does business, and is also invested in privately, so reading anything more into the balance is an act of complete speculation.

The Prosecution has also decided to jump onto the creation dates to misrepresent my earlier claims. I will address this fully, as I hold these actions to be insupportable. In my initial response to the allegations made against Mr. henry_ngo and Mr. Edogawa_ConanUwU, I never used the dates as proof of anything other than to explain why a company with the name TaxHeaven2 exists.

I merely stated that the companies were made before the /cm command was restricted, and I never drew any other conclusions other than the one described above. The Prosecution is therefore apparently drawing its own conclusions to argue against itself with, and that, quite frankly, confounds me.
 
No, Your Honor. The Defense has no witnesses to call.
 
If the Prosecutor does not answer within 12 hours, we will move on without it.
 
The prosecution has no witnesses.
 
We will move on to closing statements, The prosecutor may present his' within 60 hours from now
 
CLOSING STATEMENT

Throughout this entire trial, the Defense has not been able to provide any reasonable explanation for the transfer of the $480k. The Defense has merely and inadequately provided proof of an approximately $115k investment. That investment is worth less than 25% of the suspicious transfer in question. Furthermore, this $115k investment could have easily been earned or spent from the BestBuy company balance or a personal balance. There is no proof that this $115k was earned or spent by TaxHeaven2.

Without any reasonable explanation by the defendants or their lawyers as to why the $480k was transferred, the only logical outcome is to take this case at face value. The defendants transferred $480k from a legitimate company BestBuy to a mysterious company named TaxHeaven2. The name of the shell company speaks for itself. There is no honest, legitimate company in Redmont or anywhere else that would call itself a tax heaven, because that would for no good reason harm its reputation in the eyes of customers and investors. We can only conclude that TaxHeaven2 is exactly what its name suggests. The Defendants must have thought that their tax shelter company would remain shrouded in secrecy forever, and it would have if not for the tireless investigation of the DEC.

It is evident that TaxHeaven2 is a company created solely to hide money from the government in order to evade taxes. Your Honor, I ask that this court acknowledge the reality of the situation here by finding the defendants guilty on all charges.

The Prosecution rests.
 
Your Honor, given that I am almost constantly busy over the next two days, I ask that an extension be given until Thursday at 7pm EST, just in case I am unable to finish the closing arguments by tomorrow. I will submit as soon as I possibly can, though.
 
Extension granted, if the Defendant doesn't submit his closing statement then, we will move on without it.
 
CLOSING STATEMENT

I would like to begin this statement by noting for the benefit of the Prosecution, who should be well aware of this by now, as well as for the benefit of the Court, that the legitimacy of TaxHeaven2 was already proven. The screenshot showing a ~ $115k investment by henry_ngo, the owner of TaxHeaven2, brings that out of doubt. I would like to remind the Prosecution, again, that the usage of the screenshot was never to explain the $480,000 transferred into the balance of TaxHeaven2 by henry_ngo, but only to show that the business is a legitimate company. By now, the State has exhausted all of its claims to show the illegitimacy of TaxHeaven2, and all of them have proven inapplicable to the situation, or downright based on fallacious logic. I humbly request that the Court ignore any of the claims of illegitimacy on the part of TaxHeaven2 made by the Prosecution in their Closing Statement, as all have already been debunked.

If the Prosecution would find the evidence presented by the Defense as inadequate, then they must also acknowledge the original complaint as a complete hypocrisy. The case lacks merit inherently because from the very beginning, there is no evidence presented to show that the sums of money are even connected. Thus far, there has been a description of two amounts of money that were moved in or out of company balances at specific times, yet no concrete link between them has been shown by the Prosecution. This is despite the numerous opportunities presented for evidence, throughout the trial, including the initial complaint, where such evidence belongs. The failure on the part of the State to thus far show any meaningful connection between the two amounts of money and then repeatedly use the word “transfer” to imply that the money is one and the same, is completely outlandish.

Furthermore, even if the two sums of money were linked together, there is still no evidence to show any wrongdoing. Seeing as how the State has provided no evidence of an illegal purchase or exchange of any kind, there is no justification for the focus on these particular entities, except for the name of a company. That is a completely unsubstantiated basis for a conviction, especially one of the magnitude the Prosecution requests. Players, at the time of the company’s creation, were not required to name their companies anything in particular. Thus, even choosing a name like TaxHeaven2 does not warrant prosecution, and in fact any prosecution based on the name of a company is a violation of the owner’s rights.

In this case, I have proven that both Best Buy and TaxHeaven2 are legitimate companies, which the Prosecution completely failed to refute. Given that fact, there is no reason to convict Edogawa_ConanUwU for tax evasion, based on a single transaction with his own company. There is furthermore an absolute lack of any basis to charge henry_ngo as an accomplice to any crime, because there is no proof or reasoning to support the claim that a crime was committed in the first place.

As a consequence of all the reasons stated above, I urge the Court to find both defendants as not guilty on all charges. The Defense rests.
 
Thank you both sides, Court will take some time to make his verdict.
 

Verdict


IN THE COURT OF COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
VERDICT


Case No. 11-2021-06

I. PROSECUTOR'S POSITION
- The Prosecutor believes that Edogawa_ConanUwU withdrew $480,000 from the company BestBuy. According to server records, 11 seconds after that, henry_ngo deposited that exact amount of money into a company called taxheaven2, this was with the intention to evade taxes.
- Taxheaven 2 has no purpose in-game as he has no discord server, shops set up or owning any plots.
- The Prosecutor also believes that the investment of $115k that's less than 25% of the price of $480k. Furthermore, was there no proof of earning or spending the $115k investment.
- The rules did not apply back then but they do today. The Defendant, Edogawa_ConanUwU, in violation of Law 10.2 - Tax Evasion and his accomplice, henry_ngo, for accomplishing the crime.

II. DEFENDANT'S POSITION
- TaxHeaven2 and Bestbuy are legitimate companies. The legitimacy of TaxHeaven2 is proven by the investment in the market.
- The Prosecutor could not prove both payments of $480k dollars were of the same transaction.
- Both companies were made before the /cm command was restricted.
- The claims of a lack of advertising, chest shops, and real estate aren't being conclusive evidence that a company is a front. For a financial-based company, there is no need for either real estate or chest shops to find legitimacy.

III. COURT'S OPINION
The transaction made by Edogawa_ConanUwU believes that this was true to henry_ngo. It went from one company to the other one. The definition of tax evasion currently stated in law 10.2 is Any means by which an individual or company manages monetary assets with the intent to avoid taxation. What are the criteria to decide a person actually did tax evasion: This is when the money is replaced to another place where they don't pay taxes or less than the normal amount they are required to pay. After some questions to the DEC, the Court knows that any company balance is not taxed at this moment. So no taxes are paid when it's in your company balance. DEC confirmed that normally you need to prove that this money comes from the company and has meaning to it. The Defendant failed to prove that this is the case in taxheaven2, even when the investment was placed under its name. The Court believes that this transaction was meant to cover this and would not get discovered.

The Court does find it strange that such amounts are moved to another company with no real purpose. This is also quite rare in the business field. No reason was given for this transaction by the Defendant.

The fact that a company does not own any discord, chest shop, or plot does not prove his illegitimacy. A company can give a service or anything else without owning any of it. What the Court suspects is that the Defendant, Edogawa_ConanUwU hide his money to prevent a sanction of the DEC or to evade taxes.

Finally, the Court conclude the place where it was held: BestBuy's company balance is not a place where taxes are paid. The transferred money to another company does not benefit the Defendant Edogawa_ConanUwU and so the criteria for evading taxes weren't met. But it is suspicious to transfer such a large amount to a - what the Court believes - a non-functional company at this moment. With this said it could be approached that, tax evasion does not apply in tax-free companies whereby it is a legitimate business, but if that money is being transferred into companies that have no purpose, then you are putting money in places for the sake of it, to evade taxes. The Court believes that BestBuy could have been used as his personal balance (where taxes are paid) and or for criminal activities. This does mean that the criteria said above are met. The Court believes that taxheaven2 was used for laundering money. With this said a crime has taken place by Edogawa_ConanUwu The fact he did he do a crime, means that henry_ngo is guilty of accomplishing the crime. The fact it's called taxheaven can be issued as wrong but not illegal though. The Court believes that taxheaven could be a place where illegal activity was done but this is not the lawsuit for it. I ask you to comply with these specific criteria in the future and to set this case as precedent. The true intention of the money transferred is unclear and not explained by the Defendant. The Court will take this into account for his Verdict.

IV. VERDICT

The Court rules in favor of the Prosecutor.
The Court does give a more lenient punishment because it came from a place where no taxes were paid in the first instance. The true intention of the money is unclear and not explained by the Defendant made it a bit more severe than I would have done. The Court hereby orders the following:
- A fine of $5000 paid by Edogawa_ConanUwU
- A fine of $2500 paid by henry_ngo

Furthermore, I ask the DEC to re-investigate the meaning of TaxHeaven2 and a place where potential criminal activities could have taken place. I also would like the House of Representatives to take a closer look at new potential bills for taxes as this is now a place where many loopholes can be found.

The Court thanks each party for his time. This case is now adjourned.

 
I edit the verdict a bit because it's a bit unclear in section 4.

-- DONE
 
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