We spend so much time on our blogs telling the world just how evil politicians can be. But take note… politics is not the root of all evil. GREED IS! (Politics is just a means to that end)

Yahoo! News:

Tax cheat escapes $100 million repayment

WASHINGTON - Poorly written Justice Department documents cost the federal government more than $100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the biggest tax prosecution ever.

Walter Anderson, the telecommunications entrepreneur who admitted hiding hundreds of millions of dollars from the IRS and District of Columbia tax collectors, was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison and ordered to repay about $23 million to the city.

But U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said he couldn’t order Anderson to repay the federal government $100 million to $175 million because the Justice Department’s binding plea agreement with Anderson listed the wrong statute.

Friedman said he could have worked around that problem by ordering Anderson to repay the money as part of his probation. But prosecutors omitted any discussion of probation - a common element of plea deals - from Anderson’s paperwork.

“I’ve come to the conclusion, very reluctantly, that I have no authority to order restitution,” Friedman said. “I hope the government will appeal me.”

Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case in cooperation with Justice Department headquarters, said the government would bring civil charges against Anderson.

“The IRS still has ample civil remedies available to recoup the money which are, in some respects, more efficient and quicker,” Phillips said. “Combined with today’s nine-year prison sentence, this was a significant victory for the government.”

That will require a new round of litigation in a court that does not wield the threat of more jail time. Prosecutors have said Anderson has money stashed away in accounts around the world, a claim Anderson denied in court.