Agrama v. Internal Revenue Serv.

282 F. Supp. 3d 264
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedOctober 20, 2017
DocketCase No. 1:16–cv–751–RMC
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 282 F. Supp. 3d 264 (Agrama v. Internal Revenue Serv.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Agrama v. Internal Revenue Serv., 282 F. Supp. 3d 264 (D.C. Cir. 2017).

Opinion

ROSEMARY M. COLLYER, United States District Judge *267Jehan Agrama is facing a $900,000 tax penalty from the Internal Revenue Service, allegedly based on an expert report prepared by an Italian criminal prosecutor concerning her foreign income. Ms. Agrama wants to know how IRS received the report so that she can convince the Service that Italy violated her rights and the report is inadmissible in the United States. Thus, she submitted a FOIA request asking, in part, for records from any country outside the U.S. contained in her IRS file. None of the records produced by IRS provides a paper trail indicating how IRS agents in this country received the Italian report. Ms. Agrama sues, arguing that IRS conducted an inadequate search.

Both IRS and Ms. Agrama have moved for summary judgment, contesting whether IRS fulfilled its FOIA obligations. Upon review of the entire record, the Court will grant judgment in favor of IRS.

I. BACKGROUND FACTS

A. Ms. Agrama's FOIA Request

On October 28, 2015, the IRS issued two (2) letters to [Jehan Agrama] entitled "Failure to File Form 5471." These letters claim [she] had an obligation to file Forms 5471 regarding a foreign corporation, Byram Enterprises Limited[,] for the years 1982 through 2004. Moreover, these letters propose continuation delinquency penalties ... if the subject returns are not filed ....

[Ms. Agrama] does not have an ownership interest in Byram Enterprises Limited that would obligate her to file Forms 5471.

A sensible woman, Ms. Agrama would prefer to persuade IRS to withdraw its intention to penalize her for unpaid taxes rather than be required to pay the penalty and late taxes and sue to recover her money. To this end, she submitted a request on February 16, 2016 under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 et seq. , (2012) asking IRS to release to her "each and every document (exclusive of the filed tax [sic] income tax returns) contained in the administrative files of the Internal Revenue Service relating to Form 5471 proposed penalty liabilities of Jehan Agrama ... for taxable years 1982-2004." Compl. Ex. C, FOIA Disclosure Request (FOIA Request) [Dkt. 1-3] at 1. The Request specifically sought records received "from any jurisdiction, country, principality or other entity outside the United States." Id. ¶ 2. IRS received the Request on February 18, 2016. Def.'s Mot. Summ. J. (IRS MSJ) Ex. C, Declaration of Karen Coen (Coen Decl.) [Dkt. 10-3] ¶ 6.

Over the course of the administrative processing of Ms. Agrama's FOIA request and this litigation, IRS has conducted multiple searches for responsive records.

• First, IRS Disclosure Specialist Karen Coen searched the IRS Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), a database allowing access to data retrieved from IRS's Master File, the nationwide electronic information *268system containing taxpayer account information. Id. ¶¶ 8, 9. Ms. Coen used Ms. Agrama's unique taxpayer identification number (TIN), provided by Ms. Agrama, to conduct this search. Id. ¶¶ 10, 11. This initial search yielded a single possible examination activity from 2002. Id. ¶ 12. Inasmuch as this activity had occurred more than ten years earlier, any records would have been destroyed under the IRS record retention policy. Id. Because Ms. Coen found no other entries related to Ms. Agrama's TIN in the IDRS system, she determined that IRS had no records responsive to Ms. Agrama's FOIA request, and informed Ms. Agrama of that fact by letter on February 25, 2016. Id. ¶¶ 12-13.

• Ms. Coen's letter prompted counsel for Ms. Agrama to contact Ms. Coen on March 2, 2016, to inform her that Ms. Agrama had already been contacted by two IRS Revenue Agents from Los Angeles, California, Bernard Trapp and James Pack, concerning the tax penalty. Id. ¶ 14. Upon Ms. Coen's request, these two agents searched for records that might be responsive to Ms. Agrama's FOIA request. Id. They forwarded the records they located to Ms. Coen, who determined that 89 pages of records were responsive to Ms. Agrama's request. Id. ¶¶ 15-16. Of those records, Ms. Coen determined that three pages could be released to Ms. Agrama and the remaining 86 pages needed to be withheld in full. Id. ¶ 16. Ms. Coen so informed Ms. Agrama of this assessment on March 7, 2016. Id. ¶ 18. This decision was upheld on administrative appeal. Compl. Ex. G, IRS FOIA Appeals Response [Dkt. 1-7].

• When Ms. Agrama filed the immediate Complaint in April 2016, Attorney Christopher Valvardi of the IRS Office of Chief Counsel was assigned as agency counsel to work with the Department of Justice on the case. IRS MSJ Ex. 4, Declaration of Christopher Valvardi (Valvardi Decl.) [Dkt. 10-5] ¶ 5. His DOJ colleague told Mr. Valvardi on August 25, 2016, presumably based on information from Ms. Agrama's counsel, that Ms.

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282 F. Supp. 3d 264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/agrama-v-internal-revenue-serv-cadc-2017.