United States v. Kerr

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedMarch 7, 2025
Docket2:19-cv-05432
StatusUnknown

This text of United States v. Kerr (United States v. Kerr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Kerr, (D. Ariz. 2025).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 United States of America, No. CV-19-05432-PHX-DJH

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 Stephen M Kerr,

13 Defendant. 14 15 Before the Court is Plaintiff United States of America’s (“Plaintiff”) Motion to 16 Reopen Case and for Entry of Final Judgment after Remand. (Doc. 80). Stephen M. 17 Kerr (“Defendant”) has filed an Opposition brief (Doc. 84), and Plaintiff has filed a 18 Reply (Doc. 85). For the reasons set out below, the Court grants the Plaintiff’s Motion to 19 Reopen Case and for Entry of Final Judgment after Remand. 20 I. Background 21 Plaintiff filed a Complaint on October 18, 2019 (Doc. 1) against Defendant for the 22 collection of outstanding unpaid civil penalty assessments for his failure to report foreign 23 bank accounts. (Doc. 1 at 2). These unpaid civil penalty assessments are also known as 24 FBAR penalties. The term FBAR comes from the name of the report that is required to 25 be filed with the IRS to report foreign interest in bank accounts: the “Report of Foreign 26 Bank and Financial Accounts,” or TD F 90-22.1 form. (Id.) Under 31 U.S.C. § 5314, the 27 Secretary of Treasury is authorized to require individuals to report foreign bank accounts 28 or other financial interest in a foreign country to the Internal Revenue Service (“I.R.S.”). 1 See 31 C.F.R. 1010.350(a). Failure to comply with this requirement can result in civil 2 penalties. 31 U.S.C. § 5314. Defendant had a financial interest in four foreign bank 3 accounts at the Union Bank of Switzerland (“UBS”) and a financial interest in one 4 foreign bank account at Pictet & Cie (“Pictet”) during 2007 and 2008. (Doc. 1 at 3). To 5 minimize his tax liabilities in the United States, Defendant, through the help and advice 6 of his attorney, set up nominee corporations and nominee directors that would function as 7 record owners of the accounts while Defendant himself would be the true beneficiary. 8 (Doc. 1 at 5). Defendant was advised by his attorney, however, that even with nominee 9 directors and nominee corporations, the Defendant had a legal obligation to report 10 income from these accounts to the I.R.S. (Id.) Despite this advice, Defendant failed to 11 report the income from these accounts on his and his wife’s Individual Income Tax 12 Return (Form 1040). (Doc. 1 at 8). On the Form 1040’s Schedule B, Interest and 13 Ordinary Dividends section, Defendant stated that he had no control of a foreign account. 14 (Id.) Defendant also never filed any FBARs for 2007 or 2008 to report his interest in the 15 foreign accounts. (Id.) 16 On December 8, 2011, Defendant was indicted by a federal grand jury for Willful 17 Subscription to False Individual Income Tax Return for the 2007 and 2008 years and 18 Willful Failure to File FBARs for 2007 and 2008. (Doc. 1 at 9). The United States Court 19 of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed Defendant’s convictions on December 19, 20 2014. (Id.) On October 18, 2019, Plaintiff brought a claim for relief for the judgment of 21 civil penalties to this Court. (Doc. 1 at 9). The action was based on civil penalties 22 assessed by the I.R.S. for the 2007 and 2008 years and for late-penalty payments, interest, 23 and collection related fees. (Doc. 1 at 10). Plaintiff sought to have the Court enter 24 judgment in its favor for $4,281,350.12, plus any statutory accrual fees it was owed. 25 (Doc. 1 at 10). After the parties’ full briefing on the issue this Court entered judgement 26 against the Defendant for $240,985 and remanded the case back to the I.R.S. after 27 Plaintiff conceded that some of its penalty calculations were made in error. (Doc. 55 28 at 17). Plaintiff filed a Motion for Reconsideration on April 25, 2022, to remand the 1 entire penalty amount back to the I.R.S. (Doc. 62). This Court denied Plaintiff’s request 2 in part, reasoning that the penalties were severable and not intertwined, and granted it in 3 part, because the earlier judgment should have acknowledged that Plaintiff was entitled to 4 collect late penalties and related fees. (Id.) 5 Plaintiff then appealed the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 30, 6 2023. (Doc. 66). While pending appeal, Plaintiff filed a Motion for Entry of Final 7 Judgment after Remand. (Doc. 68). That Motion asked the Court to clarify that the (1) 8 remanded FBAR penalties were not vacated; (2) that the Court would grant Plaintiff’s 9 request to reopen the case; and (3) that the Court would defer consideration of Plaintiff’s 10 request for judgment on the six remaining penalties. (Doc. 76). This Court confirmed 11 that it did not vacate the six remaining FBAR penalties. (Doc. 76 at 6). It also confirmed 12 that a remand back to an agency is not final and that the Court would reopen the case so 13 that Plaintiff can have a final judgment against the Defendant on the recalculated 14 penalties. (Doc. 76 at 9). Lastly, the Court stated that it would defer final judgment on 15 the six remaining remanded penalties in its February 23, 2024, Order because the request 16 raised a substantial issue under Fed. R. Civ. P. 62.1(a)(3). (Doc. 76 at 10). The Court 17 deferred final judgment on the six remaining penalties on remand because the Defendant 18 contended that he did not have the benefit of discovery for the I.R.S.’s recalculation of 19 penalties. (Doc. 76 at 10). 20 Plaintiff’s latest Motion to Reopen the case and for Final Judgment, raises many of 21 the same issues raised its Motion for Entry of Final Judgment after Remand. (Doc. 80). 22 This time, Plaintiff asks the Court to reopen the case and enter a final judgment that 23 incorporates the partial judgment the Court previously entered against the Defendant, 24 noting that the amount of the partial judgment has been fully paid. (Doc. 80 at 2). 25 Plaintiff also asks for a final judgment on the recalculated penalties in the amount of 26 $2,660,749.06. (Doc. 80). Defendant has filed a Response in opposition to Plaintiff’s 27 Motion (Doc. 84) and Plaintiff has filed a Reply. (Doc. 85). For the reasons set forth 28 below, the Court will grant Plaintiff’s Motion to Reopen Case and Entry of Final 1 Judgment after Remand. 2 II. Analysis 3 Based on the Court’s review of the recalculation submitted by the I.R.S., and for 4 the reasons discussed below, the Court finds that reopening of this case is proper. This 5 will allow the Court to enter final judgment and incorporate the partial judgment ordered 6 by the Court on April 15, 2023. (Doc. 65). Further discovery is also not warranted 7 because the I.R.S. has properly designated the record. And, as a final point, the Court 8 finds that the I.R.S. recalculation of penalties was done properly and was not arbitrary or 9 capricious. The Court will lay out its reasoning below. 10 A. The Court’s Order to Remand the six remaining penalties was not a 11 vacatur or final adjudication on the merits and the case will be reopened. 12 To start with, the Court will grant Plaintiff’s request to reopen the case, as it stated 13 it would in its previous Order. (Doc. 76 at 8). Plaintiff seeks to reopen the case so that it 14 may obtain clarification from the Court regarding the Court’s remand to the I.R.S. of the 15 six remaining penalties and so that final judgment can be issued. (Doc. 80 at 5). 16 Specifically, Plaintiff would like the Court to reiterate that the six FBAR penalties that 17 were remanded did not represent a vacatur of those penalties.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Florida Power & Light Co. v. Lorion
470 U.S. 729 (Supreme Court, 1985)
Eluska v. Andrus
587 F.2d 996 (Ninth Circuit, 1978)
Friends of the Earth v. Hintz
800 F.2d 822 (Ninth Circuit, 1986)
Chugach Alaska Corp. v. Lujan
915 F.2d 454 (Ninth Circuit, 1990)
Lee v. City Of Los Angeles
250 F.3d 668 (Ninth Circuit, 2001)
City of Las Vegas v. Federal Aviation Administration
570 F.3d 1109 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)
McCrary v. Gutierrez
495 F. Supp. 2d 1038 (N.D. California, 2007)
Kimble v. United States
991 F.3d 1238 (Federal Circuit, 2021)
Animal Defense Council v. Hodel
840 F.2d 1432 (Ninth Circuit, 1988)
Cordero v. De Jesus-Mendez
867 F.2d 1 (First Circuit, 1989)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
United States v. Kerr, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kerr-azd-2025.