Jack Abramoff fighting with government over $500K tax refund

Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Justice Department are disputing a tax refund he recently received worth more than $500,000 and whether it should be used to pay court-ordered restitution or his family's massive debts.

Abramoff's attorneys say his family, which once lived on Abramoff's lucrative salary, is now just above the poverty line on his wife's income of less than $38,000 and needs the money for living expenses. The lawyers say his wife was trying to dig them out of debt by paying legal and accounting fees, personal loans, credit card bills and their children's Hebrew school tuition from the $520,189 refund.

But the government argues that Abramoff is required to apply the refund to a $23 million restitution order that was handed down with his four-year prison sentence in September on public corruption charges.

The dispute was outlined in court documents and first reported Wednesday by the Washington Post.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090603/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_abramoff_tax_refund

Wonder on earth how everybody else does it? :sarcasm:

I hope they have to ask for food stamps...and because of budget cuts, have to stand in line like everyone else.

living in poverty CAN be a humbling experience. Especially for people like the Abramoffs.

Justice can be a lot like karma, when it isn't ignored.