European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 27, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday. March 27, 1987 the stars and stripes Page 9 car theft fraud leads to mass indictments Boston a insurance fraud charges have been tiled against 106 peo ple based on evidence gathered by iwo Massachi Kyls Sale police officers who posed As Salvage Yard operator for 15 month stale and Federal authorities said. The alleged fraud has already Cost insurance companies More than $500,000, said slate attorney general James Shan non and . Attorney Roberts Mueller Iii. This kind of activity is not victim less. It is stealing Plain and simple gov. Michael s. Dukakis told reporters wednesday Ai a news conference announcing the indictments. People try to gel something Tor Noth ing and in the last analytic we at pay. In the form of higher and higher insurance pc Miami Dukakis said. Those charged included car owners who allegedly paid to have their vehicles destroyed and middlemen who delivered can to the undercover officers the officials said. Three police officers an insurance company owner an insurance broker four Atilio body repair shop owners and seven Auto body repairmen and car mechanics were among those charged As were students housewives clerks car Penters and secretaries. A total of 111 state indictments and 40 Federal indict ments were handed do. The undercover operation was set up to test the theory that insurance fraud was partly to blame for Massachusetts having the highest car theft rate in the nation said Shannon and Mueller. There were 50,346 can reported Sto Len in the stale in 1985, the year in which two slate Low enforcement agents began posing As operators of Empire Auto serv ice a Boston towing and Salvage company. Eight Mercedes tenses 12 Cadillac and four bows were among More than 100 vehicles brought to the Yard to be destroyed. Car owners or middlemen paid the undercover officers $100 to 1300 to destroy the vehicles Mueller said. Many of the cars were partially stripped or inoperable when brought to Empire Auto the prosecutors said. The autos were kept As evidence and Dis played wednesday. Insurance companies have paid out $565,000 on the allegedly false then claims and claims Worth 1163,000 arc pending said Mueller adding that More indictments could be expected. The probe was a joint Effort by the governor s Auto theft strike Force which includes the Fri stale police bos ton police. Metropolitan District com Mission police and the stale motor vehicle department. F  i s of Oiin Noni Niin air if Vinovi -. /. Egg 1. Yj4 Fiji re to California colled human frontier9 As self esteem panel begins work Sacramento Calif. A California s new task Forte on self esteem ridiculed in the doonesbury comic strip and once vetoed by the governor has set up shop on the premise that making people feelgood about themselves can help stamp out drugs and crime. You arc a scouting party for the rest of us Assem Blyman John Vasconcellos. Whose bit created the taskforce told the panel wednesday at the upbeat first meeting. California is the leading state. It is the human  Over three years the California task Force to pro Mote self esteem and personal and social responsibility will spend $735,000 to study whether there is a relationship Between Lack of self esteem and social problems. It will then recommend what government and society can do to improve people s self esteem. After a morning devoted to lengthy introductions by each of the 25 members the task Force spent the afternoon forming committees and discussing Public hearings reports and research. The first part of he task compiling existing re search on the relationship Between self esteem Ana so Cial problems is the most piercing challenging anxiety provoking part of the Job said chairman Andrew Mecca of san Rafael a preventive health re searcher with a doctorate in health planning. I m amazed at How much stuff is out there he said noting that crates and crates of material Al ready have been sent to Vasconcellos office unsolicited. Eight other Stales and Britain Are considering the creation of similar task forces Mecca reported. The task is really historic it s awesome it s enor Mous he advised members. Be credible and be 3 men indicted for tax shelter scheme new York a three businessmen were indicted wednesday on tax fraud charges for allegedly generating More than $350 million in phony tax Shel Ter deductions for celebrities and other investors. If it in t the largest it a one of the largest tax cases Ever brought to court said . Attorney Rudolph  31-count Federal grand jury indictment charged that the three men created several limited partnerships thai promised significant tax benefits for investors including actors Lorne Greene Michael Landon and Sid  Poitier television producer Norman Lear the late artist Andy Warhol postmaster general Preston r. Tisch and his brother lbs chief executive officer Laurence a Tischb. The investors were not involved in criminal activities Giuliani said at a news conference. But they will have to pay Back All of the tax that they did not pay plus interest and possible penalties to be deter mined by the internal Revenue service. Twenty investors were named but officials said there were More than 100.giuliani said the investors were told they could expect $4 in tax deductions for every is they  indictment says Charles Agee Atkins 32, of ame Lia Island Fla William s. Hack 62, of new York an Ernest m. Crun Baum 52, of Chappaqua . Created More than $1.3 billion in fraudulent trading losses an interest expenses on bogus transactions in . Treasury Bills and other government securities. A portion of those phony losses allegedly was used Cimfl offset fictitious gains that also were created As part Ofhie scheme. Giuliani said the fraudulent transactions generated losses that enabled investors to deduct More than $350 million from their  the conspirators also allegedly sold More than $200 million in bogus trading losses and interest expenses toothed unidentified entities and individuals to be used As tax deductions. The $200 million was part of the $1.3 billion in fraudulent trading losses and interest expenses the indictment said. Gun Baum also was charged in a separate three count indictment for participating in other phony Treasury Bills transactions that generated More than$138 million in fictitious losses. Jay Eller business manager for Greene and Landon said they invested in the partnership at the urging of their longtime accounting firm which he declined to identify. He said he believed the firm brought others into the partnership including Lear. We went through the numbers very very careful Lyon Why this was going to make a profit and the conservative nature of the operation Eller said by Tele phone from his los Angeles office. According to the indictment Greene and his wife sustained a loss of $333,838 on his 1981 lax return and Landon sustained a loss of More than $1 million on his return. We be paid the government what it asked Sai Deller their business manager. John Scanlon. A spokesman for Laurence Tisch said Laurence and Robert Tisch disposed of their investment in 1983 before there was any indication of a problem or impropriety. They will do whatever inappropriate to Settle this  solid and be serious. Playful but  Vasconcellos a san Jose Democrat noted that the Cost of the task Force is about what it costs to keep 13 convicts in prison for a  ideally at the end of three years every California would know More about self esteem Vasconcellos said and How he or she can improve self esteem. It kind of an ultimate self help program in my mind to develop constructive behaviour. Vasconcellos said he does t mind the smirks and Only in Cal Fomia ribbing he has been subjected to for fostering the commission. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau devoted two weeks of his doonesbury strip to poking fun at the task Force by having aspiring actress Toopsie named to it Boop Sie was chosen because of her beliefs in reincarnation and out of body travel she called the task Force the first official study of new age  the real task Force has no celebrities nor known believers in reincarnation but includes psychiatrists social workers and others with advanced academic degrees. Besides Mecca executive director of the Californi health research foundation in san Rafael members include a planned parenthood director a family therapist an artist who works with mentally til adolescents president of a foundation that studies mind and metabolism principal of a Christian school a sheriffs Captain a Utility executive and a real estate broker. Vasconcellos first proposed a self esteem study in 1984 after his California commission on crime control and violence prevention concluded that a Lack of self esteem negative or criminal self image and feel Ings of distrust and personal powerlessness Are Preva Lent among violent offenders and highly re Midi visible criminals. Wife buys poetic and fells Hubby life is bad Nottingham England a a House wife who thinks her husband spends too much Lime drinking with his friends has sent him to warning in verse and published it in her local newspaper. / Cook i clean and wort seven Day Sand yes you re Good in Many ways. But you cant take the drink it goes straight to your head. And til i get is snoring when you come to bed wrote Elaine Ball 27, in a message published wednesday in the personals column of the Nottingham evening Post. So Lake heed now or one Spring Day there won t tie a Home when i Nave one away she warned. Ball said she resorted to Yeric after other tac tics like dabbing anti drinking slogans on his work jacket had no effect. Perhaps now i will listen. 1 have tried everything else.1 her husband Martin 25, a Coal Miner in this Central England City said i think she has gone Over the top exaggerated. But i have promised it will not happen  the paper said mrs. Ball paid 7.25 pounds $11.60 for the and