Forbes Business News: Heir Of Honduran Timber Fortune Wins Large Refund In Tax Court
Apr 15, 2015 @ 2:11 PM 97 views
Heir Of Honduran Timber Fortune Wins Large Refund In Tax Court
Peter J Reilly
Jose Lamas Sr. is quite a guy. Cuban by birth, he fled in 1963 to Central America, where he is now reputed to be the wealthiest man in Honduras. He shows up as one of the backers of the 2009 coup that ousted President Maneul Zelaya. His company in Honduras ( Jose Lamas S. de R.L) appears in reports by environmental activists as logging illegally with the logs passing through Miami based Aljoma Lumber (which was sold to Universal Forest Products in 2007 for $53.5 million). Back around the turn of the millennium, Aljoma Lumber, under the leadership of his son Jose Antonio Lamas, was not exactly getting kudos as a model employer.
All that makes me kind of sad, because, having previously never heard of Mr. Lamas or the coup and only having the vaguest idea as to where Honduras is, I was really rooting for his son Jose Antonio Lamas (Mr. Lamas), who had served as CEO of Aljoma, as I read TC Memo 2015-59 Jose A. Lamas And Maria E. Lamas v Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The IRS was trying to deny him a refund of $5,260,964, which was based on a carryback of 2008 personal net operating loss to 2006. In the IRS view Mr. Lamas had not been “materially participating” in the entities that flowed through losses that created the net operating loss.
Background
Jose Senior had funded businesses for each of his three children, giving one child a controlling stake in each business and minority stakes in the other two. The three companies Continental Trust Mortgage Corp, Adrimar Investments Corp and Shoma Development Corp were all involved one way or the other in real estate and tangentially related to one another not only by common ownership, but also operationally. The controlling stake in Shoma was with Mr. Lamas’s sister Maria and her husband, Masoud Shoajee.
Closely related operationally and with identical ownership to Shoma there was also Greens at Doral LLC, a condominium conversion project.
More:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2015/04/15/heir-of-honduran-timber-fortune-wins-large-refund-in-tax-court/
(Forbes hires some brilliant people, if this one, who hadn't heard of the Honduran coup, or didn't know where Honduras is, is any example.)
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HONDURAS: Greasing Palms to Plunder Forests
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Nov 3 2005 (IPS) - Illegal logging by corrupt interests tied to major political figures is devastating the rapidly disappearing pine and mahogany forests of Honduras, particularly in northeastern Olancho province, according to a major report released here Thursday by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Centre for International Policy (CIP).
The report is based on a series of trips to Honduras over the past year in which EIA investigators posed as investors or buyers of illegally logged timber. It identifies the major companies involved, foremost among them Jose Lamas S. de R.L., a major supplier of pine products to the U.S. home-furnishing giant, Home Depot.
At the current logging rate, mahogany in Honduras may become all but extinct within 10 to 15 years, according to the 45-page report, which added that illegal operations now threaten the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Meanwhile, the Honduran government, which has failed to provide adequate funds to enforce logging laws, is losing as much as 18 million dollars a year in lost stumpage fees and other forest-based revenue, according to the report, “The Illegal Logging Crisis in Honduras”.
“Illegal logging is creating an environmental disaster for Honduras. Exports of this illegal wood increase poverty, fuel corruption and devastate poor communities,” said CIP president, retired Ambassador Robert White. “As much as 80 percent of the mahogany from Honduras is illegally cut.”
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2005/11/honduras-greasing-palms-to-plunder-forests/
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Jose Remigio Lamas Bezos[/center]
José Lamas denies alleged plan to assassinate Manuel Zelaya
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Tegucigalpa. At a meeting of businessmen in Panama, the Cuban José Remigio Lamas Bezos, owner of the mill "Lamas", denied he had warned the former First Lady, Xiomara Castro, about the plot that is forged to assassinate the general coordinator of the Front National Popular Resistance (FNRP), Manuel Zelaya.
Lamas said he never told Castro that "Melito" (Manuel Zelaya) was safe to return home, "to tell me in the face," he said. However, Castro de Zelaya ratified this day the complaint before the Public Ministry, I arguing that "do not have to lie about something as serious and defend the integrity of my family do everything in my power. He also had other people when he (Lamas) told me, "he said.
Castro explained that the timber businessman told him about the plan at a Mass to be offered to a political family. After making sure to leave a precedent to the Public Ministry, Castro traveled to Dominican Republic to join her husband.
http://hondurasunidaporunaconstituyente.blogspot.com/2011/05/jose-lamas-niega-haber-denunciado-plan.html
(Google translation.
Short article, no more at link.)
= new reply since forum marked as read
You have to wonder if "La Loba", Ileana Ros-Lehtinen got to Honduras in a heartbeat to counsel the coup President Micheletti faster because she knew about it through her fellow coup supporter, THIS dirty clown, Jose Lamas.
Remember one of the coup plotters in Venezuela was Venezuelan media magnate, Cuban "exile" Gustavo Cisneros.
No honor among thieves.
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La Loba, and coup president Micheletti, also known as "Goriletti".
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