Notable Successes
Barrett v. United States, 917 F.Supp. 493 (S.D. Texas 1995)
In this action seeking damages resulting from wrongful disclosures of tax information, the Court praised Stuart's "masterful" cross examination of all the plaintiff's witnesses offered to prove claimed damages. Judge Harmon ultimately ruled that the plaintiff did not sustain any actual damages.
Stobie Creek Investments LLC v. United States, 82 Fed. Cl. 636 (Ct. Fed. Cl. 2008)
Following a 17-day trial, the Court ruled that the tax shelter transactions at issue lacked economic substance and, thus, did not generate the claimed tax benefits. At pp. 677-678, Judge Miller quoted verbatim from Stuart's "particularly skilled" cross examination of plaintiffs' expert witness on options in foreign exchange , in which he destroyed even the "slender reed" of caveats on which the opinion rested.
Pritired 1 LLC v. United States, 816 F.Supp.2d 693 (S.D. Iowa 2011)
Following a 2-week trial, the Court rejected the taxpayer's claim that it was entitled to the tax benefits from a hybrid mismatch arrangement involving Principal Ins. Co., 2 French banks and a UK bank. Stuart's cross examination of the plaintiff's witnesses helped prove that the transactions lacked economic substance.
United States v. KPMG LLP, No. 02-0295 (D.D.C. 2002)
Stuart filed this action to compel KPMG to produce documents to the IRS concerning its development and sale of abusive "cookie cutter" tax shelters. As a result of his skillful advocacy, the Court ultimately ordered KPMG to produce the vast majority of the documents. This helped the IRS shut down those tax shelters, and collect millions of dollars in avoided taxes.
United States v. UBS AG, Case No. 09-20423-GOLD (S.D. Fla. 2009)
Stuart filed this action to enforce a "John Doe" summons served on the largest bank in Switzerland, seeking information about Americans with undisclosed Swiss bank accounts. Due in large measure to his skillful advocacy, UBS agreed to provide information about more than 4,300 wealthy taxpayers. This led to a series of IRS disclosure initiatives that ultimately returned more than $50 billion to the US Treasury.
Bell Atlantic Corporation v. United States, (E.D. Pa. 1999), affd, 224 F.3rd 220 (3rd Cir. 2000)
Stuart led a team that, following a 3-day bench trial, led to judgment for the United States, in which the Court rejected Bell Atlantic's claim for refund of more than $77 million in investment tax credits.