Senators Seek Answers About Caterpillar's Taxes, Possible Involvement by Former AG Bill Barr | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks
The Senate has launched an investigation into whether political interference affected a 2015 grand jury investigation of Caterpillar Inc. and its alleged practice of holding profits overseas.
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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.), and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, (D-R.I.), launched an investigation April 28 into whether political interference affected a 2015 grand jury investigation of Caterpillar Inc. and its alleged practice of holding profits in a Swiss subsidiary, allegedly to avoid higher tax rates in the U.S.
"Since January 2018, the IRS has sought to recover $2.3 billion in unpaid taxes and penalties from Caterpillar in connection with the alleged tax practices," Whitehouse and Wyden wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig.
"Alarmingly, just six days after [former Attorney General Bill] Barr was nominated to serve as Attorney General, an inspector general agent at the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was reportedly instructed by the DOJ tax division and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General ‘that no further action was to be taken on the [Caterpillar] matter until further notice,'" the letter continues. "The investigation has reportedly been ‘stalled’ since this order was issued and many questions remain unanswered about the decision and what ethics guidance was provided to Mr. Barr regarding the matter.”
The letter asked for all documents and communications from Jan. 20, 2017, the day Barr was hired as attorney general, between any employee of the White House and any unofficial adviser to the president with any employees of the DOJ and IRS involved with the Caterpillar matter and the investigation of a separate company, Renaissance Holdings, related to tax matters.
Barr, then at law firm Kirkland & Ellis, had been hired by Caterpillar to represent it in the tax investigation before being hired as attorney general after several Caterpillar offices were searched by federal agents in 2017, presumably as part of the grand jury investigation.
Deerfield, Ill-based Caterpillar did not respond to requests for comment, but along with its accountant, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, have previously defended its tax practices and told the Senate Finance Subcommittee in 2014 that it complied with the law.
Whitehouse, who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee on federal courts, also asked Attorney General Garland in the letter with Wyden if the tax division authorized any declinations to prosecute related to criminal tax matters arising out of grand jury investigations into Caterpillar, and if so, has the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois submitted a written request for reconsideration explaining why prosecution is warranted.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois could neither confirm nor deny that there was previously or is now an investigation into Caterpillar. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District also declined to comment.