Chicago Tribune - During the 1970s and 1980s, Chicagoan Burton Kanter earned a reputation as one of the nation's top estate tax lawyers, representing an eclectic group of clients, including Hugh Hefner, Bobby Hull and Sam Zell, as well as rock groups Santana and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

But in 1999, a U.S. Tax Court judge ruled that Kanter and two of his business partners had engaged in a fraudulent kickback scheme that deprived the Internal Revenue Service of more than $30 million.

The tax court judge wrote that he had adopted the findings of the original trial judge, who determined that they had underpaid taxes after a lengthy trial.

Two years later, Kanter died, still believing he had done nothing wrong.

Had he lived, Kanter would have learned last month that the trial judge actually ruled in his favor, but that finding--kept secret under tax court rules--was inexplicably reversed by the U.S. Tax Court judge in his official court opinion.

Lawyers and law professors familiar with the case are stunned by the disclosure.

"How could the tax court judges essentially lie about what was in the report?" said Julie Roin, a law professor at the University of Chicago who has followed the case.

"I find it incredible. ... It makes you wonder what's going on," Roin said.

Absolutely amazing.

Just goes to show that our tax code needs to be simplified. Not only would it remove a huge bureaucratic burden from the necks of taxpayers by decreasing the size of the IRS but it would also make it harder for both the government and taxpayers to commit fraud.