Hello, Darkness, My Old Friend

Every so often I still get that feeling like I'm slipping into the Twilight Zone, or an alternate parallel universe, where BDGs rule the world and government agencies serve as mere footstools for their convenience and comfort.

Such was the initial shock when I opened the response from the State Board of Equalization. Note closely the Close-out date of this Seller's Permit - 6/30/95.

This conjures up a couple of investigative theories:

The most obvious scenario - Has TLC Catering been operating for the last fifteen years without a Seller's Permit for the sales of any taxable {s***} off their truck(s) or the nontaxable purchases of consumable supplies using business accounts set up with vendors, such as Costco, etc. Allen's & Brassey's long history of noncompliance argues vigorously for this option; such as, letting the permit lapse but still rely on their one-and-only 1989 Fictitious Business Name filing to set up business accounts and lie and cheat their way out of paying sales and use tax.

Another plausible scenario - Did Allen & Brassey "sell" their company to a silent partner/investor, closed out the referenced Seller's Permit, and have been operating under another permit for the last fifteen years? The complete absence of other names, entities, numbers, etc. discovered so far means that they (or rather, their advisors) are very, very good at playing the corporate shell game to hide their actions. This would explain their absolute nonresponse to lawsuit interrogatories, demands for production, requests for admissions, and admissions of documents.

Well, because I have nothing else to do besides write letters and go to city council meetings...

Allen (to Mayor): I only have a couple years left in my business... if I make it. We don't talk. It's not that we need a mediator. He has nothing else to do or he would not have written those two big books.

Mayor: I don't think we want to get into the personal issues here.


Allen: Well, I try not to do that, but I'm just saying that somebody has a little extra time on their hands. (audience laughs)

With some of my extra time (and because I want a usable answer), I wrote back to the State Board of Equalization.

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Board of Equalization
Disclosure Officer, MIC: 82
P.O. Box 942879
Sacramento, CA 94279


June 14, 2010


Re: Cancellation of Seller’s Permit and
Case # 39-2009-00212085-CU-OR-STK


Dear Mr. DaPrato,


In reference to the Close-out date of 6/30/95 on the attached page, are you informing me that TLC Catering has been operating from that date to February 12, 2010 (fifteen years!) without a Seller’s Permit?

On May 19, 2009, I filed a civil suit for private nuisance (noise and business use of residential property) against Lynda Allen, Theresa Brassey, and TLC Catering. Included in the complaint was the charge that they had a long history of missing certain necessary permits dating back to 1987. In my previous letter of May 26th, I was asking for the mere corroboration of a business discontinuance date – expecting something somewhere in the ballpark of early 2010. However, the information you provided appears to fast track the matter of Lynda Allen, et al, and their TLC Catering and Commissary business operation to the level of a serious tax evasion investigation.

If tax evasion is not the case because Ms. Allen used another - legal - Seller’s Permit number, I still make the request to know if or when such permit was surrendered.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
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Dealing with government agencies and public servants gives me this dark and dirty feeling. Am I merely pestering the Lords of the Universe, who want only to swat me into nonexistence? That's what I get for reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I'm trying to fit this newest puzzle piece into TLC Catering's illegal business expansion timeline. The June 1995 expiration of the Seller's Permit was one year after Allen & Brassey received their Health Department clearance to operate a private commissary (see chart) - from an illegal mobile home on their residential property. But they still needed business accounts to receive deliveries and services  from Crystal Dairy, Oroweat, Hostess Cakes, Darling Int'l, Costco, and whatever other commercial vendors utilized over the years... hmmm...
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