On Gene Haas and his "donation"

 

Well, look at that: it appears that the bidding on the ongoing effort by Gene Haas to improve his Google results is now up to $500K!

As the T&G is linking to a paywalled New York Times report on Haas' 2008 conviction of felony conspiracy to commit tax evasion, for which he served two years in federal prison and paid a $5M fine on top of paying $70M in restitution, let me help you out with a gift link. The T&G itself wrote about this at the time of the initial grant. You can also read about that initial discussion, in which the students played a big role, here. 

As the United States Department of Justice noted in their press release in 2006 on the charges:

The owner of Oxnard-based Haas Automation, Inc. was arrested this morning on federal tax fraud charges for allegedly orchestrating a scheme in which approximately $50 million of bogus expenses were put on the company's books in an attempt to avoid the payment of more than $20 million in federal income taxes.

Gene Francis Haas, the owner of Haas Automation and CNC, Inc., was arrested without incident at his Camarillo home by Special Agents with IRS Criminal Investigation. Haas, 54, who is the lead defendant in an 11-count indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury on June 8, is expected to make his initial court appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

In addition to Haas, the indictment names Denis Arthur Dupuis, a 51-year-old Newbury Park resident, and Robert Gene Cable, a 73-year-old La Crescenta resident. Dupuis was Haas Automation's general manager, and Cable was formerly a Haas Automation salesman who operated the Valencia-based Enmark & Associates during the time of the scheme.

The scheme allegedly started in 2000 after Haas paid approximately $8.9 million to settle a patent infringement lawsuit brought against it by a rival firm. According to the indictment, Haas blamed his loss in the case on the federal judge who presided over the lawsuit. In September 2000, Haas allegedly created several tax fraud schemes to recover from the government the $8.9 million plus legal fees that he paid the rival company.

According to the indictment, Haas conspired with Dupuis, Cable and others to create bogus invoices and to pay these fictitious bills with Haas Automation checks. In two conspiracies alleged in the indictment, Hass paid millions of dollars for non-existent industrial equipment from Enmark and Supermill, Inc., a Carson City, Nevada company owned by Charles Todd. Haas Automation deducted these payments as expenses. However, Enmark and Supermill returned 98 percent or 99 percent of the money to CNC, Haas's other company. According to the indictment, this bogus invoice scheme allowed Haas Automation to deduct more than $23 million in false expenses during 2000 and 2001, when in reality nearly all of that money was returned to Haas through the payments to CNC.

 If you're following the above, the story is that the federal government fined Haas on a patent violation--the case was Ims Technology, Inc., Plaintiff-appellant, v. Haas Automation, Inc. and Gene Francis Haas--and his response to being fined for violating patent law--in other words, for stealing someone else's idea--was to commit fraud to essentially make the money back from the federal government. 

In other words, it isn't even that he just committed tax fraud--which, to be clear, should be enough to keep him from ever having his name in school!--he did it because he didn't like that he was punished for stealing someone else's idea. 

So theft from the federal government--that would be the same entity WPS has been supporting suing to ensure they continued to receive federal funding from--through fraud because of punishment for what the schools would call plagiarism. 

I'm not sure why this is on the Worcester School Committee agenda as a donation, as anything that requires something in return is a grant. Grants have their own section, so they can be appropriately considered on their own. 

We will no doubt hear another round of what we heard the last time this was before the Worcester School Committee (with $350K attached then): he "served his time."

Sure, and he's out of prison, and busy with Formula One racing. Super. 
We should first note that this isn't something, if you look at what our laws say, that the U.S. appears to actually believe about those convicted of a felony. Haas himself is restricted from leaving the country due to his conviction¹.
That doesn't mean you put his name on a school building, in a state in which "honesty" is among the values schools are constitutionally required to be instilling in their students. 

Both past and current (?) naming policy ensure the Committee is under no obligation to acknowledge a financial donation with renaming. They also require that naming be done in alignment with the district's "mission, vision, and goals." Hard to see how that one gets support.

This makes me so angry that I honestly lose my ability to coherently express how awful this idea is. 

¹which means he largely has to manage his Formula One racing team remotely