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Letantia Bussell v. United States

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 16-55272 · judgment October 25, 2017

Certiorari denied · April 30, 2018

Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

Will the Eighth Amendment permit a forfeiture of half of an account’s value, potentially millions of dollars, and, in this case, more than $1 million, based merely on a failure to report the account, and even if the funds in the account have already been identified and taxed?
Can the treaty between the United States and Switzerland on dual taxation, which is restricted to disclosure of tax information, be used to obtain information for non-tax uses, such as the existence of a foreign account held in violation of the Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR) requirement?

For petitioner
Victor Sherman
Law Offices of Victor Sherman

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Apr 30 2018
Petition DENIED.
Apr 11 2018
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/27/2018.
Apr 10 2018
Reply of petitioner Letantia Bussell filed. (Distributed)
Mar 28 2018
Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed.
Feb 26 2018
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including March 28, 2018.
Feb 23 2018
Motion to extend the time to file a response from February 26, 2018 to March 28, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
Jan 22 2018
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 26, 2018)