Ayn Rand devotee finds actions have consequences!

[RobDownSouth]

Billionaire John Ver went full John Galt several years ago, renouncing his American citizenship to avoid paying federal income taxes on his fortune and decamping to some Caribbean nation.

Now he's finding out that all the money in the world can't buy himself a tourist visa back into the United States. He really really wants to attend a conference on Bitcoin (which he made his fortune in) but the meanies at the State Department won't let this "foreigner" back into the country.

Actions have consequences!

LINK

 

[BotanyBoy]

HAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAA what a fuckin' dip shit LOL I hope they never let his bitch ass back in, at least not without almost dying on a rubber dinggy paddling his ass off across the gulf....then maybe can hang out in a fugee camp before being sent back home.

 

[domroger]

Perhaps the Government should take away the citizenship of all those millionaires who use offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes .

 

[Adre]

Lots of Wingnuts really hate paying any taxes. But they love free stuff!

 

[rosco rathbone]

Shouldn't they be having that conference in Antigua or Curacao or one of those other sketchy offshore banking locales?

 

[RobDownSouth]

Shouldn't they be having that conference in Antigua or Curacao or one of those other sketchy offshore banking locales?

I was thinking that a Bitcoin conference should be held in a glibertarian paradise like Somalia or Honduras. Probably not enough free wi-fi to mooch off of, though.

 

[unregistered]

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Will Tina Turner be denied an entry visa to visit the United States if she so desires? We know the answer.

A false, desperate, pathetically reaching equivalency. But you knew that already, Snookums.

 

[someoneyouknow]

Lots of Wingnuts really hate paying any taxes. But they love free stuff!

It's not just free stuff they love, witness Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein's reactions when they were told the company's they headed were about to go bankrupt. From Andrew Ross Sorkin's book, "Too Big To Fail", both of them said the exact same thing:

The government has to do something.

This coming from the same people who whined and moaned about government regulation preventing them competing on the world markets.

Apparently government interference is a good thing when the taxpayer gets to pick up the tab of private companies too incompetent to keep themselves afloat but not when it could have prevented the incident from happening in the first place.

 

[badbabysitter]

Will Tina Turner be denied an entry visa to visit the United States if she so desires? We know the answer.

did she revoke her citizenship solely to avoid taxes?

no?


shut the fuck up

 

[RobDownSouth]

A false, desperate, pathetically reaching equivalency. But you knew that already, Snookums.

Queerbait had the afternoon off, so Vetty was covering the Spurious Equivalency Desk in his absence.

 

[Busybody]

SKYPE

 

[JohnnySavage]

A Bitcoin conference should be held at the Tootsie Pop factory because Bitcoins are for suckers.

HA!!!

I crack myself up.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Will Tina Turner be denied an entry visa to visit the United States if she so desires? We know the answer.

No -- because unlike Ver, she is a native U.S. citizen, not naturalized.

 

[Curmudgeonly]

Perhaps you are unaware...

...you can get your MAC-Donalds...your PiZZa Hut...and your Gap brand dungarees...

...anywhere in the World...

 

[KingOrfeo]

Perhaps you are unaware...

...you can get your MAC-Donalds...your PiZZa Hut...and your Gap brand dungarees...

...anywhere in the World...

Yes, you can.

What is your point?

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

Yes, you can.

What is your point?

Right where it's always been, on the top of his head.

 

[unregistered]

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Uh...she renounced her American citizenship and now is a Swiss citizen.

Uh...she didn't do it to avoid paying taxes though.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Uh...she renounced her American citizenship and now is a Swiss citizen.

But you can always get backsies if you were born here. 14th Amendment.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

So why can't Ver?

Because he wasn't born in the US. He was a naturalized citizen.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

Show me the federal law that says a naturalized citizen renouncing his citizenship, cannot apply for and be granted a tourist visa.

No dummy.. Turner could always just claim US citizenship again and not NEED a tourist visit if she wanted.

Ver doesn't have that option because he was a naturalized citizen that gave up his citizenship to avoid paying taxes. They won't let him back in as a tourist because they don't think he will eave again. Also, he's a convicted criminal who served 10 months in prison and 3 years of probation before leaving the country and renouncing his citizenship on the day after it ended..

"One of the most common elements within the various nonimmigrant visa requirements is for the applicant to demonstrate that they have a residence in a foreign country which they have no intention of abandoning ... You have not demonstrated that you have the ties that will compel you to return to your home country after your travel to the United States."

Ver's parents, siblings and extended family all live in the US, including one uncle he says "has stage-four cancer and the odds are very bad". It's possible he might stay as an illegal immigrant after overstaying his visa. He's a risk. He can apply all he wants, but the INS decides if they want to approve his visa. So far, they have chosen not to allow him back into the US.

What's the risk with Tina Turner? She might have a concert?

I thought conservatives wanted to keep illegals out?

 

[KingOrfeo]

Show me the federal law that says a naturalized citizen renouncing his citizenship, cannot apply for and be granted a tourist visa.

Based on the article linked in the OP, that does not appear to be a matter of law but a policy decision left to the discretion of the government agency -- and, so far as there is applicable law, it is not on Ver's side.

Ver has been disallowed to appeal the decision, but he has the ability to re-apply over and over for $160 per application. According to the American embassy in Barbados, Ver was rejected because:

One of the most common elements within the various nonimmigrant visa requirements is for the applicant to demonstrate that they have a residence in a foreign country which they have no intention of abandoning . . . You [Ver] have not demonstrated that you have the ties that will compel you to return to your home country after your travel to the United States.

As Coin Desk noted, this all boils down to Immigration Service being afraid that Ver will try to stay longer than his visa will allow. What’s more, because Ver renounced his citizenship in America to avoid paying taxes, Ver is inadmissible. According to 8 USC 1182(a)(10)(E), in American immigration law:

Any alien who is a former citizen of the United States who officially renounces United States citizenship and who is determined by the Attorney General to have renounced United States citizenship for the purpose of avoiding taxation by the United States is inadmissible.

That provision alone is enough to reject Ver’s visa applications. However, there is more to Ver’s past that also makes him ineligible for a temporary visa. In 2002, Ver pleaded guilty to one criminal count each of dealing in explosives without a license, illegal storage of explosives, and mailing injurious articles. In short, he sold, poorly stored, and shipped explosives on eBay.