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#1
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![]() In a brief (and I do mean brief) review of various laws that have been talked about lately in this group, I happened upon a debt collection policy of the FCC. It is interesting reading if you have any debts with the FCC. http://www.fcc.gov/debt_collection/#overview And I quote from the page referenced above: "The rules provide that if you fail to pay debts owed to the FCC, the debts will be referred to the Department of Treasury for collection. Your failure to pay will be reported to credit reporting agencies, and you will be unable to obtain any licenses or other benefits from the FCC." Remember the phrase "you will be unable to obtain any licenses or other benefits from the FCC." But does a forfeiture order constitute a debt to the FCC? Under the right conditions, it sure does. I quote the law from 47 U.S.C: Section 503(b) "If any person fails to pay an assessment of a forfeiture penalty determined under subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, after it has become a final and unappealable order or after the appropriate court has entered final judgment in favor of the Commission, the Commission shall refer the matter to the Attorney General of the United States, who shall recover the amount assessed in any appropriate district court of the United States. In such action, the validity and appropriateness of the final order imposing the forfeiture penalty shall not be subject to review." Section 402(C) "Such appeal shall be taken by filing a notice of appeal with the court within thirty days from the date upon which public notice is given of the decision or order complained of." It seems clear that the process here is that when a Forfeiture Order is issued you have 30 days to file an appeal or the order of the FCC becomes final ("final and unappealable order" as section 503 puts it). So if there is no appeal the Order becomes final by default 30 days after it is issued. Appeals must be presented in the proper form with enough detail to provide a good basis for the appeal, and they must be filed with the proper court. A judge then would review the appeal and could either agree to hear the appeal or simply deny the appeal at this point. The appeal process could take just a few days (if the filed appeal has no merrit) or years if it goes to trial. But remember that an appeal MUST be filed within 30 days to stop the Forfeiture Order from becoming final. The most interesting thing that I found is how the FCC treats those who owe them money. IF one has a "final" order it is basically a debt owed to the FCC. This will impact any future or pending applications which are filed by anybody with such a final Forfeiture Order because of the "Red Light Rule" that deals with the FCC's debt collection processes and policy. If you owe money to the them, FCC *HAS* to deny any license application including applications for renewal. They actually have no choice in the matter. The FCC's "Red Light Rule" prevents them from granting any applications for persons or organizations that are in debt to the FCC unless arrangements to pay the debt are made. This rule was adopted in 2004. (And I quote from the policy): "Under the rules adopted here, the Commission will not approve any applications or other authorizations until we determine that all delinquent debt to the Commission by entities using the same taxpayer identifying number (TIN) is paid or satisfactory arrangements are made for payment." So, if you have an unappealed Forfeiture Order that is 30 days old, it becomes "final" and the amount of the order is considered a debt owed to the FCC. If you further refuse to pay said Forfeiture after it's final any pending renewal application, or file one, it must be rejected by the FCC. So.. If you are issued a Forfeiture Order on the 28th of March, you have until the 27th of April to file the appeal. After that point any pending renewal applications that you have filed are going to be denied by virtue of the "Red Light Rule". Assuming the FCC grants a grace period of say 30 more days for the appeal and takes an additional 30 days to process the administrative paper work, your licence renewal application will be denied some time in June. Best of luck in the appeal, but your license is not going to be renewed no matter what you do... |
#3
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By my count, he has 7 days left to appeal or this Forfeiture Order will
be final invoking the Red Light Rule which will cause the rejection of the renewal application and the loss of his operating privileges. The only part of the NAL that I've even heard an argument about in this forum is the broadcasting charge, and all the arguments used where dismissed by the FCC in the Forfeiture Order. The failure to answer their questions, causing interference, failure to ID, and lack of proper station control charges are by all accounts slam dunks for the FCC. There may be an appeal, but I'd bet it will be a *short* one. I think the FCC is intentionally waiting for the Forfeiture Order to become final so they can reject the renewal application. It then becomes a no questions asked decision that is *clearly* the FCC following their procedures to the letter. It will side step a whole bunch of issues that K1MAN would love to try and use to muddy the water in court. What do they have to loose here? Nothing but time and a whole lot of trouble. Think of it from their perspective. We wait until the fines become final then flush the renewal application due to the Red Light Rule if he refuses to pay. If he starts to talk about paying up you either ask for the $21k up front or you get an agreement from him that his renewal gets flushed (along with a other conditions) when he tries to get on the "easy checks" payment plan. In the unlikely event he comes up with the $21k to pay the fine the issue is closed, so you use the issue to reject the still pending application for renewal. Anyway you slice this the license is history. Why get wrapped up in a brawl about the renewal? Just be patient and do it the easy way. The only thing K1MAN can do now is delay things, and even that may not be for very long. I think the FCC is playing from the position of strength and we are but a few moves away from "Check and Mate" no matter what this guy does. There just remains some question about the number of moves before the game over the license is over, but it's going to be over with the FCC on top. Then the real fun will begin... I guess they won't be able to fine him for not providing his call every 10 min.. He won't have one. |
#4
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On 20 Apr 2006 12:50:39 -0700, wrote:
By my count, he has 7 days left to appeal or this Forfeiture Order will be final invoking the Red Light Rule which will cause the rejection of the renewal application and the loss of his operating privileges. The only part of the NAL that I've even heard an argument about in this forum is the broadcasting charge, and all the arguments used where dismissed by the FCC in the Forfeiture Order. The failure to answer their questions, causing interference, failure to ID, and lack of proper station control charges are by all accounts slam dunks for the FCC. There may be an appeal, but I'd bet it will be a *short* one. just because the FCC reject it does not mean the courts will I think the FCC is intentionally waiting for the Forfeiture Order to become final so they can reject the renewal application. It then becomes a no questions asked decision that is *clearly* the FCC following their procedures to the letter. It will side step a whole bunch of issues that K1MAN would love to try and use to muddy the water in court. What do they have to loose here? Nothing but time and a whole lot of trouble. indeed I agre with you there Think of it from their perspective. We wait until the fines become final then flush the renewal application due to the Red Light Rule if he refuses to pay. If he starts to talk about paying up you either ask for the $21k up front or you get an agreement from him that his renewal gets flushed (along with a other conditions) when he tries to get on the "easy checks" payment plan. In the unlikely event he comes up with the $21k to pay the fine the issue is closed, so you use the issue to reject the still pending application for renewal. Anyway you slice this the license is history. Why get wrapped up in a brawl about the renewal? Just be patient and do it the easy way. I don't know why so many hams have done so but I think it will playing out for qiuite some time The only thing K1MAN can do now is delay things, and even that may not be for very long. I think the FCC is playing from the position of strength and we are but a few moves away from "Check and Mate" no matter what this guy does. There just remains some question about the number of moves before the game over the license is over, but it's going to be over with the FCC on top. Then the real fun will begin... I guess they won't be able to fine him for not providing his call every 10 min.. He won't have one. _________________________________________ Usenet Zone Free Binaries Usenet Server More than 140,000 groups Unlimited download http://www.usenetzone.com to open account |
#5
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The only part of the NAL that I've even heard an argument about in this
forum is the broadcasting charge, and all the arguments used where dismissed by the FCC in the Forfeiture Order. The failure to answer their questions, causing interference, failure to ID, and lack of proper station control charges are by all accounts slam dunks for the FCC. There may be an appeal, but I'd bet it will be a *short* one. just because the FCC reject it does not mean the courts will That the appeal would be a short lived is my opinion, to be sure. (Wishful thinking perhaps? After all, due process does take time in our legal system.) However, the up holding of the fine, or at least some of the fine seems to me to be a no brain-er. Assuming he argued successfully that he's not been "broadcasting" the rest of the charges are going to be very hard to argue using the 1st and 5th amendments and if the FCC successfully argues any of the points in court a fine will be then "final" and unappealable. For instance, how would one successfully argue that the station had a legal control operator in this case? There was obviously some automated or remote control of the station, yet it seems that at times nobody was actually monitoring what the station was transmitting. FCC knocks on the door during while the station is active on at least two occasions and nobody is home? Yet when questioned about how he was controlling his station he simply says that it was always legal? I can agree that he has the right to remain silent and not incriminate himself, but if that's what is going on here the FCC is obviously going to prove their point. If he really has a legal control point in his car or strapped to his belt, then it would be in his best interest to disclose this to the FCC when they ask or he's going to get fined for withholding the information. Either way it's an affirmed fine that you won't be able to wiggle out of in court. There are other issues too that will be very difficult for him in court. Why do you think the FCC waned to know *who* was the control operator of the station on specific days and times? Think about that and read the rules in part 97 about control operators, you will see what I mean. If he says "I don't know" then they got him on failing to keep control of his station properly, if he says "I was" they get him on the same thing. IF he has somebody else there then the BOTH get in trouble when the rules got broken. They got him in a corner, and unless he appeals in the next few days this dance is over because the fine will become final and his license renewal will be rejected by the Red Light Rule. So.. If he chooses to wait until the government files suit to collect the fine he's going to loose his license before he sees the process server drive up his driveway. After all, the FCC cannot refer the case to collection until it's final, and that's part of the process that includes the Red Light Rule I'm talking about. He has 30 days to appeal by law. They may give him some extra time to file the appeal, but if he doesn't do anything they will soon consider the fines final and turn the debt over to collections. This then means they have to reject his pending renewal as their debt collection process requires. If I had to guess, I'd say he's going to do nothing and wait for the FCC to make the next move. They eventually will consider the FO final and start debt collections and reject the renewal application. This is what he wants because it seems to me he lives for the conflict and looks forward to the day when he operates without a license. After all that will ratchet up the pressure on the FCC and give more visibility to his cause. Nothing much will change, except that we will then be hearing about how his license was illegally not renewed and that he really does have a license despite what the FCC says. This will continue until he either runs out of money to pay the electric bill because of the collection of the fines he will have racked up, or his equipment is confiscated by the FEDS at the request of the FCC. |
#6
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The only part of the NAL that I've even heard an argument about in this
forum is the broadcasting charge, and all the arguments used where dismissed by the FCC in the Forfeiture Order. The failure to answer their questions, causing interference, failure to ID, and lack of proper station control charges are by all accounts slam dunks for the FCC. There may be an appeal, but I'd bet it will be a *short* one. just because the FCC reject it does not mean the courts will That the appeal would be a short lived is my opinion, to be sure. (Wishful thinking perhaps? After all, due process does take time in our legal system.) However, the up holding of the fine, or at least some of the fine seems to me to be a no brain-er. Assuming he argued successfully that he's not been "broadcasting" the rest of the charges are going to be very hard to argue using the 1st and 5th amendments and if the FCC successfully argues any of the points in court a fine will be then "final" and unappealable. For instance, how would one successfully argue that the station had a legal control operator in this case? There was obviously some automated or remote control of the station, yet it seems that at times nobody was actually monitoring what the station was transmitting. FCC knocks on the door during while the station is active on at least two occasions and nobody is home? Yet when questioned about how he was controlling his station he simply says that it was always legal? I can agree that he has the right to remain silent and not incriminate himself, but if that's what is going on here the FCC is obviously going to prove their point. If he really has a legal control point in his car or strapped to his belt, then it would be in his best interest to disclose this to the FCC when they ask or he's going to get fined for withholding the information. Either way it's an affirmed fine that you won't be able to wiggle out of in court. There are other issues too that will be very difficult for him in court. Why do you think the FCC waned to know *who* was the control operator of the station on specific days and times? Think about that and read the rules in part 97 about control operators, you will see what I mean. If he says "I don't know" then they got him on failing to keep control of his station properly, if he says "I was" they get him on the same thing. IF he has somebody else there then the BOTH get in trouble when the rules got broken. They got him in a corner, and unless he appeals in the next few days this dance is over because the fine will become final and his license renewal will be rejected by the Red Light Rule. So.. If he chooses to wait until the government files suit to collect the fine he's going to loose his license before he sees the process server drive up his driveway. After all, the FCC cannot refer the case to collection until it's final, and that's part of the process that includes the Red Light Rule I'm talking about. He has 30 days to appeal by law. They may give him some extra time to file the appeal, but if he doesn't do anything they will soon consider the fines final and turn the debt over to collections. This then means they have to reject his pending renewal as their debt collection process requires. If I had to guess, I'd say he's going to do nothing and wait for the FCC to make the next move. They eventually will consider the FO final and start debt collections and reject the renewal application. This is what he wants because it seems to me he lives for the conflict and looks forward to the day when he operates without a license. After all that will ratchet up the pressure on the FCC and give more visibility to his cause. Nothing much will change, except that we will then be hearing about how his license was illegally not renewed and that he really does have a license despite what the FCC says. This will continue until he either runs out of money to pay the electric bill because of the collection of the fines he will have racked up, or his equipment is confiscated by the FEDS at the request of the FCC. |
#7
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![]() wrote: The only part of the NAL that I've even heard an argument about in this forum is the broadcasting charge, and all the arguments used where dismissed by the FCC in the Forfeiture Order. The failure to answer their questions, causing interference, failure to ID, and lack of proper station control charges are by all accounts slam dunks for the FCC. There may be an appeal, but I'd bet it will be a *short* one. just because the FCC reject it does not mean the courts will That the appeal would be a short lived is my opinion, to be sure. (Wishful thinking perhaps? After all, due process does take time in our legal system.) well that you can admit your judgement is biased does speak well for you and that you seem to be able disagre without being disagreable is nice too However, the up holding of the fine, or at least some of the fine seems to me to be a no brain-er. Assuming he argued successfully that he's not been "broadcasting" the rest of the charges are going to be very hard to argue using the 1st and 5th amendments and if the FCC successfully argues any of the points in court a fine will be then "final" and unappealable. For instance, how would one successfully argue that the station had a legal control operator in this case? There was obviously some automated or remote control of the station, yet it seems that at times nobody was actually monitoring what the station was transmitting. FCC knocks on the door during while the station is active on at least two occasions and nobody is home? Yet when questioned about how he was controlling his station he simply says that it was always legal? I can agree that he has the right to remain silent and not incriminate himself, but if that's what is going on here the FCC is obviously going to prove their point. If he really has a legal control point in his car or strapped to his belt, then it would be in his best interest to disclose this to the FCC when they ask or he's going to get fined for withholding the information. let us assume that K1MAN station has some form of remote control (indeed my staion is sometimes on the air with me tranmiting through while I am in another a state, and even once another country, thank to the miracle of the Net. I am not familier with any requirement right off that requires him to top be able to prove it was in use at any given monet selcted by the FCC coming nocking at his shack door, the burden would IMO (abet not a prolawyer) would be on the FCC to prove the case. K1MAN might be obliged to prove the senario I decrabed was within his stations techical ablities after which reasonable doubt and the 5th should cover him In this event I would agree that K1MAN has been unwise Either way it's an affirmed fine that you won't be able to wiggle out of in court. There are other issues too that will be very difficult for him in court. Why do you think the FCC waned to know *who* was the control operator of the station on specific days and times? Think about that and read the rules in part 97 about control operators, you will see what I mean. If he says "I don't know" then they got him on failing to keep control of his station properly, if he says "I was" they get him on the same thing. IF he has somebody else there then the BOTH get in trouble when the rules got broken. They got him in a corner, and unless he appeals in the next few days this dance is over because the fine will become final and his license renewal will be rejected by the Red Light Rule. I am not sure the timing of the apeal is that critical (in many other cases filing with the court of Legal notice of apeal would by him time, at mimal cost) So.. If he chooses to wait until the government files suit to collect the fine he's going to loose his license before he sees the process server drive up his driveway. After all, the FCC cannot refer the case to collection until it's final, and that's part of the process that includes the Red Light Rule I'm talking about. He has 30 days to appeal by law. They may give him some extra time to file the appeal, but if he doesn't do anything they will soon consider the fines final and turn the debt over to collections. This then means they have to reject his pending renewal as their debt collection process requires. If I had to guess, I'd say he's going to do nothing and wait for the FCC to make the next move. They eventually will consider the FO final and start debt collections and reject the renewal application. This is what he wants because it seems to me he lives for the conflict and looks forward to the day when he operates without a license. After all that will ratchet up the pressure on the FCC and give more visibility to his cause. Nothing much will change, except that we will then be hearing about how his license was illegally not renewed and that he really does have a license despite what the FCC says. This will continue until he either runs out of money to pay the electric bill because of the collection of the fines he will have racked up, or his equipment is confiscated by the FEDS at the request of the FCC. it might play out that way I think it will be more complex than that (frankly I have never seen a notable legal proceeding proceed as smouthly as you suggest) |
#8
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Oh and one more thing, just so I'm sure it's clear what I'm saying.
There is a difference between the court activity that would "appeal" this order and the court activity that would be used to collect the fine. They would likely be in different courts at different times. IF Baxter wants to argue the fine points of Part 97 interpretation and save his license, he'd better do it as an appeal of the Forfeiture Order that is started in the 30 day window. If he waits for the debt collection process to get his arguments before a court it will be too late for him to keep his license and the lack of appeal to the Forfeiture Order will be seen as a positive for the FCC. ("Hey, he didn't object to the order and appeal when he could. Why should we allow him to debate it now? This is the wrong forum for this debate.") At the debt collection trial the FCC (Actually the DOJ at this point) may manage to side step all of the rule violation debates by simply saying that Baxter has already refused to avail himself of the proper appeal process so his arguments are not valid in the debt collection phase. I suppose that in an effort to be totally fair the judge over the debt collection case will allow a limited debate of the facts related to the Forfeiture Order but I doubt it will be allowed to go on very long and I'm sure the judge will be keeping the arguments under control. Ever been to traffic court? Let's say you get a ticket for running a red light and you and the officer stand before the judge. The Officer says you did it, you say you didn't. Who is the judge going to believe? It won't be you. the Judge will patiently listen to all you have to say that is even remotely relevant, and render a judgment against you. That is of course if you don't come up with some hard verifiable evidence to show what the Officer is saying is not true. He has no hard evidence so Baxter will end up the same way. |
#9
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#10
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![]() an old friend wrote: wrote: I have howver have read manuals of femderal procedures of the US courts and come to defferent consluions Indeed I read the same twice in some of these manuals and I come to defferent conclusionat times I suppose it's possible that I'm not reading everything I need to, but I've been trying to follow the foot notes in the NAL and FO. (Not to mention the FCC's web site links to their rules.) liek I don't know and doubt a pro in feild would know but I would adivise him to file a notice of appeal even if he is not ready to fille the appeal I truly belive that even hand written note saying" I intend to apeal" would put his foot in the door on the time line so to speak the other point from your other letter two peices follow We agree there, an appeal *now* will at least delay the whole process here, no matter how valid it turns out to be. I suppose what you suggest would at least force the FCC down the appeal path because they would then have to get an independent judgement on the appeal, no matter how lame it ends up being. That would surely delay the order getting to the "final" state. No, I don't think he had a valid control operator a lot of the time. Nobody was responsible for monitoring the station during operation and that violates part 97 rules. in the end I am not sure what you are supecting is in fact wrong He may well not have been exercising his duties as control, but that is not or at least legaly should not be the issue, the issue should is does the FCC have proof that K1MAN was not exercising his responiblity at the dates and time they claim. in theory we are still inocent till proven gulty and still allowed Miranda rights to remain silent Well, the imposition of a fine for a rules violation has an appeal process. If he fails to defend himself successfully in the appeal (either by trying and not being able to prevail, or by not trying at all) the FCC is effectively writing him a traffic ticket with a $21k fine. The FCC has two witnesses that he was not at the station on two separate days when they say he engaged in "broadcasting", willful interference and not properly doing station ID every 10 min. They where physically at his station knocking on the door,.seeking to lawfully inspect the station and nobody was home. What can he say? They got two witnesses who where there when he wasn't. One can only assume that they had a receiver monitoring the transmissions and a tape recorder too, but it doesn't matter. There is a difference between the court activity that would "appeal" this order and the court activity that would be used to collect the fine. They would likely be in different courts at different times. which complicates the whole mess Not really from my perspective. Baxter may claim that his rights are being violated and try to argue that the FCC is not following a valid process, but they are. He simply does not understand where his rights have been protected and how he needs to respond to get the full benefit of his rights. He needs a good lawyer. (But we've agreed on that before I think.) In reality the process of what is going on here is very simple. There are just two separate processes that are concurrently running. Baxter would want to combine the two and point to the illogical process of it all, but it's just a result of his own misunderstanding of the law. verifiable evidence to show what the Officer is saying is not true. He has no hard evidence so Baxter will end up the same way. and that may be the case but that isn't how it is SUPOSED to work. not in the USA Tthe FCC should have to prove its case and do so without trying to use K1MAN refuasual to assist them as evedence that prevert Mirranda. In a real court at some level I beleive that would be result NAL and FO dismissed for lack of evedence therefore the licesne is ordered granted by order of the court On it's face what you say seems to be reasonable, but the type of argument you are describing is the NAL response from Baxter (now history) and the possible appeal of the FO. Now I'm no fan of lawyers, but they do have their purpose. Baxter needs to stop trying this one man show and get a lawyer because he is letting his "due process rights" slip though his fingers. Ignorance of the right process is not a valid argument. You got to work the process by the rules or you loose, that's not unfair. The proper forum to argue the rules violation was his response to the NAL and now the appeal of the FO. This is where the "due process" that protects his rights comes into play. I note that his request for a hearing in front of the FCC, which was denied as being improper, is not his "right" in this case. However, a hearing in front of a judge *IS* his right, but he must ask for this hearing in the time allowed. He can protect his rights, but he has to protect them in the right forum. (You wouldn't go to congress to argue a speeding ticket would you? ) It may not work that way but I belive based on what I have about the case and when it coem down to it I have never heard K1man personaly nor met him to my knowledge) so I have based my perceptions on the claims of his detractors and it does not add up for to some for the Gov to act against him on I've not ever met him or talked to him personally to my knowledge either. I have mostly read the FCC's documentation and K1MAN's own web site. I've seen a few other sites that are obviously personal attacks, but some of them do have interesting facts and audio clips purported to be off the air recordings. All in all, I don't think the FCC is picking on him or railroading him on this. He may think that they are upset about being sued or about his obvious disrespect for their legal staff but it's just not that way. I seriously doubt they find him anything but amusing down at the FCC. At best he's a refreshing change of pace from issuing all the "your tower lights are not working" fines. That's not to say they are just playing with him, by no means. They are just doing their process to the letter knowing that eventually all the bluster won't amount to much. |