In 2006, Walter Anderson was convicted of tax evasion for his scheme that hid $450 million in income over five years, the largest individual tax fraud case in history at the time. However, there was a typo in the plea agreement: the wrong law was cited in the restitution order and a judge ruled there was nothing he could do about it. The judge noted, “The court is not free to read something into a contract that is not there or to interpret uncertain language in the government’s favor.” The mistake essentially erased the almost $200 million of restitution that Anderson was required to pay. However, an appeals court allowed the restitution order to stand because the “conduct of the parties made it very clear that they intended the plea agreement to provide restitution authority.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Anderson_(entrepreneur))
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