It's a public document and K&T isn't getting their money, ever. That locomotive is ruined.

i don't relish what's happening either but there is one person responsible for all of this

I thought you were leaving railMech3 ??

It is a sad set of facts and John Rimmasch has certainly ruined his and his families lives.

Guess we can be thankful that none of the substandard steam locomotive work killed or seriously injured anyone.

Also, perhaps it will serve as a warning to others who might be tempted to cut corners??

Ross Rowland

In my opinion, this is just as important as his sentencing. I suspect many here are wondering if he'll be made to repay those debts, and if so, how. Both properties combined would appear to have sufficient value to satisfy the debt, but the big unknown is what his mortgage is. Does he own the place free and clear (doubt that) or does he only have say $50K worth of equity?

I'd much rather see the debts get repaid than be concerned about how many years he'll spend in jail. It's more important to me to see the damaged parties made whole. I doubt that's going to be possible, but hopefully they'll get some restitution.

Yes, it's sad for him and his family. Hopefully nobody is cheering about this, but it is nice to see some action being taken to try and get some assets .

Word to the wise Railmech3 there is one group of people that can and will seize whatever it takes to get what they are awarded from any judgement they receive. That agency is the FEDERAL Government. Just ask anyone convicted of tax fraud or other crimes like that. I work in the medical field and recently help uncover somethings that were not above board when it came to billing practices with Medicare/Medicaid and Tricare. Well as my supervisor put it by the time the Feds get done with the other side of the issue his grandchildren are going to be living underneath the overpass even if they are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company trying to pay of grandpa's debts to the government. They do not screw around. They will seize whatever it takes to get their judgement and then and only then let someone else get paid.

I just deleted a post which included the “Forfeiture order” which contained John’s home address. If the original poster wants to repost after blacking out the personal information (the address) he can… but I am drawing a line at home address…

Thanks… this is a bad situation for all concerned including Rail preservation.

Well, if the government follows through on this latest court order I guess it won't be his address for much longer.

My layman's reading of the court order seizing Rimmasch's home said that the seizure was effective immediately upon the order being signed by the Judge.

Am I reading that correctly Mr. Wilkins?? Thanks, Ross Rowland

> Properties will be sold to pay back the 861,000$ the federal government paid WRRC.

Initially, I saw no DIRECT connection to the overall CNJ coach contract based on what has been issued so far. Again, the case seemed focused only on the asbestos work, not on the overall coach project. This order only mentions "any property, real or personal, which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the offenses of convictions." So, if we go by what we have seen so far, anything tied to the asbestos issue, no tie to the overall project.

By the looks of it, with some help of google (dangerous assumption), John either pays the $861K which is traceable to the asbestos work, or he gives up his house and other physical assets to make that payment. Would be nice to have a legal eagle confirmation of this position. It’s a very complex concept from what I can see.

We all wondered why the government only went after the asbestos work - to me the numbers were too low to bother with - but with a conviction on the $50K asbestos portion of the project, it looks like the government can go after the rest of the money that was paid for the coach work, although never specifically called out in the indictment. I think we can all learn from this. Credit to the government lawyers on this one.

The next question would be, where does any money go that the government may get out of this order? My experience with the DoD is that it goes back into the black hole of the treasury department, but there are some funky rules with such forfeiture.

Again, lessons learned. If one cheats the FRA and is taken to court by the federal government, it looks like any proceeds tied to the issue with the FRA could mean either you pay those proceeds to the federal government or you lose your physical assets.

Keep in mind that no where here does it say the work on the coach was never done.

> the seizure was effective immediately upon the order being signed by the Judge.

From what I read on line, this is true. Once a determination of guilt is determined, anything tied to the proceeds of the crime becomes the property of the government even before sentencing.



J.R. May

I don't mind sharing that I learned a lesson way back. I fought the IRS for 12 years against their claiming that my accountants had misused one of the IRS rules regarding long and short term tax treatment of commodity futures transactions.

I hired one of the nations top rated IRS specialty firms, went to tax trial in Phila. and we won the verdict. Guess what....the IRS appealed to the next highest tax court. 3 years later we won that verdict. Guess what.....the IRS appealed to the tax courts version of the Supreme Court at which point I ran out of cash and we folded.

Bottom line............NEVER, EVER fight the federal gov't. no matter the merits.

They have ENDLESS time, ENDLESS money and ENDLESS lawyers.

Lesson learned. Ross Rowland

Way back in 98 I was sitting at the carrier I was employed by sitting on a dead and I mean dead logbook. I was at 70/8 till midnight and then only was going to gain 3 hours enough to get to Chicago and then go home and that was the plan. Truck was tagged OOS by the shop for major problems and the FMCSA think the OTR industry's version of the FRA played the office a surprise inspection. I'm sitting in the shop office my dispatcher come running out screaming at me to get off the lot. Well based on the status of my logs and the truck I had to refuse. He goes I will starve you out of here if you do not comply. Now there is a federal inspector right behind me as he is screaming this at me. She goes sir can I see your logbook and looked at the officer for the Iowa DOT right beside her and goes crawl over his truck with a microscope and anything you find report back to me. I go my logbook is in the truck. She goes let's got talk there in private shall we. The owner was walking out about then heard that and you could see his face go OH CRAP and then smell something foul in the air very quickly.

We get back to my truck which was a 1998 brand new to the fleet and road and the inspector goes well here is all the stuff wrong on it right now I am like correct and that is why it is red tagged for repair right now. She goes what about your logbook. I went I am sitting on 70/8 and legally can not move at all. But in if I logged it like I actually drove it I would be around 75 hours in my 8. I go the carrier governs us to 68 but requires us to log at 75 in the states that allow that speed. She goes thank you for your information and anything else you want to share I go yeah boss has a severe drinking and drug problem to the point his wife is actually running the company and he lost his license a couple months ago. The dispatcher that yelled at me will order you over the sat system to redo your logbook to come up with hours to run loads that can not be legally run. By the time they where done with that carrier they went from a Sat rating or the best to where we literally could not enter a scale nationwide without being jerked around back. They got fined over 1 million dollars for the logbook crap alone and close to 2 million dollars for their shop issues. The carrier appealed it lost tried again lost and by the time they gave up they could have just improved their operations paid the fine and saved the money in legal fees. They where bought out by another carrier before they regained a higher rating. They where that bad in the eyes of the Federal Government.

I'm closing this thread down. It is not really offering anything to help rail preservation. Everyone is aware of the news part and recent posts aren't really helping anyone.