Thank you! The Franchise Tax Board's mandate is "to protect the revenue." They take that mandate as "gather as many dollars as possible in any way possible." If the FTB was a human being, they would be diagnosed as a sociopath: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/antisocial-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353928?page=0&citems=10. As I have talked to lawyers and other groups about the FTB, the most commonly used word to describe FTB is "retaliatory." They have a big stick and they are eager to beat you with it if you don't submit unquestioningly to all their demands -- even blatantly illegal demands. They harassed the fuck out of me for money that I never owed because I had the audacity to point out to them that I had already paid the money and they'd lost it. They refused to locate my lost money -- they said they didn't have it -- despite me sending proof of payment 31 times -- and they tried to garner wages and levy bank accounts because I didn't send them more. How dare I want an accounting of what they did with the money that I'd sent them!

That said, the CA government squanders money like there is no tomorrow, and legislators don't want to fuck up their gravy train. So legislators turn a blind eye to the unlawful practices, and when they can't, they do everything they can to shield the FTB from consequences of their unlawful practices. I am certain that is why Gov, Brown and State Controller Yee set up The OTA court in the first place. The BOE was siding with the taxpayers too often -- that wasn't going to be tolerated! Out with the BOE and in with The OTA, who would usually side with FTB!

As to the question of who started this... it's been going on a long time and I am sure it has slowly but steadily built up over the years, with many, many people involved. But there was one person who caught my eye. I gave a speech at the December 2018 meeting, too (https://vimeo.com/311228307?utm_source=email&utm_medium=vimeo-cliptranscode-201504&utm_campaign=29220). I had submitted the written request all the way back in October, so the FTB had known for almost 2 months exactly what I would be saying when I spoke that day. After the speeches, there was a little ceremony to honor a few long-time employees who were retiring. One of the employees was very high up in the legal department. They described him as a "creative genius." Hmmm... creative genius is not usually how you describe a lawyer who sets legal policy for a government agency... and it was interesting that he retired at the same time I publicly accused them of racketeering.... he also said he planned to do a lot of traveling in his retirement. I thought "Yeah, I'll bet you'll be spending a lot of time in countries without extradition treaties."