United States v. K.T. Derr, Chairman of Chevron Corporation

This case addresses whether Chevron Corporation, served through its chairman, K.T. Derr, must comply with a “designated” summons issued by an Internal Reve nue Service (IRS) agent and enforced by the district court. We have jurisdiction over this appeal of the district court’s order enforcing the designated summons and we affirm.

The IRS sought enforcement of a designated summons issued pursuant to an audit of Chevron’s transfer pricing practices between 1979 and 1984. The district court found that the government had made the showing required by United States v. Powell, 379 U.S. 48, 57-58 , 85 S.Ct. 248, 255 , 13 L.Ed.2d 112 (1964), and ordered enforcement of the summons. Chevron contends that the district court cannot enforce a designated summons unless the government shows that Chevron did not cooperate with the IRS auditors, and that the issuing agent had. no authority to issue the designated summons.

We review for clear error the district court’s order enforcing an IRS summons, except to the extent that the order depends upon statutory construction, which we review de novo. United States v. Saunders, 951 F.2d 1065, 1066 (9th Cir.1991).

I

Enforcement of a summons is…