Play Ball with the Government or Else: Marian Morgan Learns Her Lesson the Hard Way
Marian Morgan would not play ball with the U.S. government, and she paid dearly for that decision – a 405-month (almost 34-year) prison sentence. Her codefendants both wound up with very different fates. Marian Morgan and her husband, John Morgan, ran a Ponzi scheme in Sarasota, Florida, called “Morgan European Holdings,” scamming people out of […]
SWISS BANKS UNITE AND FIRE BACK AT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Neutrality is Switzerland’s unwritten motto. This devotion to conflict avoidance kept the Swiss out of two World Wars. The Swiss are known for their diplomacy, hospitality, and the ability to keep a secret. So, it came as a shock when 73 Swiss banks joined ranks to inform the U.S. Department of Justice and the IRS, […]
Carpet Dealer with Hidden Swiss bank Account Could Face 3 Year Jail Sentence for Tax Evasion
After filing a false tax return for 2009, New Hampshire Oriental carpet dealer, Menashe Cohen, has pleaded guilty with respect to his hidden million dollar Swiss bank account. Investigations reveal that Cohen failed to disclose a whopping $170,000 income from offshore bank accounts between the tax years 2006 and 2009. No mention of the carpet […]
Chicago Lawyer with Portfolio of Celebrity Clients Indicted On Charges of Tax Fraud
Gary Stern is the latest professional to become ensnared in the coils of the criminal justice system. The once prominent lawyer who represented NFL players, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals has been charged with tax fraud. Federal prosecutors allege that Stern organized, operated, and promoted elaborate and bogus tax schemes, primarily to help his wealthy […]
Holder Strikes Down Waiver of Appeal Rights
As Attorney General Eric Holder arranges his soon departure from the position, he has ended the waiver of appeal policy that drew heavy criticism from legal ethics groups in the past.
Ex-Seyfarth Shaw Attorney Case: The Latest in a Series of Department of Justice Prosecutions For Tax Shelter Fraud
Recently, tax shelters have become the target of much prosecution by the Department of Justice. In the largest criminal tax case ever filed, professional services company KMPG LLP admitted to engaging in fraud and generating at least $11 billion dollars in false tax losses. The multi-billion dollar criminal tax fraud conspiracy involved the elaborate design, […]
Weil Case: What Was The Swiss Role?
If you poke about under rocks for long enough, you’d better be prepared to find something unpleasant. That’s what the US government is realizing as the Raoul Weil case finally goes to court. Weil, 54, is accused of helping US citizens avoid taxes while working as head of Global Wealth Management at Switzerland’s UBS – […]
Playing Russian Roulette with the IRS: Zwerner Learns The Cost of Hidden Offshore Accounts
Whether you have chosen to hide your account willingly or failed to file an FBAR by mistake, you may not know the full ramifications of your activities or your best course of action now. If you haven’t heard the horror stories yet, you’re about to have a couple to remember. For those who have kept […]
Making Sense of the FBAR Penalty Mitigation Guidelines: Four Easy Steps For Knocking The FBAR Calculation Out of the Park
This blog is intended for the taxpayer who plans on making a “quiet disclosure” of his unreported foreign financial assets and finds it necessary to estimate his FBAR liability in case of a doomsday scenario. By “doomsday scenario,” I’m referring to a situation where the IRS selects one or more years for examination, culminating in […]
From the IRS with Love – What to Do When Your Foreign Bank Writes to You about Reporting Your Account under FATCA
Nothing can ruin the taste of your martini, shaken not stirred of course, than a letter from your foreign bank demanding that you report the account that you hold with them to the U.S. government. For many, this can scare The Living Daylights out of them, especially since this probably has the IRS written all […]