Healthcare Reform and Tax EvadersBased on several sources, a good number of these tax evaders are funding and facilitating the disinformation and deceptions taking place in town halls across the country, not only in healthcare but across the board in an effort to undermine the efforts of the government. Unlike the previous 8 years which defunded law enforcement in several critical areas, this administration is committed to and focused on enforcing the law.While the rest of us are paying taxes and following the law, there are those who have been systematically breaking the law. These people are panicking at this time !!!With the Swiss banking giant UBS alone, there are 52,000 accounts involved; UBS agreed to pay $780 million to defer prosecution of criminal charges. Please refer below.Please be part of the solution and do your part. Please refer to the 2 attachments.
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4th person charged in UBS tax-evasion case
Updated 17h 50m ago | Comments 89 | Recommend 12
Malibu resident John McCarthy agreed to plead guilty to failing to disclose a UBS account that investigators charged he used to transfer more than $1 million in business income out of the country tax-free.
LEGAL DOCUMENTS: Criminal information | Plea agreement
McCarthy, whose business was not identified by prosecutors, admitted he deliberately ducked payment of at least $200,000 in federal income taxes on the money he sent to the UBS account he secretly controlled under the name COGS Enterprises, a Hong Kong entity.
By agreeing to plead guilty at a federal court hearing set for Sept. 14, he will face a maximum five-year prison term and $250,000 in fines, plus payment of five years of back taxes and penalties.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Hong Kong | Internal Revenue Service | UBS AG | IRS Criminal Investigation Division"Mr. McCarthy has accepted responsibility for his conduct," said defense attorney Steven Toscher. "He, like many other U.S. taxpayers, has made serious mistakes regarding the use of foreign bank accounts."
McCarthy opened his UBS account in 2003 and subsequently used it to transfer more than $1 million from his Los Angeles firm, according to the federal plea agreement filed Friday. He transferred additional funds to other UBS accounts from yet another UBS account he controlled in the Cayman Islands.
UBS actively helped him hide the funds, as bank representatives told him "a lot of United States' clients don't report their (business) income and just take it off the top," the agreement stated.
McCarthy was among roughly 250 UBS clients whose name was provided to federal authorities earlier this year as part of a federal court settlement in which the bank agreed to provide financial data for clients whose accounts bore earmarks of tax evasion.
Three other UBS customers from Florida were also part of that group, and pleaded guilty earlier this year to filing false tax returns.
For its acknowledged involvement, UBS also agreed to pay $780 million to defer prosecution of criminal charges that it repeatedly sent its bankers on clandestine trips to the U.S. to help American customers like McCarthy place assets in offshore accounts that would not be reported to the IRS.
However, until a tentative agreement was reached on Wednesday, UBS had rejected IRS demands in a federal civil lawsuit for account data on as many as 52,000 other wealthy American clients suspected of using offshore accounts to evade millions of dollars in taxes.
The number of accounts to be disclosed and the timing of the new handover are expected to be made public as early as next week after both sides and the Swiss government formally approve a legal stipulation.
Eileen Mayer, chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, called the McCarthy case "the tip of the iceberg" in an ongoing effort to prosecute Americans who use offshore accounts to evade taxes.
"The fact that this case was handled out of California and the earlier cases were in Florida shows this is a serious investigation that extends across the country," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Brown in Los Angeles.
Acting Assistant Attorney General John DiCicco, head of the Justice Department tax division, cited the charges against McCarthy as a warning that other tax evaders should take advantage of an IRS voluntary disclosure program. The program, which offers leniency for those who come forward, is set to expire Sept. 23.
"Many taxpayers are wondering whether to come into compliance with respect to their prior tax indiscretions," said Toscher, whose Beverly Hills law firm represents other UBS clients. "Now is the time. Tomorrow may be too late."
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3rd American pleads guilty to tax charges linked to UBS
Updated 7/29/2009 12:57 AM | Comment | Recommend
Jeffrey Chernick, 70, the Stanfordville, N.Y., owner of a firm that represents Chinese and Hong Kong toymakers, pleaded guilty in a Fort Lauderdale federal court to filing a false tax return that failed to disclose $8 million in offshore assets, prosecutors said. He faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Defense lawyer Douglas Tween couldn't be reached for comment.
Chernick's plea stems from a broader court battle in which the U.S. Justice Department seeks names of the American holders of 52,000 UBS accounts. UBS and the Swiss government have refused, arguing that compliance would violate their country's bank secrecy laws. A court conference to assess settlement talks in that case is set for today.
Chernick signed a court-filed statement of facts in which he acknowledged that he established a Hong Kong corporation in 1981 and opened offshore accounts in the firm's name to conceal commissions paid by Chinese and Hong Kong firms for toy sales in the U.S. He acknowledged establishing similar accounts over time, including at a UBS site in the Cayman Islands.
Chernick's admissions could increase settlement pressure on UBS in the broader case. The bank in February agreed to pay $780,000 in a settlement that deferred prosecution of charges that its bankers made repeated secret trips to the U.S. and helped wealthy American clients evade federal taxes.
The statement of facts shows an unidentified Swiss banker told Chernick that $45,000 paid to an unidentified Swiss government official produced an assurance that details of Chernick's UBS account were "not designated to be turned over" to federal authorities.
Chernick also acknowledged that a Swiss attorney not identified by name in the statement talked him out of disclosing his offshore holdings last year.
The guilty plea may also increase pressure on Americans with secret offshore accounts to contact the IRS voluntarily under a program that offers lower penalties. Failure to meet the program's Sept. 23 deadline "exposes these Americans to increased penalties and possible criminal prosecution," said Acting Assistant Attorney General John DiCicco.
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Yacht broker pleads guilty to hiding $3.4 million from IRS
Updated 4/14/2009 9:48 PM | Comments 22 | Recommend 2
Robert Moran is the second U.S. citizen to face charges in a broad federal investigation of Swiss banking giant UBS (UBS) that has cracked Switzerland's famed reputation for bank secrecy.
The Lighthouse Point resident faces a potential top sentence of three years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine at a scheduled June 26 sentencing.
Defense attorney Gary Bagliebter declined to comment.
Moran, 57, is among up to 300 American clients whose names and account information UBS turned over to U.S. authorities after admitting it helped them evade taxes by opening the accounts in names of sham entities.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Florida | Switzerland | Justice Department | Internal Revenue Service | Fort Lauderdale | Boca Raton | Panamanian | Moran | Lighthouse Point | Steven Michael RubinsteinThe Justice Department is locked in a federal court battle with UBS over demands for similar information on an estimated 52,000 additional U.S. account holders.
"With the filing deadline imminent, most American taxpayers are filing their tax returns and paying the taxes that they owe," said John DiCicco, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's tax division. "Honest taxpayers should rest assured that those who hide assets and income from the IRS face investigation, prosecution and steep fines and jail time."
Federal law requires Americans to file tax returns that report all income and disclose any foreign account they control that contains $10,000 or more in assets. Moran pleaded guilty to a criminal information that charged he failed to disclose his UBS account on his 2007 return.
In a statement of facts filed with the plea, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta's office said UBS records show Moran was the owner of a UBS account in the name of Winter Drive Investments, a Panamanian firm incorporated in 2000. The account held $3.4 million in assets as of Dec. 31, prosecutors said.
Moran met repeatedly with a UBS banker from 2001 through 2007 to discuss the sale of U.S. securities, purchases of European securities and conversion of investments from euros to U.S. dollars, prosecutors said.
He admitted he didn't disclose his account to the IRS during those years.
Earlier this month, prosecutors charged Steven Michael Rubinstein, a Boca Raton, Fla., accountant who works for a different yacht business than Moran, with filing a false tax return that failed to disclose his UBS account.
He is free on $12 million bond.
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Florida man charged with hiding assets through UBS
Updated 4/3/2009 11:28 AM | Comments 32 | Recommend 8
By Kevin McCoy, USA TODAYA Florida accountant has become the first U.S. citizen accused of hiding assets from the IRS after Swiss banking giant UBS gave federal authorities the names of some secret account owners.Steven Michael Rubinstein, 55, was arrested Thursday at his Boca Raton home and charged with filing a false income tax return. Rubinstein, an employee of an international yacht firm, was ordered detained pending a bond hearing Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the charges resulted from UBS' February agreement to turn over names of some account holders suspected of illegally using Swiss bank accounts for tax fraud.
The bank turned over identities for American owners of as many as 300 accounts as part of a deferred-prosecution agreement after acknowledging it helped U.S. clients set up accounts in the names of sham entities.
"Today is the first of the prosecutions resulting from that disclosure, but it will not be the last," Acosta said. "It is our duty to those who pay their legal share of taxes to ensure that others do not use offshore schemes to evade payment of their taxes."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Barack Obama | Florida | New York | Switzerland | Beverly Hills | Monaco | Boca Raton | Virgin Islands | Swiss Francs | Rubinstein | South African KrugerrandRubinstein's Miami attorney, Robert Panoff, did not return messages seeking comment.
An affidavit by IRS Special Agent Scott Johnson says Rubinstein opened UBS accounts under the name of Hybridge International, a British Virgin Island corporation started in 2001.
From 2001 to 2008, Rubinstein used the accounts to deposit and sell more than $2 million in South African Krugerrand gold coins and buy securities worth more than 4.5 million Swiss francs, the affidavit says.
He also allegedly routed more than $3 million from UBS accounts to HSBC accounts in Monaco and New York, and then used the funds for the property purchase and construction of his Florida home.
Federal tax law requires Americans to file tax returns that report worldwide income and disclose any foreign accounts they control and that contain $10,000 or more in assets. Rubinstein failed to disclose his UBS account holdings to the IRS from 2001 to 2007, the IRS affidavit charged.
The allegations mark the latest development in an escalating federal court battle that has cracked Switzerland's renowned tradition of banking secrecy. Federal authorities are seeking information about the American owners of as many as 52,000 UBS accounts that held an estimated $14.8 billion in assets during the last decade.
UBS, however, argues that disclosing information for additional account holders would violate Swiss law.
The IRS last week announced a six-month program that offers lower penalties to Americans who come forward and pay taxes due on previously secret foreign account holdings. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said in a statement Thursday that combating offshore tax evasion would remain a top priority.
"If anyone with an undisclosed offshore account has yet to disclose their accounts in accordance with the IRS voluntary disclosure program, they must do so immediately," said Charles Rettig, a Beverly Hills attorney whose firm represents more than 100 clients who either have or are in the process of coming forward. "Delay is not an option."
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Justice Dept., UBS close to a deal on Swiss tax secrecy
Updated 7/31/2009 7:12 PM | Comments 117 | Recommend 23 E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | 
"The parties have reached an agreement in principle on the major issues," Stuart Gibson, a Justice Department tax division attorney, told U.S. District Judge Alan Gold during a morning phone conference.
Terms of the deal were not immediately announced. Gold said the parties would likely present a written breakdown at an Aug. 7 status conference, with a final agreement to be approved by the court three days later.
The announcement prompted Gold to cancel a key evidentiary hearing that had been scheduled for Monday on the closely watched tax standoff that has threatened to add new cracks to Switzerland's historic reputation for banking secrecy.
"There has been agreement reached in the litigation that was just reported to the court in Florida, that confirms there has been an understanding between the Swiss government and our government with the ongoing litigation concerning UBS," U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said before a meeting with Switzerland's foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Hillary Rodham Clinton | Switzerland | Justice Department | Internal Revenue Service | UBS AG | UBSAsked if there were outstanding issues in the case, Clinton said the agreement had been reached in principle and did not elaborate.
Clinton and Calmy-Rey said they were pleased with the outcome and Clinton said the two governments had worked hard to reach an agreement on the tax dispute.
Justice Department lawyers and the IRS have argued that the information on U.S. clients must be handed over because wealthy American account holders have evaded millions of dollars in federal taxes for years with the active assistance of UBS.
The bank in February agreed to pay $780,000 in a settlement that deferred prosecution of U.S. charges that the bank repeatedly sent employees on secret trips to the U.S. to show American customers how to put their assets in untraceable offshore accounts that would not be reported to the IRS.
UBS has contended that disclosing the client data would be a criminal violation of Swiss banking secrecy laws. Actively backing that argument, the Swiss government has raised the possibility that it would seize the client data to prevent a handover if such an action were ordered by a U.S. court.
Federal investigators have maintained pressure on UBS during the standoff by pursuing criminal cases against some of the estimated 250 American clients whose account data the bank previously agreed to give the IRS based on specific evidence of tax evasion. Three of those clients have pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns so far, most recently on Tuesday.
The IRS in March launched a six-month program offering lower penalties to Americans who voluntarily disclose previously secret offshore assets and agree to pay taxes on the money. Participation generally means no criminal charges will be filed, and requires payment of back taxes and interest for at least six years, plus some penalties.
While the IRS hasn't disclosed details of the participation rate, the agency says there has been "a dramatic increase in the number of taxpayers making voluntary disclosures this year as compared to previous years. The vast majority of these cases involve taxpayers with unreported income in offshore accounts."
Contributing: Reuters
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Healthcare Reform and Tax Evaders
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