Financial crimes such as fraud, money laundering or violations of the Bank Secrecy Act do not necessarily relate directly to tax law. Why then is the Criminal Investigation division of the IRS involved in enforcing these laws? In this two-part post, we will address that question. In part one, we […]
Category: Tax Crimes
The federal tax code is voluminous. There are seemingly innumerable, highly detailed sections that taxpayers and tax professionals can run afoul of. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and other recent laws have only added to the sprawling complexity of the tax code and the burden of complying with […]
The Department of Justice has unsealed a 47 count indictment against 14 individuals related to allegations of FIFA corruption, including charges of tax fraud, money laundering, wire fraud, and racketeering. As part of the alleged conspiracy spanning 25 years, the co-conspirators used false consulting agreements to disguise the illicit payment […]
IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) released its annual report, which details statistics for the 2014 calendar year, as well as its current enforcement priorities. The report yielded some interesting findings. As expected, the budget cuts that have afflicted the IRS have also affected CI, with the overall number of investigations initiated […]
Two former Credit Suisse bankers have received extraordinarily light sentences after pleading guilty and cooperating with the Department of Justice in its case against the Swiss Bank. Josef Dörig and Andreas Bachmann were each sentenced to five years’ probation and a fine, sentences that are substantially lower than the recommendations […]
The sheer complexity of the U.S. tax code causes many taxpayers to seek assistance from a paid tax return preparer. Most preparers do a creditable job. Many do outstanding work. But the IRS has long been concerned about incompetent or untrustworthy preparers. The concern is that such preparers can harm […]
The tax case against the founder of Beanie Babies, Ty Warner, continues as prosecutors challenge the lenient probation sentence handed down after Warner pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. Prosecutors alleged that Warner failed to report $24 million by hiding money in two Swiss offshore bank accounts, which […]
In a crackdown on offshore accounts, the Internal Revenue Service has placed more focus on the disclosure of foreign accounts. In addition, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act went into effect in July and requires foreign financial institutions provide the agency information on U.S. taxpayer clients. A recently unsealed indictment […]
A Durham, North Carolina woman is in hot water after being convicted and sentenced on charges that she falsified hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of tax returns in what seems to be an elaborate scheme that took place while she worked for a tax preparation business. Tasha Renee Smith […]
A few weeks ago, we covered the 15-year prison sentence handed down in a tax fraud case against Paul Daugerdas for his role in designing and promoting sophisticated tax shelters. This week, a U.S. District Judge sentenced a cooperating witness in the criminal tax case to prison for six months. […]