Articles Posted in FBAR Violations

Individuals using offshore bank accounts to conceal assets and facilitate tax fraud continue to be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, citizens and lawful permanent residents (i.e. “Green Card” holders) that have an interest in or signature authority over a financial account in a foreign country with assets in excess of $10,000 at any time during the year are required to disclose the accounts on their individual income tax returns, both on Schedule B, and if the accounts are large enough on Form 8938. They must also file a FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) on FINCen Form 114 disclosing any financial account in a foreign country with assets in excess of $10,000. Dr. Patricia Lynn Hough was recently convicted of conspiracy to defraud the IRS by keeping money in offshore bank accounts and filing false individual income tax returns that failed to report the income received by her on the foreign bank accounts. Hough was sentenced to 24 months in jail and ordered to pay over $15 million in restitution in addition to paying over $40,000 in prosecution costs.

Hough, a United States resident and the owner of 2 medical schools in the Caribbean, created nominee entities and used undeclared foreign bank accounts to conceal assets from the IRS. Upon selling the medical schools for over $35 million, the entire proceeds from the sale were deposited into undeclared accounts in the names of the nominee entities. The majority of the sale proceeds were not reported on her tax returns. The unpaid taxes totaled over $15 million. In addition to the proceeds received from the sale of the medical schools, Hough also failed to report a large amount of interest and investment income and failed to report that she had an interest in bank securities or other financial accounts located in foreign countries.

The money in the accounts, though, didn’t go untouched. Through evidence including e-mails, telephone calls and in-person meetings, the IRS was able to establish that Hough and her husband had asset managers that made investments and transferred funds from the offshore accounts in the names of the entities and medical schools to offshore accounts in their own names. The funds were later used to fund what the Justice Department referred to as “their lavish lifestyle.”

Sometimes understating income is just carelessness. Sometimes its tax fraud or tax evasion. People don’t always realize that tax fraud or tax evasion can lead to time in jail.

Convincing judges to sentence defendants to prison for criminal tax evasion continues to be a priority for the Department of Justice where taxpayers have willfully underreported their income or made false statements to the IRS revenue agents regarding their tax liabilities, as shown by unrelated decisions handed down against Abdelhamid M. Horany and Robert C. Sathre.

Horany, a business owner, admitted to underreporting his income by approximately $175,000, which resulted in his underreporting his tax due and owing by over $60,000 in 2007 alone. In total, Horany underreported his tax due by more than $145,000; he was sentenced to 12 months in prison for his actions. Sometimes taxpayers try to convince themselves that the IRS won’t go after them because they are “minnows.” This case is a warning that it is not necessary to evade millions of dollars in taxes in order to be prosecuted for tax evasion.

To avoid prosecution for tax evasion and other alleged crimes, the Swisspartners Investment Network AG, a Swiss-based asset management firm, and three of its wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively, the Swisspartners Group) entered into a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Although many taxpayers have been entering the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), for some taxpayers it is now too late as the Swisspartners Group has already disclosed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office the names of 110 U.S. taxpayers who may have failed to file Foreign Bank Account Reports (FBARs) and/or been engaged in tax fraud.

Although the Swisspartners Group avoided criminal prosecution for assisting U.S. taxpayers in opening and maintaining undeclared foreign bank accounts from about 2001 to 2011, it couldn’t avoid paying large sums of money for its wrongdoing. Swisspartners Group agreed to pay $4.4 million in forfeiture and restitution. Of the $4.4 million, $3.5 million represents fees that Swisspartners Group earned by assisting U.S. taxpayers in opening and maintaining undeclared accounts, and $900,000 represents the approximate amount of unpaid taxes arising from the Swisspartners Group involvement in tax evasion.

There are several factors that led to the NPA between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Swisspartners Group: (1) beginning around May 2008, the Swisspartners Group voluntarily implemented remedial measures against offshore tax evasion; (2) without any pressure from the U.S. authorities or obligation under a criminal investigation or prosecution, the Swisspartners Group reported criminal conduct by its clients; (3) the Swisspartners Group produced 110 account files that identified U.S. taxpayers who evaded taxes; (4) the Swisspartners Group’s willingness and ongoing cooperation with the U.S. authorities to combat tax evasion; and (5) the Swisspartners Group, when investigated by outside counsel, made true representations of the misconduct that was under investigation.

The Swisspartners Group admitted, as part of the NPA, that it knew certain U.S. taxpayers maintained undeclared foreign bank accounts with the intent to evade U.S. taxes. Swisspartners Group also admitted that it helped certain U.S. taxpayers conceal beneficial ownership of undeclared assets from the IRS by, among other things: (1) creating sham foundations or other sham entities that operated as the nominal account holders; (2) using non-U.S. nationals on accounts or insurance policies; (3) facilitating the transportation of large amounts of cash into the U.S. for the benefit of U.S. taxpayers; and (4) arranging large cash deposits in Swiss financial institutions for the benefit of U.S. taxpayers.

Under the NPA, the Swisspartners Group must continue to cooperate with the U.S. tax authorities for at least three years from the date of the agreement; otherwise, the U.S. Attorney’s Office may prosecute the Swisspartners Group.

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In a move which should send shivers through the spines of delinquent FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) filers the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has granted the IRS’ request for the names of U.S persons holding “secret” Swiss bank accounts. The IRS had originally submitted a so-called group request in September 2011, but an account holder brought an appeal to the Swiss Federal Administrative Court which held that the group request was too vague and amounted to a fishing expedition. The IRS amended its group request, and the Federal Administrative Court ruled the amended request was allowable under the provisions of 1996 Convention between the United States and Switzerland for the Avoidance of Double Taxation with Respect to Taxes on Income (the “Treaty”).

Under the Treaty, the Swiss will supply information if the IRS can show a suspicion of “fraud or the like.” Since Swiss and U.S. law are very different in terms of defining tax fraud it is sometimes difficult for tax attorneys in the U.S. to understand whether a particular set of factual circumstances will be considered fraud or the like. Indeed, “mere tax evasion” is not a crime in Switzerland. The key issue in the Credit Suisse case, however, was whether a “group request” i.e. one which describes a particular set of persons by their characteristics as opposed to providing a specific name could ever be honored.

According to its press release the Swiss Federal Supreme Court held that:

[R]equests for administrative assistance in relation with fraud and the like are in principle admissible under the 1996 Double Taxation Agreement with the United States, regardless of whether the suspicion falls on one or more persons and whether the said persons are explicitly named in the request.

In another words in the future the IRS can describe a class of individuals, and a Swiss Bank will be required to turn over their bank records. It wouldn’t be a bit surprising if the IRS already has group requests in the works at other Swiss banks including those reportedly under investigation such as Julius Baer, Basler Kantonalbank, Zuercher Kantonalbank, HSBC, and Pictet.

It is hard to believe that anyone with a Swiss bank account is still laboring under the belief that their offshore accounts will remain secret from the IRS. The penalties for failure to file FBARS are very severe, and can include criminal convictions, as well as civil penalties which can reach 300% of the offshore account balances. In addition, criminal tax evasion charges could be brought by the IRS. Anyone with an offshore account needs to give serious consideration to whether or not they should enter the IRS’ Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). With the IRS racking up continued success in obtaining the cooperation of foreign banks it could decide to close the OVDP at any time, and therefore waiting may not be an option.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii recently acquitted an 87-year-old auto dealership mogul of all tax fraud and conspiracy charges that the U.S. Government had brought against him. James Pflueger, who was facing multiple counts of both tax fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government, had been indicted on those charges in 2010 based on his alleged involvement in two separate tax fraud schemes. On March 20th, 2013, however, Pflueger was acquitted of all charges in what his criminal tax attorneys called “the Justice Department’s first unsuccessful prosecution relating to the use of foreign bank accounts in the Government’s ongoing international enforcement efforts.”

Pflueger was initially indicted on tax fraud and conspiracy charges related to two separate incidents, the first of which involved a situation where Pflueger’s company allegedly improperly paid for personal expenses of Pflueger’s family, and the second of which involved alleged underreporting of gain from Pflueger’s sale of one of his properties, known as Hacienda. The government also initially charged Pflueger with the failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), but dropped that charge before trial.

Dennis Duban, the accountant who handled Pflueger’s financial affairs, had pled guilty in October 2012 to conspiracy and aiding in the filing of a false tax return. According to the government, Duban and Pflueger engineered the Hacienda sale to effect offshore tax evasion by transferring the proceeds from the sale to a Swiss bank account in order to prevent the proceeds from being used to pay civil claims arising from a 2006 accident at another of Pflueger’s properties. However, Pflueger’s criminal tax attorneys were successful in arguing that Pflueger was not responsible for his IRS tax problems, and that Duban was the sole mastermind of the tax fraud.