Archive

May 14, 2021

Swiss insurance company Swiss Life Holding AG and related entities will pay $77 million and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement admitting that they conspired with U.S. taxpayers to  conceal more than $1.452 billion in assets and income in offshore insurance policies and related policy investment accounts.  From 2005 to 2014, Swiss Life maintained approximately 1,608 Private Placement Life Insurance policies known as “insurance wrappers,” with associated policy investment accounts with Swiss Life entities identified as the owner, allowing U.S. taxpayers to hide undeclared assets and income and evade taxes.  Beginning in 2008, Swiss Life specifically marketed such policies to taxpayers withdrawing assets from UBS and other Swiss banks in response to offshore tax enforcement efforts aimed at those bank.  DOJ; USAO SDNY

May 6, 2021

Spirits, beer, and wine produce the LeVecke Corporation agreed to pay almost $29 million in compromise of claims by the Department of Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau alleging violations of the Internal Revenue Code, including failure to timely file tax returns and failure to timely file and/or pay excise tax. TTB

April 30, 2020

The owner of dog training school Universal K-9, Inc., Bradley Lane Croft, has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for defrauding the Veteran Administration’s GI Bill program of more than $1.5 million in connection with 185 fraudulent claims relating to 132 veterans.  Croft had been found guilty of providing false information on instructor names, certifications, and training to the Texas Veterans Commission, laundering money, and submitting fraudulent income tax returns for 2016 and 2017.  USAO WDTX

April 5, 2021

New York's Service Station Vending Equipment, Inc., which provides self-service, coin-operated air machines used to inflate automobile tires, and its principal, William McCabe, will pay $4.25 million to resolve an action initiated by a whistleblower under the New York State False Claims Act alleging that they evaded sales taxes, under-reported sales, and paid workers off the books.  NY

March 16, 2021

Southern California brewer Stone Brewing Co., LLC, will pay $1.8 million to resolve allegations that the brewery underpaid excise taxes by misapplying tax rates, and failed to timely file excise tax returns and related operational reports. TTB

March 11, 2021

Swiss bank Rahn+Bodmer Co. will pay $22 million to resolve allegations that it conspired with U.S. customers to evade their U.S. tax obligations by concealing their ownership and control of up to $550 million in undeclared funds held in R+B accounts.  The bank entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and will cooperate with further investigations, including of U.S. accountholders.  DOJ

March 2, 2021

Hedge fund manager Thomas E. Sandell has paid $105 million to resolve claims first brought by a whistleblower under the New York False Claims Act alleging that Sandell evaded tens of millions in state and local taxes by falsely claiming that $450 million in management and performance fees he recognized in 2017 were not earned for services performed in New York, despite the fact that his fund, Sandell Asset Management Corporation, operated in New York and represented to the SEC that New York City was its principal place of business.  In his effort to evade NY taxes, Sandell moved to London for a period of time, opened an office in Florida, and managed SAMC expenses through a shell company that he also owned and controlled, all while continuing to perform the investment services that generated the fee income in New York.  When Sandell’s accountant informed him that he would have to pay NY state taxes, he terminated them and retained a firm that took his preferred position.  The whistleblower will receive an award of $22.05 million, which is 21% of the government’s recovery. NY

December 7, 2020

A chain of supermarkets in the New York area has been ordered to pay $4.7 million to settle claims under the state False Claims Act that alleged the chain operated a series of tax avoidance schemes from 2012 to 2018.  The case against Food World entities Pine Tree Meat & Produce Inc., Food Jungle, Inc., Sonamoo, Inc., and CNI Meat & Produce, and owner Hi Jong Lee was sparked by a qui tam whistleblower and involved three schemes: the use of separate cash registers so cash purchases would not be recorded for tax purposes, the use of fake merchandise returns to underreport actual sales, and the payment of a majority of its employees in cash and off the books.  AG NY

October 22, 2020

Jerry Taylor of North Carolina has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay more than $6.1 million in restitution for his role in a $9.4 million fraud scheme targeting North Carolina’s Medicaid program.  Along with his brother Tony and co-conspirators in Ohio and New York, Taylor submitted claims for behavioral health services benefiting local at-risk youth that were purportedly performed at companies he owned and operated with his brother, but that were in reality not actually performed or misrepresented in the claims.  In addition to defrauding Medicaid, Taylor also evaded taxes by failing to report more than $1.6 million in reimbursements in 2016 and 2017.  For those charges, Taylor will pay over $346,000 to the IRS.  USAO WDNC

October 15, 2020

Robert F. Smith, who formed and beneficially owned Belize entity the Excelsior Trust and Nevis entity Flash Holdings, has entered into a non-prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay $139 million, to resolve claims that between 2000 and 2015 he unlawfully used the offshore entities and their offshore bank accounts to conceal income earned by him on private equity investments and evade millions in taxes.  Using the offshore trust accounts, Smith willfully did not report to the IRS over $200 million of partnership income.  In addition, he unlawfully failed to report his ownership of foreign bank accounts in BVI and Switzerland.  The $139 million settlement consists of $56 million in taxes and penalties on unreported income and $82 million in penalties stemming from his failure to report his offshore bank accounts.  In addition, Smith agreed to abandon a $182 million refund claim based on alleged charitable contributions in 2018 and 2019.  DOJ; USAO ND Cal