Tax Fraud

July 19, 2019

For not disclosing additional U.S. accounts when a 2015 non-prosecution agreement was signed with the DOJ, Banque Bonhôte & Cie SA, Ltd. (Bonhôte) of Switzerland has signed an addendum, agreeing to pay an additional $1.2 million penalty on top of its $624,000 share of an earlier penalty against 80 Swiss banks totaling $1.36 billion.  The DOJ had executed non-prosecution agreements with the banks in 2015 and 2016 to resolve potential criminal liabilities relating to offshore banking services.  DOJ

June 18, 2019

A New Hampshire man named Imtiaz Shaikh has been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison and ordered to pay $2.8 million to the State of New Hampshire for evading taxes on the sale of certain tobacco products.  According to state law, wholesale distributors of other tobacco products (OTP) must be licensed, file reports on the number of OTP sold, and pay taxes at 65% of the wholesale price.  To avoid paying taxes on his products, Shaikh conducted business through a number of shell corporations, robbing the state of $2.8 million in unpaid taxes.  USAO NH

May 24, 2019

The co-defendant of a mental health clinic owner who was previously sentenced to prison for submitting false claims to Medicaid and evading taxes has been sentenced to over 6 years in prison on similar charges.  Haydn Patrick Thomas, who worked as an office manager for an oral surgeon, had been convicted of providing Catinia Farrington with the names and Medicaid identification numbers of his office’s dental patients.  He then failed to pay taxes on over $1.4 million that he earned from Farrington’s clinic, with the resulting tax loss amounting to approximately $518,000.  DOJ

May 8, 2019

Tea Kaganovich and Ramazi Mitaishvili, co-owners of New York Diagnostic Testing Centers, each pleaded guilty to health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The couple submitted false health care claims for diagnostic testing services and paid over $18 million in kickbacks for the referral of beneficiaries who signed up for diagnostic testing and other alleged medical services. They fraudulently reported to the IRS that the illegal kickback payments were valid business expenses, thus causing relevant tax forms to under-report business income and claim deductions. DOJ

May 8, 2019

Cosmetics retailer Sephora USA Inc. paid $159,349 to the State of Indiana to resolve claims brought by a whistleblower under the Indiana False Claims Act alleging that Sephora made false statements in connection with failing to collect sales tax on internet sales shipped to Indiana consumers.  IN AG

May 7, 2019

The owners of a Colorado biomass power plant agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle allegations concerning fraud impacting the U.S. Treasury’s “1603 Program,” which reimburses companies up to 30%, in lieu of tax credits, for placing renewable energy properties into service. The company at the center of the fraud, Eagle Valley Clean Energy, allegedly applied for and received a 30% advance on a fee it was to pay co-defendant Evergreen Clean Energy, LLC for unspecified development services. Eagle Valley wrote off the fee but failed to return the advance to the U.S. Treasury. As part of the settlement, Eagle Valley paid $2.4 million, and the two owners of Eagle Valley, Evergreen, and parent company Evergreen Clean Energy Corporation—Dean Rostrom and Kendric Wait—paid $125,000 each. USAO CO

May 1, 2019

A Pennsylvania man has been convicted of defrauding the EPA and IRS of $50 million over the course of five years.  Together with his co-defendant, Ralph Tomasso, David Dunham Jr. used their companies to illegally profit from the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program by fraudulently applying for, receiving, and selling credits to renewable biofuels that they didn’t actually sell or never actually possessed. Now, the government is seeking forfeiture of $1.7 million in fraudulently obtained revenue.  DOJ (August 6, 2020 sentencing)

April 26, 2019

A permanent injunction has been issued barring Michael L. Meyer from in any way marketing the "Ultimate Tax Plan," also referred to as Charitable LLC or Charitable Limited Partnership, or otherwise preparing federal tax returns or advising taxpayers on charitable contributions.  Meyer had sold his bogus tax scheme with claims that taxpayers could reduce taxes by purportedly transferring property to an entity and purportedly donating their interest in the entity to a charity, while retaining complete control over the assets.  Meyer appraised the “donations,” prepared tax forms for participants to claim unwarranted deductions, and controlled the charities used to perpetuate the scheme.  The government alleged that the scheme deprived the U.S. of at least $35 million in tax revenue.  DOJ

April 25, 2019

Zurich Life Insurance Company Ltd and Zurich International Life Limited have entered into a non-prosecution agreement and agreed to a penalty of $5.115 million to resolve allegations that it knew some of its U.S. taxpayer customers were using certain Zurich policies in order to evade U.S. taxes and reporting requirements.  Under applicable law, the increase of the principal in the policies was subject to U.S. taxation, and the policies were required to be disclosed to the IRS, but Zurich knew or should have known that the policies were undeclared.   Zurich reported its finding of these accounts to the government as part of the DOJ Swiss Bank Program.  DOJ