Monthly Archives: March 2023

On  Jun 14, 2022 we posted IRS Warns Taxpayers Again to Avoid Companies Claiming They Can Settle Your Tax Debt "For Pennies on the Dollar" - Call Us  to Speak With Real Experienced Tax Attorneys where we discussed that in its 2022 “Dirty Dozen” tax scams the IRS warned people to watch out for Offer in Compromise mills which contort the IRS program into something it’s not, misleading people with no chance of meeting the requirements while charging excessive fees, often thousands of dollars. 

Taxpayers should be especially wary of promoters who claim they can obtain larger offer settlements than others or who make misleading promises that the IRS will accept an offer for a small percentage. 

Have a Tax Problem?    

 

Real Tax Problems Require

Real Tax Attorneys!

 

Contact the Tax Lawyers at 

Marini & Associates, P.A. 

 for a FREE Tax Consultation Contact US at

www.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com

or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

 

 



Read more at: Tax Times blog

According to the DoJ, Daniel Wälchli pled guilty on March 30, 2023 to conspiring to defraud the United States in connection with a scheme to help wealthy American clients conceal more than $60 million in income and assets held in undeclared offshore bank accounts and evade U.S. income taxes.  

Wälchli was a member of the executive board of a Swiss holding company that owned, among other entities, a Zurich-based private bank called Privatbank IHAG Zurich AG (“IHAG”). 

According to the allegations in the Indictment, court filings, and statements made in Court:

From in or about 2009 to in or about 2014, Wälchli and his co-conspirators defrauded the IRS by concealing income and assets of three wealthy U.S. clients with undeclared bank accounts at IHAG.  

In order to assist the U.S. clients, Wälchli and his co-conspirators devised and implemented a scheme dubbed the “Singapore Solution” to fraudulently conceal the bank accounts of the U.S. clients, their assets, and their income from U.S. authorities.  

In furtherance of the fraudulent scheme, Wälchli and his co-conspirators agreed to transfer more than $60 million from undeclared IHAG bank accounts of the U.S. clients through a series of nominee bank accounts in Hong Kong and other locations before returning the funds to newly opened accounts at IHAG in the name of a Singapore-based asset-management firm that Wälchli helped establish.  

The U.S. Clients Paid Large Fees To IHAG And Others To Help

Them Conceal Their Assets And Evade U.S. Income Taxes.

Wälchli, 55, of Switzerland, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of five (5) years in prison. 

According to Law360 Walchli was one of six executives who along with Zurich-based Allied Finance Trust AG were named in an indictment unsealed in 2021 as aiding the American taxpayers using the Singapore Solution scheme.

Wayne Franklyn Chinn, one of the clients who the DOJ said benefited from the scheme, pled guilty to one count of tax evasion in 2021. According to associated documents also unsealed in 2021, Chinn hid about $5 million from the IRS between 2001 and 2018 and held income in IHAG accounts, according to the DOJ. 

Chinn agreed to turn over $2.2 million in civil forfeitures held in five accounts at two Singapore banks and faced up to five (5) years in prison and possible time under supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties, the DOJ said.

In 2021, Chinn was sentenced to five (5) years probation, including 18 months of house arrest, and restitution of $789,000.

Read more at: Tax Times blog

On January 9, 2023 we posted An Expatriating Taxpayer, With FBAR Penalties, May Create New Precedent For Collection Outside the US? - Don't Think So! where we discussed a Floridian who moving his assets offshore and sold himself in the wake of an $18 million penalty for failing to report foreign bank accounts, the U.S. should be allowed to seize the overseas funds, the U.S. told a Florida federal court on January 6, 2023. Isac Schwarzbaum has not paid any amount he owes, forcing the U.S. to repatriate the funds he has deposited in several Swiss banks, the U.S. said in a motion to repatriate foreign assets.

Now according to Law360, he has been ordered to transfer enough money from his overseas accounts to cover the debt, a Florida federal judge ruled, rejecting the man's arguments the court lacked authority to order the repatriation.

While Schwarzbaum had argued the court lacked authority to order the money transfer while his appeal of the judgment in the Eleventh Circuit is pending, Judge Bloom said an appeal alone does not automatically pause the enforcement of a judgment. Further, Schwarzbaum never asked the court for a stay, Judge Bloom said.

The government asked the court for the repatriation order in January, alleging Schwarzbaum "has no intention" of paying the court's judgment. Judge Bloom found that he owed over $17.9 million — including interest and late-payment penalties — for willfully failing to file foreign bank and financial account forms.

According to the government, Schwarzbaum sold his home in Florida in June 2020, less than three months after Judge Bloom concluded that he showed reckless conduct that amounted to a willful failure to file FBARs for 2007 through 2009. After "fleeing the country," Schwarzbaum has kept no assets in the U.S., yet reported to the government in 2021 that he had more than $37 million in three Swiss banks, according to the government.

Schwarzbaum argued it was improper for the court to rule on the merits of the government's motion for repatriation while his appeal was pending. Further, he claimed he couldn't repatriate assets that were never originally in the U.S. He also rejected the government's allegations that he fled the country or aimed to render himself judgment-proof, saying he "lives a highly mobile lifestyle, never living in the United States full time."

Judge Bloom said Tuesday that the court already had struck down Schwarzbaum's argument that the assets needed to have originated in the U.S. to qualify for repatriation. The court also rejected Schwarzbaum's argument that only outstanding tax liabilities are subject to repatriation.

The Question Now Is How Does The IRS
Levy On Assets Outside The US? 

or 

Against a Taxpayer Who Is No Longer AUS Resident,
Where Mr. Schwarzbaum Leaves The US?

Can't Wait To See The Answer To This One!

Do You Have Undeclared Offshore Income?

Contact the Tax Lawyers at 

Marini & Associates, P.A. 
 

for a FREE Tax Consultation contact us at:
www.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com 

or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888) 882-9243

Read more at: Tax Times blog

According to DoJ, a former CFO of a russian natural gas company was convicted of making false statements to the IRS, failing to disclose offshore accounts and failing to file tax returns.

A federal jury found a Florida man guilty of failing to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), making a false statement to the IRS, and willfully failing to file tax returns. 

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from 2005 to 2015, Mark Anthony Gyetvay of Naples, Florida, concealed his ownership and control over substantial offshore assets and failed to file and pay taxes on millions of dollars of income. 

After working as a certified public accountant (CPA) in the United States and Russia, Gyetvay became the chief financial officer of Novatek, a large Russian gas company. 

Beginning in 2005, Gyetvay opened two different accounts at a bank in Switzerland to hold substantial assets, which at one point had an aggregate value of over $93,000,000. 

Over a period of several years, Gyetvay took steps to conceal his ownership and control over these funds, including removing himself from the accounts and making his then-wife, a Russian citizen, the beneficial owner of the accounts. Additionally, despite being a CPA, Gyetvay did not file his 2013 and 2014 U.S. tax returns.

Gyetvay did not file FBARs, as required, to disclose his control over the Swiss bank accounts, at times, rejecting his accountant’s recommendation to do so. 

In An Unsuccessful Attempt To Avoid Significant Financial Penalties, Gyetvay Made A False Filing With The IRS Using
The Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, Available
Only To Taxpayers Whose Failure To Report Offshore
Assets And Income Is Due To Non-Willful Conduct.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 21, 2023, and faces a maximum penalty of 

• five (5) years in prison for failing to file an FBAR, 
• five years (5) in prison for making a false statement and 
• one  (1) year in prison for each willful failure to file a tax return. 

Read more at: Tax Times blog