The April 8th "Asset Search News Roundup" comments on both a revised OECD-Council of Europe tax treaty and a contested provenance case brought to recover an ancient gold tablet:
Bank customers sometimes hide their assets offshore in nominee bank accounts located in high-risk geographical locations like Switzerland. One such bank customer was ex-watch manufacturer Jack Barouh of Golden Beach, Florida. As a February 4, 2010 press release basically explained, Mr. Barouh was accused of hiding undeclared revenue from the IRS during an abusive offshore tax avoidance scheme at UBS AG and other foreign banks.
Mr. Barouh’s scheme could have stared in 1976 when he first transferred skimmed monies from his U.S. watch businesses to foreign accounts at UBS of Switzerland. He reportedly carried out his scheme with the help of two Swiss money managers and a Swiss attorney. One of these Swiss money managers had even supposedly misappropriated some of Mr. Barouh’s undeclared revenue, although Mr. Barouh may have eventually recovered this revenue via a settlement.
The Swiss attorney and money managers are believed to have opened Mr. Barouh’s nominee bank accounts and / or had been directors of Mr. Barouh’s foreign companies. These foreign companies were formed in Panama, the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong and had reportedly been used to open Mr. Barouh’s nominee bank accounts in Switzerland or Hong Kong. Despite all of the foregoing, the IRS was able to detect Mr. Barouh’s undeclared revenue in his nominee bank accounts.Continue Reading An Ex-Watch Manufacturer & His Nominee Bank Accounts
“Smuggling Cash Across Iraq’s Borders” mentioned Donnie the former DEA agent who had trained Iraqi border personnel to interdict bulk-cash smugglers. To help detect these smugglers, governmental authorities also use declaration forms to track the cross-border movement of cash and monetary instruments.
As mentioned by my April 13, 2009 “Asset Search News Roundup“, one such declaration form is the “FinCen 105”. It generally requires disclosure to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, when individuals physically transport, mail or ship more than $10,000 in cash or monetary instruments into the U.S.:
(To View The Complete Form, Click On The Image)
To avoid triggering the mandatory filing of a FinCen 105, Virginia medical doctor Andrew Silva had illegally structured cash by smuggling it in packages containing less than $10,000. During an abusive offshore tax avoidance scheme, Dr. Silva mailed these packages of cash from Switzerland into the U.S., as outlined by his “statement of facts” filed in U.S.A. v. Andrew B. Silva.Continue Reading A Doctor, A Lawyer & Bricks Of Cash In Switzerland
Today’s “Asset Search News Roundup” is about the New York case against the ex-president of Guatemala, Alfonso Portillo and it also mentions the sentencing of New York former top cop Bernard Kerik:
By using customer identification or “know your customer” rules, banks try to prevent money laundering and other financial frauds. This use of customer identification rules by banks is contemplated at the Fifth Recommendation of the Financial Action Task Force. The Fifth Recommendation urges banks to diligently verify a customer’s identity and to record the true beneficial ownership of bank accounts.
As reported at “Fighting Financial Fraud At UK Banks“, the UK changed its banks’ “know your customer” rules on December 15, 2007, by codifying them at Money Laundering Regulations 2007*. U.S. banks too verify customer identities, but do so pursuant to 31 C.F.R Part 103.121. Lawsuits alleging that two U.S. banks had failed to sufficiently identify their bank customers, are respectively described at: “Associated Bank Sued For Supposedly Ignoring Red Flags” and “Lawsuit Claims Wachovia Bank Facilitated Alleged Ponzi Scheme“.
UBS AG and other Swiss banks also require customer identification at the time a bank account is opened. The customers of Swiss banks execute a declaration of beneficial ownership, commonly referred to as a “Form A”. A July 13, 2001 “Form A” was used in the U.S. tax fraud case brought against Florida yacht broker Robert Moran. According to the Plea Agreement in Mr. Moran’s case, the July 13th “Form A” helped demonstrate that Mr. Moran had violated 26 U.S.C. § 7206 (1), (perjury on a return / false statements).Continue Reading Customer Identification At UBS AG And Some Other Banks
The Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists is a private sector anti-money laundering credentialing organization and Colby Adams is a reporter affiliated with it. Mr. Adams telephoned me this week to discuss my thoughts about abusive offshore tax avoidance schemes and The "John Doe" Summons Case, which was settled with UBS AG.
My
“Warsaw Prosecutors Eye Possible Money Laundering At 50 Platowcowa Street “, mentioned that a tip letter led prosecutors from Poland to seek a letter rogatory via the U.S. Attorney in Delaware on October 14, 2009. The Warsaw prosecutors used this particular letter rogatory to try to elicit evidence about Prime Invest L.L.C. in Delaware
This "Asset Search News Roundup" mentions the sentence of a former Louisiana congressman and the 14,700 U.S. taxpayers who sought partial amnesty from the IRS:
As I previously mentioned at the December 5, 2008 "Asset Search News Roundup", former NYPD Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik is alleged to have been involved in a public corruption scheme and tax fraud. Mr. Kerik’s superseding indictment in U.S.A. v. Bernard B. Kerik, 07-cr-1027, accuses him of trying to secure city contracts for a New Jersey company which had supposedly paid him illegally through apartment renovations.
Mr. Kerik could have accepted some of this alleged illegal payment after being sworn in as New York City’s 40th police commissioner. He is also accused of concealing the same by failing to report it as taxable income and may have taken false deductions in a tax fraud. Sup. Indict. ¶¶ 20 (c) & 28-31.
Although Mr. Kerik had been freed because of the $500,000 bail package mentioned at "Former NYC police chief Kerik jailed before trial", he was remanded by an October 20, 2009 Order revoking the conditions of his supervised release. Before issuing this Order, the Court presumably considered the Government’s October 14, 2009 letter:
(To Read The Above Letter, Click On It)Continue Reading Bernard Kerik Is Jailed While His Trial Is Delayed
My August 17th “Asset Search News Roundup” referred to the settlement of the case over the “John Doe” summons served on UBS in Miami. As more fully discussed at “UBS & Its John Doe Summons“, the IRS had brought the case to identify U.S. tax cheats who concealed their UBS bank accounts in
