First Sentencing in Offshore Case that Went to Trial

Maricio Cohen Assor and Leon Cohen-Levy, previously blogged here, were sentenced yesterday. I include below links to the SD FL USAO press release and some articles, but here are the bullet points I found interesting:

1. Each was convicted of one count of conspiracy (Klein conspiracy) under 18 USC 371 and 2 counts of filing false tax returns under 26 USC 7212.  The maximum permissible sentence for those counts of conviction was 11 years each.

2. Each received 10 years incarceration (mitigated only if they qualify for the rather minimal good time benefit).

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Walter Anderson -- The Fight Continues

The Walter Anderson saga continues with a decision by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit United States v. Anderson, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 1651 (D.C. Cir. 1/25/11). Those wanting some discussion of the saga might do a Google search; my quick search turned up thousands of items, including the following two: the Wikipedia entry here and the JusticeforWalt entry here. (Those wanting a less biased discussion might focus on the Wikipedia entry.) For present context, his case was one of the largest tax crimes case (in terms of tax loss) ever, and perhaps the largest individual tax crimes case. (Some of the marketed tax shelter criminal cases involved more tax loss because more taxpayers were involved.)

At any rate, the new decision arises from his prior conviction. The conviction was affirmed but remanded. United States v. Anderson,543 F.3d 1072 (D.C. Cir. 2008). In part here relevant, the earlier opinion permitted plea agreement restitution even though (i) the plea agreement cited the wrong Title 18 section, a phenomenon the Government urged and the court held was a scrivener’s error that did not vitiate the parties’ meeting of the minds to agree to restitution; and (ii) the plea agreement did not state an amount for restitution.

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Another Indictment with Allegations Reputedly of Activity by HSBC and Its Bankers

The Government has obtained another indictment of one Vaibav Dahake, a U.S. depositor in an offshore financial institution. The indictment is a for a single conspiracy count.  The indictment contains the standard allegations -- a U.S. depositor, a tax haven (BVI) entity with bearer shares to hide the activity, an "international bank" (reputed to be HSBC) and a U.S. division of the international bank (this element is standard to date, but perhaps not so standard in the future with other banks who avoided overt U.S. presence). The U.S. division allegedly marketed Indian banking services to U.S. persons of Indian descent. Mr. Dahake allegedly had bank accounts in BVI and India that he did not report on an FBAR.

And, since the Government now seems to be focusing on the enablers, the indictment names 5 alleged bank related co-conspirators -- 3 U.S. bankers and 2 India bankers, all connected with the international bank.

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