Summons Production Ordered from Law Firm for Client Documents in Its Possession

In United States v. Sideman & Bancroft, LLP (ND CA 4/8/11 - No. 3:11-cv-00736), the court enforced a summons issued to the taxpayer-target's criminal defense attorneys, Sideman & Bancroft LLP ("Sideman"). The facts were: The taxpayer had delivered the documents in question to her return preparer, an enrolled agent. Then, while the return preparer held the documents, the IRS obtained a search warrant for the taxpayer's residence and business premises. The documents were within the description contained on the search warrant, but, of course, the IRS did not find the seize the documents because they were at the return preparer's office. But the agent did find documents referring to the return preparer.  During the execution of the search warrant, the taxpayer talked with the return preparer and then went to the return preparer's office to sign one of the returns. After the taxpayer left, the return preparer realized that she had documents within the scope of the search warrant. She called the taxpayer's attorney, a Richard Guadagni to advise and have them delivered to the IRS. Guadagni took possession of the documents later that day but delivered them to the taxpayer's new attorney, Jay Weill with Sideman. The return preparer said that she would not have given the documents to Guadagni if she had known he would not deliver them to the IRS. Apparenltly, the return preparer advised the IRS of the description of the documents and, using the description, the IRS summonsed from Sideman.
Read more »

HSBC India Developments (4/14/11)

As expected, in tax filing season, DOJ Tax takes actions to encourage taxpayers to do the right thing.  There are two HSBC India developments. We previously covered the John Doe summons to HSBC India here. The new developments are:

1. One depositor in HSBC India, Vaibhav Dahake, who was indicted previously (see discussion of indictment here). Dahake pled guilty to one count of conspiracy on April 11, 2011 pursuant to a plea agreement he had entered November 18, 2010. (I speculate that the timing of the actual plea in court was related to the HSBC John Doe summons proceeding, or, perhaps, had something to do with the HSBC related enablers.)  The plea agreement is here, and a Reuters article is here. The plea agreement is fairly standard, with the stipulated sentencing factors being: (i) a tax loss between $30,000 and $80,000 producing a BOL of 14, (ii) sophisticated means 2 level upward adjustment, (iii) acceptance of responsibility 3 level (2+1) downward adjustment and (iv) deriving an offense level of 13. One unusual provision is the following related to immigration:
Read more »

A Q&A with Jeff Neiman

Readers of this blog will recognize Jeff Neiman's name. Jeff was formerly the AUSA in SD FL who took a lead role in the Government's initiatives against UBS and some of its depositors. Jeff recently left his position to enter the private practice of law. Jeff's experience on the other side will offer his clients and other lawyers unique insights into the Government's continuing initiatives and how best to maneuver around the traps in the initiatives. I offer here a Q&A with Jeff:

Q: Why did you decide to leave for private practice?
A: After nine years as a federal prosecutor, I figured if there ever was a time to give defense a shot, this was it. I am grateful for the experience and the relationships that I developed while working for the government, but personally I was ready for a new challenge.
Read more »