Today’s Criminal Justice System: Does It Live Up To What The Founding Fathers Envisioned It To Be?
“A diligent prosecutor can convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.” This quote by New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Sol Wachtler was made even more famous in the Tom Wolfe novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. Apropos of nothing, Judge Wachtler also once referred to the death penalty as “the chicken […]
Government Expands Forfeiture Program
In 1984, George Orwell’s novel about a dystopian near-future society, Oceania was constantly at war with one of its geopolitical rivals. The grandfatherly yet sinister O’Brien later admitted that victory over Eurasia or Eastasia was not the war’s objective – the ongoing conflict was simply an excuse for the totalitarian government to intervene in peoples’ […]
What Does The Raoul Weil Case Mean To You?
Iconic mobster Al Capone died in prison after he was convicted of tax evasion. More recently, after the notorious Lufthansa robbery that was immortalized in 1990’s Goodfellas, Jimmy the Gent went to prison not for his alleged role in the robbery but for a point-shaving scandal involving the Boston College basketball team. It could be […]
Former Mizrahi-Banker Charged With Offshore Tax Evasion Acquitted at Trial
Who says that every banker who is charged with aiding and abetting U.S. customers to hide their money offshore is guilty of tax evasion? This is the story of one defendant who forced the government to prove its case and came out victorious. Shokrollah Baravarian, an eighty-two year old retired senior vice president at Mizrahi […]
Bank Leumi’s Problems Growing Worse By The Day
Did Bank Leumi Le-Israel (LUMI) help Americans evade taxes? According to Benjamin Lawsky, head of New York’s Department of Financial Services, it did. New York’s banking regulator is asking for more than $300 million to settle an investigation. Bank Leumi’s breach of New York’s banking laws is eerily reminiscent of an earlier brush that the […]
Play Ball with the Government or Else: Marian Morgan Learns Her Lesson the Hard Way
Marian Morgan would not play ball with the U.S. government, and she paid dearly for that decision – a 405-month (almost 34-year) prison sentence. Her codefendants both wound up with very different fates. Marian Morgan and her husband, John Morgan, ran a Ponzi scheme in Sarasota, Florida, called “Morgan European Holdings,” scamming people out of […]
Carpet Dealer with Hidden Swiss bank Account Could Face 3 Year Jail Sentence for Tax Evasion
After filing a false tax return for 2009, New Hampshire Oriental carpet dealer, Menashe Cohen, has pleaded guilty with respect to his hidden million dollar Swiss bank account. Investigations reveal that Cohen failed to disclose a whopping $170,000 income from offshore bank accounts between the tax years 2006 and 2009. No mention of the carpet […]
Chicago Lawyer with Portfolio of Celebrity Clients Indicted On Charges of Tax Fraud
Gary Stern is the latest professional to become ensnared in the coils of the criminal justice system. The once prominent lawyer who represented NFL players, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals has been charged with tax fraud. Federal prosecutors allege that Stern organized, operated, and promoted elaborate and bogus tax schemes, primarily to help his wealthy […]
Ex-Seyfarth Shaw Attorney Case: The Latest in a Series of Department of Justice Prosecutions For Tax Shelter Fraud
Recently, tax shelters have become the target of much prosecution by the Department of Justice. In the largest criminal tax case ever filed, professional services company KMPG LLP admitted to engaging in fraud and generating at least $11 billion dollars in false tax losses. The multi-billion dollar criminal tax fraud conspiracy involved the elaborate design, […]
Weil Case: What Was The Swiss Role?
If you poke about under rocks for long enough, you’d better be prepared to find something unpleasant. That’s what the US government is realizing as the Raoul Weil case finally goes to court. Weil, 54, is accused of helping US citizens avoid taxes while working as head of Global Wealth Management at Switzerland’s UBS – […]