Walter C. Anderson’s failure to pay taxes finally caught up with him. And a botched plea agreement by the IRS potentially saved him millions of dollars.
As previously reported, Anderson hid millions of dollars in personal income while reporting paltry sums on his income tax returns. To accomplish this, he created aliases and shell companies, as well as stashing cash in offshore tax havens and secret drop boxes abroad – but still claimed that he was not “a criminal person.” Despite his protestations, the 53-year-old kajillionaire (that’s my technical term) was sentenced to 9 years in jail. He will have to make restitution, but not as much as the government had hoped. The government had claimed that Anderson owed between $140 and $178 million yet cut a deal, which was upheld by the court, for merely $22 million in restitution.
The government has vowed to pursue Anderson in civil court for the remainder but has not yet been able to locate Anderson’s millions. He is being represented by a court-appointed public defender and has declared bankruptcy. Hmm, sound familiar?
