Tax crime doesn’t pay — coverage of tax fraud, evasion, and financial crime prosecutions, and what they mean for the rest of us.
As much as I’ve blogged about reality TV star (and I use the term “star” lightly) Richard Hatch over the years, I feel I owe it to you to report that our favorite tax evader was released (again) from prison today. Hatch’s most recent stint was the result of failing to file and pay the…
Rapper Beanie Sigel, whose real name is Dwight Grant, may be facing more time in prison – this time for tax troubles. The Philadelphia rapper pleaded guilty this week to failing to file federal income tax returns for 2003, 2004 and 2005. The IRS believes that Sigel failed to pay nearly $350,000 in federal income…
Rapper and actor Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, was sentenced this week to more than two years in federal prison for failing to file income tax returns between 2004 and 2006. He had faced up to three years in prison for the charges. The sentencing follows a plea agreement into the rapper’s…
The bizarre saga involving former Hollywood tax attorney Matthew G. Krane appears to finally have come to a close. Krane was sentenced yesterday to 2-1/2 years in federal prison for his role in a tax shelter scheme. Krane had pleaded guilty in 2009 to evading tax by failing to claim $36 million in undeclared income…
When Wesley Snipes was found guilty on tax evasion charges, he vowed to appeal. And appeal he did. Over and over. That, however, may finally be coming to an end. This morning, Snipes’ petition for certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court. You might have heard this referred to as “denied cert” or “cert denied”…
With just a few weeks to go before Tax Day, it seems that tax scams aren’t slowing down. A Jacksonville, FL, news station has reported the arrest of George Graycochea on a charge of organized fraud. Graycochea allegedly advertised on Craigslist for tax preparation services. Since I’ve never seen any ads on Craigslist for tax…
Is it just me or does anyone else secretly wonder whether Donald Trump phoned up the judge in the Richard Hatch matter and tipped him off as to where and what Hatch was doing? I just find the timing odd (and yes, it did cross my mind that the Donald had a conversation with God…
Oh c’mon. You totally knew that I was going to choose kickbacks, right? The rules governing illegal activity and taxes are some of the most entertaining bits of the Tax Code, not that the bar’s terribly high to begin with… The specific section of the Code that references kickbacks can be found under Itemized Deductions…
Hot off the heels of an IRS announcement about a new amnesty plan for taxpayers with offshore accounts, a federal judge brought down the hammer on a tax evasion case involving those same kind of accounts. Mauricio Cohen and Leon Cohen-Levy (father and son, in case you wondered about the similar names) were sentenced to…
You knew that it would be just a matter of time before the IRS set its sights on a new bank. Fresh off of victories involving UBS and Deutsche Bank related to tax fraud/tax evasion, the IRS has now targeted an “unknown British bank” for its role in a tax evasion scheme. As before, the…