What did a plastic surgeon do to get a four year sentence? Did he rearrange someone's face the wrong way? No, it was not that kind of story. The feds got him for wire fraud and tax evasion.
How did they find out? Based on a messy divorce....See story here...."Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska, Karen L. Loeffler, and Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, Caroline D. Ciraolo announced today that an Anchorage plastic surgeon was sentenced to 48 months in prison for wire fraud and tax evasion.
Dr. Michael D. Brandner, 67, of Anchorage, Alaska, was convicted by a federal jury in November 2015 of four counts of wire fraud and three counts of tax evasion. The charges arose from a scheme to conceal over $5 million of assets in secret bank accounts in Panama and Costa Rica from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Dr. Brandner’s wife. According to the indictment and evidence introduced at trial, shortly after his wife filed for divorce in late 2007, Dr. Brandner collected millions of dollars in marital assets and secretly drove from Tacoma, Washington, to Costa Rica in Central America. In Costa Rica, he opened two bank accounts into which he deposited over $350,000 in cash and hid a thousand ounces of gold in a safe deposit box. He then traveled to Panama where he opened an account under the name of a sham corporation and deposited $4.6 million into the account in 2008.
Dr. Brandner concealed both the existence of the bank accounts and the interest income he earned on those accounts from the court in the divorce proceedings and from the IRS. Dr. Brandner owed the IRS $500,000 in additional taxes for the 2008 through the 2010 tax years. In 2011, Dr. Brandner repatriated over $4.6 million once the divorce was final only to have the funds seized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) special agents. He then lied to federal agents about his control of the funds.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason ordered Dr. Brandner to serve two years of supervised release and pay $25,922.95 toward the costs of prosecution. The judge will also consider the government’s request for restitution for Dr. Brandner’s ex-wife.
“Tax evasion and financial crimes undermine the system of laws that govern this country and demean the vast majority of citizens that pay their taxes and deal honestly and openly with the rules governing a whole array of judicial procedures,” said U.S. Attorney Loeffler. “I appreciate the hard work of the investigators and prosecutors who put the case together and presented it to the jury resulting in these verdicts.” To read the full story , go here...https://www.justice.gov/usao-ak/pr/anchorage-plastic-surgeon-sentenced-prison-wire-fraud-and-tax-evasion
What caught my eye in this story was that he opened a sham corporation in Panama and just yesterday, we heard about the Panama Paper story that has gone viral, allegedly about leaking papers from a law firm called Mossack Fonseca, that caters to international clients of wealth, power and money. See their website here...http://www.mossfon.com/ Did this doctor use this law firm to assist him in his crime? If yes, then they may be implicated and this would open up more can of worms. I can see this law firm flaunting wealth with a picture of a big yacht on their front page as noted above. If anything, it attracts envy.
Remember, the feds can take on anyone anywhere in the world who has broken American law or aid Americans in breaking our laws. The law firm does deny any criminal wrongdoing. This is what they wrote ",In operation now for nearly 40 years, Mossack Fonseca has never once in its history been charged with criminal wrongdoing, or even been formally investigated in connection with allegations of the same.
Unfortunately, several recent stories appearing in a handful of international media outlets might lead some to conclude that the opposite is true. Below, we attempt to address these mischaracterizations and dispel several misconceptions about what it is we actually do, and for whom. "
It continues...."
Due Diligence and “Know Your Customer”
In recent years, a number of international jurisdictions have updated their rules and statutes to require additional transparency related to the identities of the “beneficial owners” of newly incorporated companies or trusts. We support these initiatives, and in fact have been following many of these very same rules and guidelines as part of our own due-diligence process for years – well in advance of their wider implementation.
- We conduct thorough due diligence on all new and prospective clients that often exceeds in stringency compared to existing, local rules and standards to which we and others are bound. If a new client is not willing and/or able to provide to us with the appropriate documentation indicating who they are, and (when applicable) from where their funds are derived, we will not work with that entity.
- Similar in many respects to the requirements imposed on banks, we must validate and verify the true identity of all customers and to identify activities for which we have reasonable grounds to believe are suspicious and to report them to regulators in real-time, as soon as they are detected.
- To be clear: our company is not itself a regulatory or enforcement agency. But we do have a responsibility to alert relevant officials and agencies when “red flags” are triggered, and it’s a responsibility we take seriously.
- Mossack Fonseca is a legal and professional services firm. We do not advise clients on how to operate their businesses. We don’t link ourselves in any way to companies we help incorporate. Excluding the professional fees we earn, we don’t take possession of clients’ money, or otherwise have anything to do with any of the direct financial aspects related to operating these businesses.
So What Do We Actually Do?
Mossack Fonseca helps companies incorporate and provides registered agent services for our clients (e.g., lawyers, banks, and trusts). The registered agent function is a well-established service offering in our industry, and exists in jurisdictions around the world -- including the United States and United Kingdom.
- Under Panamanian law, newly formed corporations must have a resident agent, and that agent must be a lawyer or law firm that’s based in Panama. The role of the resident agent is limited to the preparation and filing of documents to be recorded at the Public Registry. The resident agent is not involved in managing the business in any way.
- Our business is regulated by several different oversight and enforcement agencies, including the Banking Superintendence of Panama and the Intendency of Non-financial Regulated Services Providers. In addition, we have always complied with international protocols such as the Financial Action Task Force and the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
- Under Panamanian law, lawyers have the responsibility to identify their customers and report unlawful activity to the relevant authorities. The resident agent is obligated to work with these authorities in cases in which individuals are linked to an entity under investigation."
What can the doctor expect in Federal Prison....I sat 1316 days for immigration fraud, here is my story on my prison... experience that I don't wish on my enemies...http://www.amazon.com/PRISON-expect-Federal-Bureau-Prisons-ebook/dp/B011GTWLOG
No comments:
Post a Comment