SWISS LAYWER PLEADS GUILTY TO US TAX CRIMES

On Friday, August 16, 2013, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that Swiss lawyer Edgar Paltzer pled guilty to conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and other to evade federal income taxes and file false tax returns. Mr. Paltzer worked with U.S. taxpayers to establish and operate sham foundations and other entities to nominally hold U.S. taxpayers’ accounts in Swiss banks, allowing such assets to remain undeclared to the U.S. Furthermore, when certain Swiss banks required the U.S. taxpayers to close their accounts, Mr. Paltzer assisted the U.S. taxpayers in moving their accounts to other Swiss banks willing to maintain undeclared assets on behalf of U.S. taxpayers. Mr. Paltzer faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 21, 2014. A copy of the US Attorney’s press release can be found at this link http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/August13/EdgarPaltzerPleaPR.php and a copy of the plea agreement can be found here https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0SLTNWD-Z3YT0xpb1dtMVFjVlk/edit?pli=1.