U.S. Department of Justice indicts taxpayer for FBAR violation and tax evasion

Dec 29, 2011   
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On November 17, 2011, a grand jury in the Northern District of California returned an indictment against Ashvin Desai alleging violation of 26 U.S.C. sections 7201 (tax evasion) and 7206(2) (aiding in the preparation of a false tax return); 31 U.S.C. sections 5314 and 5322 (failure to file report of foreign bank and financial accounts). A copy of the indictment can be found here.

The indictment against Mr. Desai provides as follows:

“[The Defendant] who during the calendar year 2008 was married, did willfully attempt to evade and defeat a large part of the income tax due and owing by him and his spouse to the United States of America for the calendar year 2008, by preparing and causing to be prepared, and by signing and causing to be signed, a false and fraudulent joint U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040, on behalf of himself and his wife, which was filed with the Internal Revenue Service. In that false income tax return, it was stated that their joint taxable income for the calendar year 2008 was $69,917.84 and that the amount of tax due and owing thereon was $6,156.88. In fact, as DESAI then and there knew, their joint taxable income for the calendar year was in excess of the amount stated on the return, and, upon the additional taxable income an additional tax was due and owing to the United States of America, and he had an interest in, and signature or other authority over, bank accounts located in India during calendar year 2008.”

The significance of this criminal indictment is that the IRSs and the U.S. Department of Justices investigation of those holding unreported foreign bank accounts at HSBC have now started to produce tax evasion and FBAR failure to file cases against U.S. citizens who have attempted to use HSBC to avoid paying taxes to the U.S. government. This appears to be the first of many such cases as Title 31 violations are the criminal charge of the moment.

The attorneys at Fuerst Ittleman have experience defending against IRS investigations/audits and Department of Justice investigations and criminal prosecutions for those with unreported foreign bank accounts and unreported/under-reported income. You can reach an attorney by emailing us at: contact@fidjlaw.com.