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Tag: Tax evasion

  • Former Mets star Darryl Strawberry thanks Trump for pardon during sermon at Tulsa church

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    TULSA, Okla. — Former New York Mets great Darryl Strawberry praised Jesus and thanked President Donald Trump for pardoning his past tax evasion and drug charges as he preached Sunday at a Tulsa church.

    Jackson Lahmeyer, founder of Pastors for Trump, welcomed the eight-time All-Star to the pulpit of Sheridan Church, where more than 400 worshippers cheered when Strawberry mentioned Trump’s decision earlier this month to issue the pardon.

    “God just completely set me free when he gave me a pardon from President Donald J. Trump,” said the 1983 National League Rookie of the Year. “Other presidents had opportunities, but they didn’t do it.”

    Strawberry hit 335 homers and had 1,000 RBIs and 221 stolen bases in 17 seasons with the Mets, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.

    For years, the four-time World Series champion battled legal, health and personal problems. He served 11 months in a Florida state prison for a 2002 probation violation.

    Now 63, the retired outfielder credits his Christian faith for turning his life around and allowing him to remain sober for more than two decades.

    “All glory to God because he found me in a pit and put me in a pulpit,” Strawberry said during his 45-minute sermon. The devil “should have killed me when he had a chance,” he joked.

    Lahmeyer, the independent charismatic congregation’s lead pastor, said he became involved in politics during the COVID-19 pandemic when threatened with arrest for conducting a drive-up service from a rooftop.

    A member of the National Faith Advisory Board, Lahmeyer said he and Trump discussed Strawberry while meeting at the White House a few months ago.

    “Trump knows all the stats,” Lahmeyer said in an interview. “He’s a huge fan of Darryl Strawberry.”

    Lahmeyer said he and Trump did not discuss a possible pardon.

    “We were just talking about how Darryl had completely transformed his life and that he was coming to preach at my church, which the president thought was just incredible,” the pastor said.

    For his part, Strawberry — who got to know Trump while appearing on his “Celebrity Apprentice” reality TV show in 2010 — said he was surprised to receive a call from Trump on Nov. 6 informing him of the pardon.

    “We just talked about my baseball career in the 1980s and what kind of player I was,” Strawberry told The Associated Press. “He was just telling me how great of a player I was … and he just kind of joked around that he couldn’t hit a baseball. I said, ’Well, the way you hit a golf ball, you can hit a baseball.’”

    From there, the conversation progressed to Strawberry’s past crimes. He pleaded guilty in 1995 to tax evasion for failure to report $350,000 in income from autographs, personal appearances and sales of memorabilia.

    “He told me, ‘You know you did some very bad things,’” Strawberry said. “But he said, ’Today, the way your life is and what you’re doing, your faith and helping people and being sober, I’m giving you a full pardon. You’re going to be clean. I’m wiping everything out.’”

    Strawberry said the news overwhelmed him.

    “I was really thankful to God,” he said. “God has really changed my life and kind of brought me to a really humbling place of doing his work.”

    Strawberry, who lives in St. Louis with his wife of 19 years, Tracy, said he travels about 260 to 270 days each year to speak about Jesus and his life’s transformation.

    He was scheduled to speak at Sheridan Church in September, but his sermon was postponed after the death of Davey Johnson, who managed the Mets’ 1986 world championship team. Lahmeyer “was kind enough to let me go and do the eulogy for my manager,” Strawberry told the congregation.

    Church members and visitors interviewed after Sunday’s assembly said hearing Strawberry’s comeback story inspired them.

    “That’s what the power of Jesus does,” said Shirley Carson, a Trump supporter who began attending Sheridan Church two and a half years ago

    Steve Smith, who lives in nearby Sand Springs, wore a Mets hat and brought a poster for Strawberry to sign.

    “I have waited 40 years to meet Darryl Strawberry,” the longtime Mets fan said after posing for a photo with his baseball hero.

    ___

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Reality TV star Julie Chrisley resentenced to 7 years in bank fraud and tax evasion case

    Reality TV star Julie Chrisley resentenced to 7 years in bank fraud and tax evasion case

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    ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday resentenced Julie Chrisley to seven years in prison for her conviction on bank fraud and tax evasion charges, declining the reality TV star’s request for less time in prison than was originally imposed.

    Chrisley and her husband, Todd Chrisley, gained fame on their show, “Chrisley Knows Best,” which followed their tight-knit family and extravagant lifestyle. A jury in 2022 found them guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. The Chrisleys were also found guilty of tax evasion by hiding their earnings.

    A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June upheld the Chrisleys’ convictions but found a legal error in how the trial judge had calculated Julie Chrisley’s sentence by holding her accountable for the entire bank fraud scheme. The appellate panel sent her case back to the lower court for resentencing.

    Julie Chrisley’s attorney, Alex Little, asked the judge to reduce his client’s sentence to no more than five years. He argued that she was a minor player in the crimes, that her “scattered offenses” were “dramatic mistakes.” He also noted that she has behaved well and taken advantage of enrichment opportunities during her 20 months in prison so far, receiving more than 70 certificates.

    In a court filing, Little had argued that Chrisley’s two youngest children are struggling with “day-to-day functioning” because of their mother’s absence.

    Federal prosecutor Annalise Peters urged the judge to reimpose the seven-year sentence. She argued that prosecutors had been conservative in charging the Chrisleys, that Julie Chrisley was a “core part” of a fraudulent scheme and that she had not apologized, shown remorse or admitted wrongdoing.

    Chrisley’s good behavior in prison does not cancel out an “11-year journey of fraud after fraud after fraud,” Peters said.

    Peters said she felt sympathy for Chrisley’s family but that their suffering was “a natural consequence of this defendant’s criminal choices.”

    Chrisley, dressed in a navy blue prison uniform and with her formerly blond hair now dark brown, addressed the judge.

    “I apologize for my actions and what led me to where I am today,” she said, later adding that her time in prison has been “the most difficult time in my life” and has been hard on her family.

    “I cannot ever repay my children for what they have had to go through, and for that I am sorry,” she said.

    Before the Chrisleys became reality television stars, they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain fraudulent loans, prosecutors said during their trial. They accused the couple of spending lavishly on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel, and using new fraudulent loans to pay off old ones. Todd Chrisley then filed for bankruptcy, according to prosecutors, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans.

    U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross said that when she originally sentenced Chrisley she took into account her age, health and the fact that she was a caretaker for young children and elderly parents. Ross said she imposed a sentence that fell below the guidelines for Chrisley’s crimes and situation and below what prosecutors had requested. That departure from the guidelines was not based on the loss amount or the number of years that Chrisley was involved, so her sentence will not change, Ross said.

    The judge noted that many people she has sent to prison have children and most don’t have the resources or the support system the Chrisleys have.

    “It saddens me every time I see children going through that,” Ross said, later adding that she reminds herself, “I am not the one who made the choices to put the children in that situation.”

    Two of Chrisley’s adult children, Savannah and Chase, attended the hearing. Savannah Chrisley, who spoke in support of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy at the Republican National Convention in July, told reporters outside the courthouse that the prosecution and sentencing of her parents was politically motivated.

    “That’s what you get with an Obama-appointed judge,” she said as her mother was led out of the courtroom by U.S. marshals. Ross was appointed to the bench by then-President Barack Obama and took the bench in November 2014.

    She said her mother will appeal the new sentence.

    Todd Chrisley is serving a sentence of 12 years behind bars. The couple was originally ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution, but Ross said Wednesday that the amount now stands at $4.7 million.

    Todd Chrisley, 56, is at a minimum security federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, with a release date in September 2032, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons website. Julie Chrisley, 51, had been held at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky, and is expected to return there.

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  • IRS Collects $1 Billion In Back Taxes From Wealthy Americans

    IRS Collects $1 Billion In Back Taxes From Wealthy Americans

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    Following a series of initiatives the IRS launched last year to pursue extremely wealthy tax evaders with a focus on individuals with more than $1 million in income and over $250,000 in debt, the organization announced that it has successfully collected $1 billion in back taxes. What do you think?

    “Imagine how many corporate tax breaks you can give with that much money!”

    Eli Orsi, Mug Tester

    Eli Lilly Unveils Insulin That Doesn’t Work On Poor People

    “The IRS better hope they don’t get audited.”

    Mauricio Ibarra, Balloon Inflator

    “This is exactly why I choose to remain unemployed.”

    Rita Belk, Unemployed

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  • Reality TV’s Julie Chrisley must be resentenced in bank fraud, tax evasion case, appeals judges rule

    Reality TV’s Julie Chrisley must be resentenced in bank fraud, tax evasion case, appeals judges rule

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    ATLANTA — Reality TV star Julie Chrisley’s sentence for bank fraud and tax evasion was thrown out Friday by federal appeals judges, who ordered a lower court to redo her punishment over what the appellate panel called a “narrow issue.”

    Julie Chrisley and her husband, Todd Chrisley, who earned fame for the show “Chrisley Knows Best” that chronicled the exploits of their tight-knit family, were convicted in 2022 of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. The Chrisleys were also found guilty of tax evasion by hiding their earnings while showcasing an extravagant lifestyle.

    The couple’s accountant, Peter Tarantino, stood trial with them and was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and willfully filing false tax returns.

    A three-judge panel of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of the Chrisleys and Tarantino in a ruling that found a legal error only in how the trial judge calculated Julie Chrisley’s sentence by holding her accountable for the entire bank fraud scheme. So the appellate panel sent her case back to the lower court for re-sentencing.

    “We’re pleased that the Court agreed that Julie’s sentence was improper, but we’re obviously disappointed that it rejected Todd’s appeal,” Alex Little, an attorney for the couple, said in an email message. He added that the Chrisley family was “hopeful for more good news in the future.”

    Before the Chrisleys became reality television stars, they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain fraudulent loans, prosecutors said during the trial. They accused the couple of spending lavishly on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel, and using new fraudulent loans to pay off old ones. Todd Chrisley then filed for bankruptcy, according to prosecutors, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans.

    Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years in federal prison, and Todd Chrisley got 12 years behind bars. The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.

    Their defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully on appeal that at an IRS officer lied at the trial when he testified about the couple still owing taxes and that prosecutors knowingly failed to correct that false testimony. They also asserted that prosecutors failed to show enough evidence to convict the Chrisleys of tax evasion and conspiracy, or that Julie Chrisley participated in bank fraud.

    Tarantino’s lawyer argued that the accountant was harmed by being tried with the Chrisleys. His request for a new trial was denied.

    The appellate judges found only one error with the case. They ruled that the trial judge at sentencing held Julie Chrisley responsible for the entire bank fraud scheme starting in 2006. The panel ruled neither prosecutors nor the trial judge cited “any specific evidence showing she was involved in 2006.”

    The panel found sufficient evidence tying her to fraud from multiple years starting in 2007.

    “We must vacate Julie’s sentence so the district court can address the narrow issue of what the proper loss amount attributable to Julie is” so that her sentence can be re-calculated, the appeals panel wrote.

    Todd Chrisley, 56, is at a minimum security federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, with a release date in September 2032, while Julie Chrisley, 51, is at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky, and is due for release in July 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.

    Tarantino, 61, s being held in a minimum security federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama, with a release date in August of next year.

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  • Hunter Biden charged with tax crimes in Los Angeles

    Hunter Biden charged with tax crimes in Los Angeles

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    Hunter Biden, the president’s son, was indicted Thursday in Los Angeles on several federal tax charges, marking the start of a second criminal case that will proceed during his father’s reelection campaign.

    Biden, who resides in Malibu, was accused of failing to pay his taxes on time from 2016 to 2019, filing false and fraudulent tax returns in 2018, and tax evasion, according to the 56-page indictment.

    The charges in the nine-count indictment span a period when Biden was addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine, which he documented in graphic detail in a memoir that dwells on the death of his brother, Beau, along with the grief and depression that consumed him and his family.

    Biden has since become sober, paid his taxes, along with penalties and interest, and his lawyers are expected to point to his well-publicized addiction to explain his chaotic financial affairs.

    But prosecutors contend that he “willfully” failed to file and pay his taxes on time, and that rather than pay the IRS, he plunked down cash for a bacchanalia across L.A. featuring “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature.”

    Further, prosecutors allege that when preparing tax returns in 2020, in the early months of his sobriety, Biden misclassified a litany of personal expenses from 2018 as business expenses to reduce his tax burden. Those expenses include tuition for his daughter and a Venmo payment to an exotic dancer, according to the indictment.

    If convicted of all charges — six misdemeanors and three felonies — Biden would face a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison, although federal guidelines would call for a far lower sentence.

    The case was unsealed on the eve of President Biden’s arrival in Southern California for his first in-person fundraising trip here since Hollywood strikes put a pause on campaign events.

    The charges come months after Hunter Biden was set to enter a plea deal for tax and firearms violations. The deal would have avoided time behind bars and included immunity from additional federal charges, but it collapsed under questioning by a federal judge in Delaware. Shortly after, Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, as special counsel.

    Weiss has since brought a fresh indictment in Delaware against Biden for the firearms violations, accusing him of lying about his drug use in 2018 when purchasing a gun that he briefly owned. Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are rarely filed as a standalone case.

    The special counsel also brought the tax charges against Biden in California, asserting in a statement that the president’s son “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.”

    Biden’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, emphasized that his client had long ago paid his tax debts and accused Weiss of bowing to Republican pressure by filing “unprecedented and unconstitutional gun charges.”

    “Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,” Lowell said, an apparent nod to millions of people who annually fail to pay their taxes on time.

    “Now, after five years of investigating with no new evidence — and two years after Hunter paid his taxes in full — the U.S. attorney has piled on nine new charges when he had agreed just months ago to resolve this matter with a pair of misdemeanors.”

    Lowell noted that he had written to the special counsel’s office this week, seeking a “customary meeting” to discuss the tax inquiry. “The response was media leaks today that these charges were being filed,” Lowell said.

    The indictment offers the most detailed window into the Department of Justice’s long-running inquiry into Biden.

    In his memoir and in several interviews, Biden has been open about the depths of his addiction and unsavory lifestyle in L.A., when he lived out of the Chateau Marmont, Hollywood Roosevelt and other luxury hotels in a haze of sex and crack-induced euphoria. “I never slept. There was no clock. Day bled into night and night into day,” Biden wrote in “Beautiful Things,” in which he recounts his journey to sobriety.

    Still, the grand jury indictment outlines how such sordid travails were fiscally carried out — with $7 million in income from 2016 to 2020 from various business dealings — and uses Biden’s own words to claim discrepancies in his tax returns.

    The most serious charges stem from 2018, the height of Biden’s addiction. Prosecutors allege the filing of that year’s tax returns for both Biden and his business, Owasco PC, was fraudulent and evasive.

    Those returns were prepared in early 2020 by an accounting team in L.A. Prosecutors describe a three-hour meeting that Biden had with the accountants that year where he reviewed records to confirm their accuracy and used a yellow highlighter to indicate outlays that should not be deducted as business expenses.

    According to the indictment, Biden failed to identify several personal expenses, including the Venmo payment to an exotic dancer; $2,312.50 to a test prep service for one of his daughters; and a $30,000 law school tuition payment for his daughter.

    The indictment makes no mention of Biden’s father, nor does it specify the amount that Biden allegedly under-reported his taxes or how that would ultimately impact his tax bill.

    Although prosecutors claim that Biden in 2020 “never told” his accountants about his extensive drug and alcohol use, “which might have prompted greater scrutiny of his claims of hundreds of thousands of dollars in business expenses,” he had already begun discussing his alcohol and drug addiction in public.

    Times staff writer Stacy Perman contributed to this report.

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    Matt Hamilton

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  • Shakira to appear in Barcelona court on the first day of her tax fraud trial in Spain

    Shakira to appear in Barcelona court on the first day of her tax fraud trial in Spain

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    BARCELONA, Spain — Global pop star Shakira has been summoned Monday to a Barcelona courthouse to attend the first day of her trial for allegedly defrauding Spanish tax officials of millions of euros.

    Shakira, 46, faces six counts of failing to pay the Spanish government 14.5 million euros (about $15.8 million) in taxes between 2012 and 2014. The multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy winner has denied any wrongdoing and said she had paid everything she owed.

    The case made headlines in 2018. It currently hinges on where Shakira lived during that period. Prosecutors in Barcelona have alleged that the Colombian singer spent more than half of that period in Spain and therefore should have paid taxes on her worldwide income in the country even though her official residence was still in the Bahamas. Tax rates are much lower in the Bahamas than in Spain.

    Prosecutors said in July that they would seek a prison sentence of 8 years and two months and a fine of 24 million euros ($26.1 million) for the singer who has won over fans worldwide for her hits in Spanish and English in different musical genres.

    Shakira’s public relations firm said that she had already paid all that she owed and an additional 3 million euros (about $3.2 million) in interest.

    Shakira turned down a deal offered to her by prosecutors to settle her case in July 2022, saying, via her Spanish public relations firm Llorente y Cuenca, that she “believes in her innocence and chooses to leave the issue in the hands of the law.” The details of that potential deal were not made public.

    A three-judge panel, led by magistrate José Manuel del Amo, will preside over the trial. Shakira is supposed to be inside the courtroom by 10:00 a.m.

    The trial is initially scheduled to conclude on Dec. 14.

    Shakira was named in the “Paradise Papers” leaks that detailed the offshore tax arrangements of numerous high-profile individuals, including musical celebrities like Madonna and U2’s Bono.

    The defense team for Shakira, the Barcelona firm Molins Defensa Penal, said in Nov. 2022 that she had not spent more than 60 days a year inside the country during the period in question, adding she would have needed to have spent half the year inside Spain to be considered a fiscal resident. Her defense argued that she was away from Barcelona for long stretches on a world tour in 2011 and then spent a lot of time in the United States as part of a jury for the NBC television music talent show The Voice.

    Spanish prosecutors disagree, and the investigating judge Marco Juberías wrote in 2021 on the conclusion of the three-year probe into the charges that he found there existed “sufficient evidence of criminality” for the case to go to trial. Shakira defended her innocence when she was questioned by Juberías in 2019.

    She lost an appeal to have the case thrown out last year.

    Shakira established her fiscal residency in Spain in 2014 at the same time her oldest child was enrolled in school in Barcelona, according to her defense team, as she was going to spend more time in the country with her family.

    In Spain, an investigative judge carries out an initial probe and decides either to throw the case out or send it to trial. A court can waive prison time for first-time offenders if they are sentenced to less than two years behind bars.

    In a separate investigation, Spanish state prosecutors charged Shakira in September for her alleged evasion of 6.7 million euros in tax on her 2018 income. They accused her of using an offshore company based in a tax haven to avoid paying the tax.

    Spain has cracked down on soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo over the past decade for not paying their full due in taxes. The former Barcelona and Real Madrid stars were found guilty of evasion but both avoided prison time after their sentences were suspended.

    Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has two children, Milan and Sasha, with Barcelona soccer star Gerard Pique. The couple lived together in Barcelona before ending their 11-year relationship last year. Since then, she resided in Miami.

    After triumphing at the Latin Grammy Awards gala in Seville on Thursday, Shakira thanked her fans in Spain for “being with me in the good times and the bad.”

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  • IRS Uses AI to Fight Tax Evasion, Millionaires Dodging Taxes | Entrepreneur

    IRS Uses AI to Fight Tax Evasion, Millionaires Dodging Taxes | Entrepreneur

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    The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a new partner in assisting the crackdown on illegal tax practices: artificial intelligence.

    The agency is now using AI to investigate tax evasion in large partnerships, including hedge funds, private equity groups, real estate investors, and major law firms, The New York Times reported. The initiative is part of the IRS’s efforts to enhance its ability to tackle and address nuanced cases that had previously overwhelmed the agency. The IRS plans to initiate examinations into 75 of the nation’s largest partnerships identified with AI assistance.

    “These are complex cases for I.R.S. teams to unpack,” Daniel Werfel, the I.R.S. commissioner, told the outlet. “The I.R.S. has simply not had enough resources or staffing to address partnerships; in a real sense, we’ve been overwhelmed in this area for years.”

    Fueled by $80 billion allocated through the Inflation Reduction Act, the agency aims to increase federal revenue by targeting tax evasion and sophisticated accounting practices used to avoid tax payments — cases that in the past the IRS didn’t have the resources to handle given limited resources.

    The focus on partnerships is part of a broader IRS effort to scrutinize wealthier taxpayers in 2024, focusing on pursuing millionaires with significant unpaid taxes. Additionally, the IRS intends to increase scrutiny of digital assets and investigate how high-income taxpayers use foreign bank accounts to avoid disclosing financial information, according to the report.

    This isn’t the first time AI has piqued the interest of government institutions. As the availability and use of AI have become mainstream, countless industries have adopted the technology to carry out everyday tasks or combat ones that were previously onerous.

    Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order calling on the California Department of Technology and other agencies to study the use of generative AI by state workers, create training programs for its utilization, as well as recognize the potential risks and benefits of emerging AI technology for the state government, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

    “This is a potentially transformative technology — comparable to the advent of the internet — and we’re only scratching the surface of understanding what GenAI is capable of,” Newsom said in a statement, per The Chronicle. “We recognize both the potential benefits and risks these tools enable.”

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    Madeline Garfinkle

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  • IRS Lists Monetized Installment Sales As Abusive Transactions

    IRS Lists Monetized Installment Sales As Abusive Transactions

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    If you are a seller of appreciated property, it may be attractive to sell it on the installment method. That way, you pay tax over time as you get the installment payments, rather than paying the tax all at once. Subject to technical rules and limits, that is perfectly legal, section 453 of the tax code allows it. But what if you pay tax in installments, but arrange it so you get most or all of your cash up front? The IRS has issued proposed regulations identifying certain monetized installment sale transactions and substantially similar transactions as listed transactions.

    That means the IRS has called them abusive tax transactions that must be reported to the IRS. Material advisors and certain participants in these listed transactions are required to file disclosures with the IRS and are subject to penalties for failure to disclose these transactions. The IRS listed monetized installment sales this year as part of the agency’s Dirty Dozen list of common tax scams and schemes. Monetized installment sale transactions generally include the following elements:

    • A seller of appreciated property, or a person acting on the seller’s behalf, identifies a buyer who is willing to purchase the property in exchange for cash or other property.
    • The seller enters into an agreement to sell the property to an intermediary in exchange for an installment obligation, which provides for interest payments from the intermediary to the seller.
    • The seller then purportedly transfers the property to the intermediary, although the intermediary never actually takes title or takes title to the property only briefly before transferring title to the buyer in exchange for the buyer’s cash or other property.
    • The seller also obtains a loan with an agreement that provides for interest payments from the seller to the lender that equal the amount of interest that the intermediary pays the seller under the installment obligation.
    • Both the installment agreement and the loan provide for interest due over the same periods, with principal due in a balloon payment at or near the end of the term of the installment agreement and loan.
    • The sales proceeds received by the intermediary from the buyer, reduced by certain fees, are provided to the lender to fund the loan to the seller or transferred to an escrow account of which the lender is a beneficiary.
    • The lender agrees to repay these amounts to the intermediary over the course of the term of the installment obligation.
    • The seller then treats the sale as an installment sale under section 453 on a Federal income tax return for the year of the purported sale and defers recognition of gain until the year in which the seller receives the principal balloon payment.

    Written comments regarding the proposed regulations must be submitted by Sept. 3, 2023. A public hearing has been scheduled for October 12, 2023. As part of the Dirty Dozen awareness effort, the IRS encourages people to report individuals who promote improper and abusive tax schemes as well as tax return preparers who deliberately prepare improper returns. For more information, see Abusive Tax Schemes and Abusive Tax Return Preparers.

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    Robert W. Wood, Senior Contributor

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  • Biden’s son Hunter arrives at a Delaware court where he’s expected to plead guilty to tax crimes

    Biden’s son Hunter arrives at a Delaware court where he’s expected to plead guilty to tax crimes

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    WILMINGTON, Del. — WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter arrived Wednesday at a federal court where he is expected to plead guilty to two tax crimes and admit possessing a gun as a drug user in a deal with the Justice Department that’s likely to spare him time behind bars.

    U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump, will preside over the hearing and must sign off on the deal, in which prosecutors are recommending two years of probation. Hunter Biden is not expected to be sentenced on Wednesday.

    The deal, announced last month, comes after a yearslong Justice Department investigation into the taxes and foreign business dealings of the Democratic president’s second son, who has acknowledged struggling with addiction following the 2015 death of his brother, Beau Biden.

    While legally this will clear the air for Hunter Biden and avert a trial that would have generated weeks or months of distracting headlines, the politics remain as messy as ever, with Republicans insisting he got a sweetheart deal and the Justice Department pressing ahead on investigations into Trump, the GOP’s 2024 presidential primary front-runner.

    Trump is already facing a state criminal case in New York and a federal indictment in Florida. But last week, a target letter was sent to Trump from special counsel Jack Smith that suggests the former president may soon be indicted on new federal charges, this time involving his struggle to cling to power after his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

    Republicans claim a double standard, in which the president’s son got off easy while the president’s rival has been unfairly castigated. Congressional Republicans are pursuing their own investigations into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden’s dealings, including foreign payments.

    On Tuesday, a dustup arose after Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee filed court documents urging Noreika to consider testimony from IRS whistleblowers who alleged Justice Department interference in the investigation.

    Shortly after their motion was filed, a court clerk received a call requesting that “sensitive grand jury, taxpayer and Social Security information” be kept under seal, according to an oral order from the judge. The clerk said the lawyer gave her name and said she worked with an attorney from the Ways and Means Committee but was in fact a lawyer with the defense team.

    Noreika demanded the defense team show why she should not consider sanctioning them for “misrepresentations to the court.” Defense attorneys responded that their lawyer had represented herself truthfully from the start and called the matter a misunderstanding.

    President Biden, meanwhile, has said very little publicly, except to note, “I’m very proud of my son.”

    Under the terms announced last month, Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges of failure to pay more than $100,000 in taxes from over $1.5 million in income in both 2017 and 2018. The back taxes have since been paid, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. The maximum penalty for the charges would be a year in prison.

    Hunter Biden also was charged with possession of a firearm by a person who is a known drug user: He had a Colt Cobra .38 Special for 11 days in October 2018. According to the pre-trial agreement, he agreed to enter into a diversion agreement, which means that he won’t technically plead guilty to the crime, but if he adheres to the terms of his agreement the case will be wiped from his record. If not, the deal is withdrawn. This type of agreement is an option usually for nonviolent offenders with substance abuse issues. Otherwise, the charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

    Christopher Clark, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, said in a statement last month when the deal was announced that it was his understanding that the five-year investigation had now been resolved.

    “I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life,” Clark said then. “He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”

    ___ Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

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  • How UBS became Switzerland’s mega bank

    How UBS became Switzerland’s mega bank

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    UBS Group AG, with over $5 trillion in invested assets, is Switzerland’s largest bank. The company has a sprawling international footprint, with over half of its wealth management assets coming from clients in the United States. Experts believe these customers are drawn to strict bank-client laws in Switzerland. In recent decades, scandals have embroiled both UBS and its latest acquisition, Credit Suisse. After regulators quickly approved of the merger, fresh litigation risks have come to light.

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  • George Santos Funds Legal Defense By Selling Official Ray-Bans For 90% Off

    George Santos Funds Legal Defense By Selling Official Ray-Bans For 90% Off

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    WASHINGTON—Reeling in the wake of his indictment on 13 federal charges, including wire fraud and money laundering, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) revealed Thursday that he would fund his legal defense by selling official Ray-Bans for 90% off. “These are the real deal and going for much, much cheaper than market price,” the embattled representative said in a fundraising email to his constituents, which included a 500-character-long hyperlink ending in a .tz domain name. “One day only, tell you friends [sic]. I had a buddy and apparently they just fall off his truck. There’s nothing wrong with them. See, the picutres [sic]. These are the real deal w/ frames and lenses. Color your choice. Just input your info and social. They ship in twenty weeks.” The email went on to say that if supporters acted quickly in helping Santos defeat the charges, he could throw in a “Guci [sic] bag” at a massive discount.

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  • Senate: Credit Suisse still helps rich Americans evade taxes

    Senate: Credit Suisse still helps rich Americans evade taxes

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    U.S. lawmakers say Credit Suisse has kept allowing wealthy Americans to dodge tax payments

    GENEVA — U.S. lawmakers say Credit Suisse kept allowing wealthy Americans to dodge tax payments, finding after a two-year investigation that the embattled Swiss bank violated a 2014 plea agreement it entered for enabling tax evasion.

    The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday pointed to a possible criminal conspiracy tied to nearly $100 million in secret offshore accounts belonging to one family of American taxpayers that the bank didn’t disclose.

    The committee said its findings show that more than $700 million was concealed in violation of Credit Suisse’s 9-year-old plea deal.

    “Credit Suisse got a discount on the penalty it faced in 2014 for enabling tax evasion because bank executives swore up and down they’d get out of the business of defrauding the United States,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of the committee. “This investigation shows Credit Suisse did not make good on that promise, and the bank’s pending acquisition does not wipe the slate clean.”

    The Swiss government and regulators pressed for a $3.25 billion takeover of long-troubled Credit Suisse by its rival bank UBS amid turmoil in the global financial system. The collapse of two U.S. banks unleashed fears that hit Switzerland’s second-largest bank, whose shares tanked and customers pulled out their money.

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  • Trump Organization convicted in executive tax dodge scheme

    Trump Organization convicted in executive tax dodge scheme

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    NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s company was convicted of tax fraud on Tuesday in a case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney, a significant repudiation of financial practices at the former president’s business.

    The guilty verdict came on the second day of deliberations following a trial in which the Trump Organization was accused of being complicit in a scheme by top executives to avoid paying personal income taxes on job perks such as rent-free apartments and luxury cars.

    The conviction is a validation for New York prosecutors, who have spent three years investigating the former president and his businesses, though the penalties aren’t expected to be severe enough to jeopardize the future of Trump’s company.

    As punishment, the Trump Organization could be fined up to $1.6 million — a relatively small amount for a company of its size, though the conviction might make some of its future deals more complicated.

    Trump, who recently announced he was running for president again, has said the case against his company was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” waged against him by vindictive Democrats.

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  • Mexican president suffers court reverse, tensions rise

    Mexican president suffers court reverse, tensions rise

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    MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Supreme Court struck down part of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s ‘jail, no bail’ policy Thursday.

    The court voted against mandatory pre-trial detention for people accused of fraud, smuggling or tax evasion. Because trials often take years in Mexico, the justices argued that being held in prison during trial was equivalent to being subjected to punishment before being convicted.

    Instead, prosecutors would have to convince judges there are valid reasons not to release people on their own recognizance — for example, by arguing that they may pose a flight risk. The justices may vote next week on whether the possibility of pre-trial release may be justified for other crimes.

    In 2019, López Obrador imposed mandatory pre-trial detention for a long list of crimes, and he views it as part of his crack-down on white collar criminals, like those accused of tax fraud. Mexico does not have cash bail, but before López Obrador changed the rules, judges could release suspects and require them to wear monitors, sign in at court or agree not to travel.

    The president has long railed about corrupt judges and court rulings he doesn’t like, and Thursday’s supreme court vote was likely to spark more vocal attacks by the president.

    Even before the ruling, López Obrador criticized the court for the widely expected Thursday vote.

    “How can judges, magistrates and justices be defending white collar criminals? How can it be that money triumphs over justice?” López Obrador said before the ruling. “What tremendous shamelessness!”

    The president has not been shy about accusing lower court judges of releasing drug and other suspects on procedural or technical points he clearly does not agree with. Underpaid, and often under threat, Mexican prosecutors often don’t bring strong cases, or make intentional or unintentional errors.

    “They free them because the prosecution case was poorly written, or for any other excuse, any other pretext,” the president said, “because they have become very, very, very fixated on the fine points of the law.”

    López Obrador has fought the courts, often attacking their legitimacy and singling out individual judges for scorn, because courts have often blocked some of the president’s key initiatives.

    Observers say the courts have acted because López Obrador has often shoved through laws that openly contradict the country’s Constitution or international treaties.

    Previously, the president has focused most of his wrath on lower courts. On Thursday at a press briefing with López Obrador, Ricardo Mejia, Mexico’s assistant secretary of public safety, said the administration would recommend bringing criminal charges against a judge who ordered the release of a suspected drug gang leader.

    But much of the president’s anger Thursday was directed at the Supreme Court, which is about to hear an appeal by a group that says government money and property should no longer be used to erect Christmas-season Nativity scenes, a staple in Mexico.

    The appeal says that the government’s participation in displaying Nativity scenes violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

    The president angrily rejected that, even though the court has not ruled on the issue yet.

    “That’s an example. Why should they go against the traditions, the customs of the people?” López Obrador said.

    López Obrador expanded the list of charges that require a suspect to be detained pending trial to 16, including some nonviolent crimes that may carry sentences of just a few months — far less than the amount of time most people spend awaiting trial.

    Only about two of every 10 people accused of a crime in Mexico are ever found guilty. That means that of the estimated 92,000 suspects held pending trial — often in the same cells with hardened criminals — around 75,000 won’t be convicted despite sometimes spending years locked up in Mexico’s crowded, dangerous prisons.

    Trials in Mexico can drag on for a surprisingly long time. Two men were recently released with ankle monitors after spending 17 years in prison while on trial for murder.

    Being put into Mexican prisons, which are overcrowded, underfunded and controlled by gangs, can be hell for those on pretrial detention, who often enter with no prison smarts or gang connections.

    The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says that “mandatory pretrial detention violates international standards on human rights.”

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  • Reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced for $30M bank fraud, tax evasion – National | Globalnews.ca

    Reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced for $30M bank fraud, tax evasion – National | Globalnews.ca

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    Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley were handed hefty sentences on Monday for a years-long conspiracy with their accountant to defraud multiple Atlanta-area banks and hide their wealth from tax authorities, all while flaunting their lavish lifestyle in front of television cameras.

    Todd, 54, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and his wife Julie, 49, will serve seven years behind bars after both were found guilty on charges of bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiring to defraud the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Julie was additionally convicted for wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

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    The Chrisleys will each serve three years of supervised release after their prison sentences and have been ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined later.

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    Prosecutors say that the couple, known for their reality show Chrisley Knows Best, submitted fake documents to community banks to secure more than US$30 million in fraudulent loans. The pair then spent the money on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and vacations, then opened up new fraudulent loans to pay back the old ones, according to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan in a June press release.


    FIle – promotional image from ‘Chrisley Knows Best.’ (L-R) Faye Chrisley, Chase Chrisley, Todd Chrisley, Savannah Chrisley, Chloe Chrisley, Julie Chrisley, Grayson Chrisley.

    Tommy Garcia/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

    After their money ran out, Todd filed for bankruptcy and walked away from more than $20 million in debt. Around this time, the Chrisleys started their reality show, where they “flaunted their wealth and lifestyle to the American public,” prosecutors wrote, and then hid the millions they made from the show from the IRS.

    The couple’s accountant, Peter Tarantino, 60, was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the scheme, and was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and willfully filing false tax returns. Following his prison sentence, Tarantino will serve three years of supervised release.

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    Instead of keeping a low profile while evading taxes, the Chrisleys went in the opposite direction, prosecutors said.

    “In 2013, while Todd was in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, the Chrisleys filmed a promotional video for their new reality show about their extravagant lifestyle. In the video, Todd boasted that he ‘make[s] millions of dollars a year,’ and in another shot, where he is standing in his walk-in closet in his expansive house, he bragged that ‘in a year, we probably spend over $300,000, sometimes more, just on clothing,’” prosecutors said, according to CBS.

    Chrisley Knows Best, which ran for nine seasons and followed “real estate tycoon” Todd and his family, has been cancelled following the sentencing, as well as spin-off show Growing up Chrisley, according to Deadline. Chrisley Knows Best was initially renewed for a tenth season before the couple were convicted, and USA Network will air a handful of episodes that were filmed before the trial.

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    Prosecutors say that the Chrisleys funnelled their reality show income into a loan-out company that was kept solely in Julie’s name to avoid paying half a million dollars in delinquent taxes owed by Todd. When the IRS requested information about Julie’s accounts, the pair attempted to further hide their income by transferring ownership of their corporate bank account to Todd’s mother.

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    “The Chrisleys have built an empire based on the lie that their wealth came from dedication and hard work,” prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing court filing. “The jury’s unanimous verdict sets the record straight: Todd and Julie Chrisley are career swindlers who have made a living by jumping from one fraud scheme to another, lying to banks, stiffing vendors, and evading taxes at every corner.”

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    The Chrisleys also submitted a false document to a grand jury that was investigating their crimes and then convinced friends and family members to lie under oath during their trial, prosecutors argued. Neither has shown any remorse and they have, instead, blamed others for their criminal conduct, prosecutors wrote.

    “The Chrisleys are unique given the varied and wide-ranging scope of their fraudulent conduct and the extent to which they engaged in fraud and obstructive behaviour for a prolonged period of time,” prosecutors said.

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    Lawyers for Todd had argued in a court filing that he should not face more than nine years in prison. Meanwhile, lawyers for Julie said a reasonable sentence for her would be probation with special conditions and no prison time.

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    Todd’s lawyers said in a filing that the government never produced any evidence that he meant to defraud the banks, and that the loss amount calculated was incorrect. They also noted that the offences were committed a long time ago and said he has no serious criminal history and has medical conditions that “would make imprisonment disproportionately harsh.”

    Julie’s lawyers contended that she played a minimal role in the conspiracy and was not involved when the loans discussed in sentencing documents were obtained. She has no prior convictions, is an asset to her community and has “extraordinary family obligations,” her lawyers wrote, as they asked for a sentence of probation, restitution and community service.


    Screengrab from ‘Chrisley Knows Best.’ (l-r) Grayson Chrisley, Julie Chrisley, Todd Chrisley.

    USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

    The Chrisleys have three children together and full custody of the 10-year-old daughter of Todd’s son from a prior marriage. One of the couple’s children, Grayson Chrisley, 16, was hospitalized earlier this month after he rear-ended a stopped vehicle on I-65N, according to Nashville police.

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    Grayson was “unable to recall anything from the accident, possibly due to a head injury,” according to the department.

    — with files from The Associated Press


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    Ronaldo fined for tax evasion, avoids jail




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  • Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley to be sentenced

    Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley to be sentenced

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    ATLANTA — Todd and Julie Chrisley were driven by greed as they engaged in an extensive bank fraud scheme and then hid their wealth from tax authorities while flaunting their lavish lifestyle, federal prosecutors said, arguing the reality television stars should receive lengthy prison sentences.

    The Chrisleys gained fame with their show “Chrisley Knows Best,” which follows their tight-knit, boisterous family. They were found guilty on federal charges in June and are set to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in a hearing that begins Monday and is likely to extend into Tuesday.

    Using a process to calculate a sentencing guideline range based on several factors, federal prosecutors determined the upper end of that range is nearly 22 years for Todd Chrisley and about 12 and a half years for Julie Chrisley. The couple should also be ordered to pay restitution, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

    “The Chrisleys have built an empire based on the lie that their wealth came from dedication and hard work,” prosecutors wrote. “The jury’s unanimous verdict sets the record straight: Todd and Julie Chrisley are career swindlers who have made a living by jumping from one fraud scheme to another, lying to banks, stiffing vendors, and evading taxes at every corner.”

    The Chrisleys disagree with the government’s guideline calculations. Todd Chrisley’s lawyers wrote in a filing that he should not face more than nine years in prison and that the judge should sentence him below the lower end of the guidelines. Julie Chrisley’s lawyers wrote that a reasonable sentence for her would be probation with special conditions and no prison time.

    The Chrisleys were convicted in June on charges of bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiring to defraud the IRS. Julie Chrisley was also convicted of wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

    Peter Tarantino, an accountant hired by the couple, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and willfully filing false tax returns. He is set to be sentenced along with the Chrisleys.

    Prosecutors have said the couple submitted fake documents to banks and managed to secure more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. Once that scheme fell apart, they walked away from their responsibility to repay the loans when Todd Chrisley declared bankruptcy. While in bankruptcy, they started their reality show and “flaunted their wealth and lifestyle to the American public,” prosecutors wrote. When they began making millions from their show, they hid the money from the IRS to avoid paying taxes.

    The Chrisleys submitted a false document to a grand jury that was investigating their crimes and then convinced friends and family members to tell lies while testifying under oath during their trial, prosecutors wrote. Neither of them has shown any remorse and they have, instead, blamed others for their own criminal conduct, prosecutors wrote.

    “The Chrisleys are unique given the varied and wide-ranging scope of their fraudulent conduct and the extent to which they engaged in fraud and obstructive behavior for a prolonged period of time,” prosecutors wrote.

    Todd Chrisley’s lawyers wrote in a court filing that the government never produced any evidence that he meant to defraud any of the banks and that the loss amount calculated by the government is incorrect. They also noted that the offenses of which he was convicted were committed a long time ago. He has no serious criminal history and has medical conditions that “would make imprisonment disproportionately harsh,” they wrote.

    His lawyers submitted letters from friends and business associates that show “a history of good deeds and striving to help others.” People who rely on Chrisley — including his mother and the “scores of people” employed by his television shows — will be harmed while he’s in prison, his lawyers wrote.

    They urged the judge to give him a prison sentence below the guideline range followed by supervised release and restitution.

    Julie Chrisley’s lawyers wrote in a filing that she had a minimal role in the conspiracy and was not involved when the loans discussed in sentencing documents were obtained. She has no prior convictions, is an asset to her community and has “extraordinary family obligations,” her lawyers wrote, as they asked for a sentence of probation, restitution and community service.

    The Chrisleys have three children together, including one who is 16, and also have full custody of the 10-year-old daughter of Todd Chrisley’s son from a prior marriage. Julie Chrisley is the primary caregiver to her ailing mother-in-law, the filing says. Her lawyers submitted letters from family and friends that show she is “hard-working, unfailingly selfless, devoted to her family and friend, highly respected by all who know her, and strong of character.”

    If the judge does sentence both Chrisleys to prison, Julie Chrisley’s lawyers asked that their prison terms be staggered so she can remain on supervised release until her husband is done serving his sentence or until their granddaughter turns 18.

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