Mister Anderson. I've been looking forward to this.
Posted on 02/28/2005 1:21:08 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 - A Washington telecommunications entrepreneur has been accused of evading more than $200 million in taxes by hiding almost a half-billion dollars in personal income through an elaborate network of offshore corporations.
The Justice Department said today that the entrepreneur, Walter Anderson, took in vast sums throughout the 1990's in what it called one of the largest tax-evasion schemes ever. The department said Mr. Anderson, 51, evaded paying about $170 million in federal taxes and $40 million in taxes to the District of Columbia.
Mr. Anderson was arrested at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Saturday afternoon after a flight from Europe, Kenneth L. Wainstein, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, said at a news briefing today. A federal grand jury in Washington returned a 12-count indictment against Mr. Anderson last Wednesday.
If convicted of all charges, which include obstructing the Internal Revenue Service, tax evasion and fraud, Mr. Anderson faces up to 80 years in prison, the department said.
"Most people obey the tax laws," said Assistant Attorney General Eileen J. O'Connor of the Justice Department's Tax Division. "They report their income to the I.R.S. and pay the taxes due. Honest taxpayers deserve the assurance that those who willfully dodge their tax obligations will be investigated, prosecuted and punished."
Mr. Anderson was to be arraigned before a magistrate in Washington this afternoon. His lawyer, John Moustakas of Washington, did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
The Justice Department said that Mr. Anderson was involved in starting long-distance telecommunications businesses as the industry was being deregulated, and that he realized in the early 1990's that the merger of his first successful company, Mid-Atlantic Telecom, with another company would result in substantial taxable earnings.
To avoid paying those taxes, the department said, he formed an offshore corporation called Gold & Appel Transfer in the British Virgin Islands and hired a trust company to serve as Gold & Appel's registered agent and sold director. Gold & Appel was owned by another British Virgin Islands company previously formed by Mr. Anderson, the department said.
Mr. Anderson structured his dealings so that he had complete, albeit hidden, control of the corporations, prosecutors said. They said he further obscured his holdings by forming another offshore corporation in Panama, transferring Gold & Appel shares to that entity and having the shares sent to a mail drop in Amsterdam that he had rented under an alias.
The indictment said Mr. Anderson concealed his illegal dealings from his accountants, repeatedly tried to thwart I.R.S. inquiries, sometimes used the alias "Mark Roth" and falsely proclaimed himself a citizen of the Dominican Republic when he opened accounts with a New Jersey bank.
From October 1992 to July 1996, prosecutors said, Mr. Anderson transferred his interests in Mid-Atlantic telecom and two other telecommunications companies to the offshore companies he had formed, thereby creating the impression that the companies, not Mr. Anderson himself, should be liable for taxes as the telecommunications companies appreciated in value.
Mr. Anderson did not report the net earnings of Gold & Appel on his federal and District of Columbia tax returns as he was required to, prosecutors said. They said he sometimes claimed that he lived in Florida, which has no state income tax, during the time specified during the indictment, when in fact he resided at two homes in Washington.
At other times, prosecutors said, Mr. Anderson wrongly obtained a Virginia driver's license and registered his car there to avoid paying District of Columbia "use taxes" on paintings and other expensive items purchased outside of Washington but for use there.
Mark W. Everson, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said: "Average Americans deserve to feel confident that when they pay their taxes, neighbors and competitors are doing the same. The I.R.S. holds all Americans, including the most wealthy, to the same standards of honesty."
What is a sold director?
Tight keyboard.
Ed Markey kept my cable bills down. blblblblblblblblblblb.
So that's how people were "happier" with their jobs during the Clinton reign!
Mister Anderson. I've been looking forward to this.
Timing is everything, five years ago he could have paid a small portion of that and like Marc Rich received a pardon.
One word: greedy.
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