Justice Department Announces Plea Agreement in UBS Case
On December 22, 2010, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York issued a press release, found here, regarding a former UBS client who entered a guilty plea to conspiring to defrauding the United States and for filing false income tax returns by hiding $4.9 million in UBS bank accounts. As part of his plea agreement, Ernest Vogliano agreed to a civil penalty of approximately $940K, or 50% of the value as of December 31, 2004. Mr. Vogliano was one of seven individuals indicted in April, and is the fourth to enter a guilty plea admitting is culpability.
In 2000 and 2002 Mr. Vogliano opened accounts at UBS using shell corporations in order to avoid the Bank Secrecy Act reporting requirement. In order to repatriate funds to the United States Mr. Vogliano traveled to Switzerland to obtain travelers checks that he both personally brought to the United States and mailed to the United States in order to evade detection by federal authorities.
As we previously reported, Mr. Gadola’s prosecution and plea demonstrates that the Department of Justice is targeting both participants of tax avoidance schemes and those individuals that assist in evading tax by United States citizens and resident aliens. Further prosecutions are anticipated in the months and years to come.