Fraude Fiscal Millonario: 16 Años de Cárcel y $22M en Restitución
Dos abogados fiscales y un agente de seguros fueron condenados a un total de 16 años de prisión por operar un esquema fraudulento conocido como Gain Elimination Plan, diseñado para ocultar ingresos al IRS mediante tarifas ficticias y seguros de vida vinculados a ingresos ocultos. La operación causó una pérdida fiscal superior a $22 millones. Además de sus condenas, deberán pagar una restitución equivalente al daño causado.
Aquí la noticia: IRS.gov
Two tax attorneys and an insurance agent were sentenced today to a combined 16 years in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States and helping clients file false tax returns, based on their promotion and operation of a fraudulent tax shelter, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Michael Elliott Kohn, an attorney, was sentenced to seven years in prison. Catherine Elizabeth Chollet, also an attorney, was sentenced to four years in prison. David Shane Simmons, an insurance agent and broker, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, “Trey” Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Charlotte Field Office (IRS-CI), join U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement.
“The defendants are tax professionals that conspired to promote a fraudulent tax scheme based on deceit and fabrications to impede and impair our nation’s tax laws and cheat our tax system,” said U.S. Attorney King. “My office is committed to uncovering schemes that undermine the integrity of our tax system and bringing tax offenders to justice.”
“The use of tax schemes by the defendants were clearly intended to conceal income from the IRS,” said Special Agent in Charge Eakins. “Today’s sentencing reinforces IRS-CI’s commitment to the American taxpayer to identify and help bring to prosecution people who promote illegal schemes designed to avoid the payment of taxes.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from 2011 to November 2022, Kohn and Chollet, both of St. Louis, and Simmons, who is based out of Jefferson, North Carolina, promoted, marketed and sold to clients the Gain Elimination Plan, a fraudulent tax scheme.
The defendants designed the plan to conceal clients’ income from the IRS by inflating business expenses through fictitious royalties and management fees. These fictitious fees were paid, on paper, to a limited partnership largely owned by a charity. In reality, Kohn and Chollet fabricated the fees.
Kohn and Chollet advised clients that the plan’s limited partnership was required to obtain insurance on the life of the clients to cover the income that was allocated to the charitable organization. The death benefit was directly tied to the anticipated profitability of the clients’ businesses and how much of the clients’ taxable income was intended to be sheltered.
Simmons earned more than $2.3 million in commissions for selling the insurance policies, splitting the commissions with Kohn and Chollet. Kohn and Chollet received more than $1 million from Simmons. Simmons also filed false personal tax returns that underreported his business income and inflated his business expenses, resulting in a tax loss of more than $480,000.
In total, the defendants caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $22 million.
In addition to the terms of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell for the Western District of North Carolina ordered each defendant to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $22,515,615 in restitution to the United States.
IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Finley with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, and Trial Attorneys Kevin Schneider and Todd Ellinwood of the Justice Department’s Tax Division prosecuted the case.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.