 The Wild Wild World of Wealth |  |
Taking your chances with the IRS is often called the “audit roulette.” Like the popular term Russian roulette, the stakes are quite high. If you avoid detection, you save money. If you lose, at best you have to pay all the tax you failed to pay, plus interest, plus penalties. Getting caught also means you are more likely to get audited again in the future.
Lester Morrison fancied himself as one of the busiest tax preparers in the New York City metropolitan area. At various times he operated multiple tax return services in New York and New Jersey. The IRS says that Morrison was filing fraudulent returns, thousands of them. Prosecutors say that the tax loss from his crimes is upwards of $25 million. On January 21st, U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein sentenced Morrison to 6 years in federal prison. When he is released, he is prohibited from preparing tax returns for others.
Prosecutors says that Morris told Haley that he had come across an “exclusive investment opportunity” started by the owner of the Houston Astros. The fund was closed to new investors and was claimed to have generated 20% monthly returns for the preceding 8 years. Conveniently, Morris called Haley several days later and said one of the investors had died creating an opening.
Have you ever wanted to kick somebody’s ass? No I don’t mean the Sisters of Charity to the left. Check out Brian Mahany’s latest post. You won’t believe the story he unearthed on a government website.
Acrimoney ran a post last October about reloading—that’s hitting the same Ponzi victim twice. Now with some Madoff victims losing the spread between a twenty and fifty cents recovery, I wonder if we’re seeing more of the same. Is it savvy investing or is there a functional equivalent of expert networks in the Ponzi world?
Nova Benefit Plans of Simsbury, Connecticut claims it has “drawn together the very best and brightest in the welfare benefit planning industry.” The IRS says it is an abusive tax shelter and a scam. What is the real story?
Nova and the IRS are currently litigating in a Connecticut federal court. Meanwhile 70 heavily armed IRS criminal division special agents recently raided Nova’s headquarters in Simsbury, Connecticut. A related criminal case appears to be under investigation in Nebraska. And thousands of clients (and their accountants and financial planners too) may be stuck in the crossfire.
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