I have written on several occasions on the concept of lesser included offense, including the strategies involved for defense counsel in seeking a lesser included offense instruction. See e.g., Defense Request of Lesser Included Offense Instruction Precludes Questioning Sufficiency of Conviction (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 10/3/17), here; and Court Affirms Conviction, Rejecting Lesser Included Offense Instruction Request (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 7/17/19; 7/18/19), here; for the complete list sorted by relevance see here and sorted by date see here. I thought readers might like the following Politi ..read more

The IRS has posted this report on the use of the BSA filings.  IRS CI, Primary subject in nearly 88% of investigations opened by CI in FY23 had a BSA filing, here(1/17/24; last reviewed or updated 1/18/24 and viewed 4/6/24). The posting mentions specifically third-party reports such as suspicious activity reports and currency transaction reports. The report is short but I copy and paste a couple of key paragraphs: The primary subject in nearly 88% of investigations opened by CI during fiscal year 2023 (FY23) had a BSA filing. From FY21 to FY23, BSA data was instrumental in securing avera ..read more

In the past, I offered two blog entries on a tax and other agency investigation of Caterpillar’s use of a Swiss company transfer pricing diversion of U.S. income from the U.S. tax base. In reverse chronological order, they are: Caterpillar Shareholder Suit For Fraudulent Disclosures from Tax Civil and Criminal Investigation Dismissed (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 9/28/18; 3/20/24), here; The Whistleblower Behind Caterpillar Tax Commotion (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 6/2/17), here. Search Warrant Executed Against Caterpillar HQ, Apparently Related to Tax (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 3/6/17; 3/20/24), here ..read more

I recently discovered the recent Tax Volume of DOJ Journal of Federal Law and Practice, Vol. 71, number 4 here dedicated to Tax Enforcement. The following articles are in the volume (with page numbers indicated). Recent Tax Volume of DOJ Journal of Federal Law and Practice (3/19/24) Elissa Hart-Mahan, Restitution in Criminal Tax Cases: Common Pitfalls and Practical Strategies 5  Todd Ellinwood & Caryn Finley, Investigating Legal Source Income Tax Cases 23  Howard J. Zlotnick, Twelve Rules for Presenting Accomplices 71 43  Andrew H. Kahl, Follow That Lead! Obtaining and ..read more

This blog entry will alert Tax Crimes fans to an article about, well, tax crimes. Andrey Spektor, Opinion: What Hunter Biden and Donald Trump have in common (CNN 3/13/24), here. Spektor is identified in the article as “Having worked with the Department of Justice Tax Division and prosecuted tax offenses.” His law firm bio, here, mentions only AUSA experience for EDNY and does not mention DOJ Tax Division experience; I infer that, as a prosecutor on tax cases in USAO EDNY, he would have “worked” with the Tax Division which is common. So he has credibility to speak to the how criminal prosecutio ..read more

 In United States v. Kerr (D. AZ Dkt O. 2:19-CV-05432 Order dtd 2/23/24), TN here and CL here, the district court ruled indicatively clarifying the intended effect of the district court termination of the case after remand to the IRS of willful FBAR penalties for certain years. The intended effect was not to vacate those penalties but to provide a procedure to reconsider and modify the amount of the penalties for future district court judgment. In other words, the remand did not require a new assessment of FBAR willful penalties (for which the assessment statute of limitations had run). R ..read more

I report this morning on United States v. Kelly, ___ F.4th ___ (6th Cir. 8/8/24), CA6 here and GS here. Kelly affirms the district court's approval of the FBAR willful penalty on motion for summary judgment. I first offer the MS CoPilot (MS’s version of AI) explanation of the case: Case Title: United States v. James J. Kelly, Jr. Background: • James J. Kelly, Jr., a U.S. citizen, opened an interest-bearing account at Finter Bank in Zurich, Switzerland in 2008. • He designated the account as “numbered” to keep his name off the statements and requested that Finter retain account-related corresp ..read more

An earlier news item finally reached my consciousness this morning and gave me a déjà vu experience. A Freshfields (prominent law firm) former tax partner who gave legal advice for clients to exploit an abusive tax shelter (aka bullshit tax shelter) was sentenced to 3 ½ years incarceration for his role. The shelter has attracted the name “Cum-Ex.” See e.g., Tom Sims & Kirstin Ridley, Former Freshfields partner sentenced to jail for German tax fraud (Reuters 1/30/24), here; and Olaf Storbeck, Freshfields’ former tax partner sentenced to 3½ years in jail (Financial Times 1/30/24), here. I do ..read more

 I previously blogged on a tax lawyer, John Anthony Castro, a tax lawyer of some notoriety in the tax community. Repeat Tax Player and Republican Presidential Candidate Loses Unauthorized Return Information Disclosure Suit on Appeal (Federal Tax Procedure Blog 12/24/25), here. I noted in the blog that Castro was a Republican candidate for President; I reported on a Fifth Circuit disposition of a claim he made against the IRS and his candidacy for President. I have two developments to report: 1. N ewsweek recently reported that Castro is suing Clarence Thomas under the Virgi ..read more

 Long-time readers of this blog and the parallel blog Federal Tax Procedure may recall that I have had several postings on the issue of whether § 6501(c) unlimited statute of limitations for fraudulent returns requires (i) the taxpayer's fraud or (ii) may be a third party's fraud that is incorporated in the taxpayer's return without the taxpayer's fraud. The classic case is a preparer's fraud, but could also include fraud on an information return (such as a K-1 for partnership flow-through reporting). At the end of this blog, I list significant Federal Tax Procedure or Federal Tax Crimes ..read more