The account, opened in the 1960s, was held in the name of two foundations, according to the Justice Department statement. His original tax returns also failed to say he had an interest in a foreign account, according to the complaint.
“The first time he reported such income was when he amended those returns.” “Zwerner’s original tax returns for 2004 to 2007 didn’t report any income from the Swiss bank account,” according to the U.S. Zwerner amended his previous returns that year. Zwerner, who testified, told jurors that he tried to enter the IRS voluntary disclosure program, and he didn’t know until 2008 that he had to file FBARs, Press said. He lives in Coral Gables, Florida, and is a director on the First State Bank of the Florida Keys, Press said. Jurors deliberated three days before ruling against Zwerner, a retired specialty-glass importer. Mary Estelle Curran, then a 79-year-old widow from Palm Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty last year to failing to disclose $43 million at UBS AG. He paid an FBAR penalty of $53.6 million. Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies plush toys, pleaded guilty last year to evading taxes on secret Swiss accounts that held as much as $107 million. Other defendants have paid higher FBAR penalties in dollars, not as a percentage of the account. His account was valued at $1.48 million in 2004, and his FBAR penalty was $723,762 the value in 2005 was $1.49 million, and the penalty was $745,209 and the value in 2006 was $1.55 million, with a $772,838 penalty, according to Press. Zwerner had a Swiss account at ABN Amro Group NV, the Netherlands’ third-biggest bank. “The question is whether such a massive penalty is appropriate for simply a disclosure form which carries no tax.” “They can get 50 percent for the non-filing of one piece of paper, and 200 percent for the non-filing of four pieces of paper,” Press said in a phone interview. “As this jury verdict shows, the cost of not coming forward and fully disclosing a secret offshore bank account to the IRS can be quite high,” Kathryn Keneally, the head of the tax division, said in the statement. She’ll ultimately decide on the size of the judgment, the Justice Department said in a statement. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga will hear arguments on June 6 over whether the penalties against Zwerner violate the constitutional prohibition against excessive fines, said Martin Press, his lawyer. Zwerner didn’t owe a penalty for 2007, the jurors found. The FBAR penalty in the Zwerner case is unusual because the IRS sought 50 percent for each of four years-a total of 200 percent-in a civil case, not a criminal one. Credit Suisse AG pleaded guilty last week to helping Americans evade taxes and agreed to pay $2.6 billion in penalties. Since 2009, more than 43,000 Americans have joined, paying $6 billion to the U.S.
They must pay back taxes, fines and penalties and tell the IRS which banks and bankers helped them hide their money. taxpayers into an IRS amnesty program that lets holders of undeclared offshore accounts avoid prosecution. He is being held in the Lake County Jail on no bond.The threat of such penalties has helped to drive U.S. In addition to the charges involving deputies, Parker is facing a second-degree murder charge. He told detectives he wanted his grandfather to be with his deceased grandmother. Parker later confessed to beating his grandfather in the head with the baseball bat, stabbing him multiple times with the butcher knife and cutting his ears off. John Herrell said in the release.Īfter pulling his grandfather’s ears from his pocket, Parker began fighting deputies and attempting to disarm them he was taken into custody and arrested for battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting with violence.ĭetectives executed a search warrant and found a bloody baseball bat in the corner of the porch, a butcher knife on the table and blood on the kitchen floor, the release states. “While talking with responding deputies, Parker produced two human ears from his pants pocket, which were later discovered to be those of the decedent,” LCSO Lt.