2 indicted in S. Fla. billionaire's tax dodge [View All]

[seafan]

Source: Miami Herald

A billionaire real estate developer with South Florida ties is at the center of an extensive tax-shield scheme that resulted in the federal indictment Tuesday of two bankers operating overseas.
The Department of Justice Tuesday unsealed the indictment that claims two bankers operating in Europe helped the developer hide roughly $200 million in assets from the government.

The real estate developer's name was not included in the indictment, although The Associated Press identified him as Igor Olenicoff.
Olenicoff -- whose net worth is roughly $1.7 billion, according to Forbes magazine -- is based out of Newport Beach, Calif., but also has a home in Lighthouse Point.
Bradley Birkenfeld, a 43-year-old American, and Mario Staggl, 43, of Lichtenstein, were charged with conspiring to defraud the United States by helping Olenicoff set up bogus accounts to conceal his actual wealth.

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According to the indictment, Birkenfeld worked for a Swiss bank from 2001 through 2006 as director of its private banking division. Part of his job was marketing the bank's services to wealthy American clients -- like Olenicoff.
Since 2001, Staggl, who owns New Haven Trust Company Ltd., has hatched and implemented schemes to evade taxes for his American clients, the indictment states.

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Birkenfeld and Staggl helped the developer falsify those IRS documents and told their client to trash all offshore banking records existing in the U.S., the indictment states. They also plied the billionaire with Swiss bank credit cards that they claimed could not be traced and caused the developer to file false income tax returns, according to court documents.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/531669.html