Time of Reckoning for Offshore Tax Cheats

[John Young]

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/October/09-tax-1074.html

Seattle Area UBS Client Pleads Guilty to Filing a False Tax Return

Retired Sales Manager for Boeing

WASHINGTON  Roberto Cittadini of Bellevue, Wash., pleaded
guilty today to filing a false tax return, the Justice Department and
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Cittadini appeared today
before Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler in Seattle and accepted
responsibility for concealing nearly $2 million in Swiss bank
accounts. According to court documents and statements made
in court, Cittadini, a retired sales manager for Boeing, failed to
report income from bank accounts under his control at UBS AG
in Switzerland on his individual income tax returns from 2001
through 2003. Additionally, Cittadini failed to file a Report of
Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (F-BAR) for each of these
years.

"Todays guilty plea in Washington state follows guilty pleas in New
Jersey, California and Florida," said John A DiCicco, Acting Assistant
Attorney General of the Justice Departments Tax Division. "Individuals
all over the country who are hiding income and assets in offshore
accounts would be well-advised to promptly come in and come clean
before the government learns about their accounts through other
channels."

"This is a time of reckoning for those who thought they had found a
safe haven for cheating," said United States Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.
"People who avoid paying their fair share hurt all of us who follow the
law and conscientiously pay our taxes."