Panama Papers Law Firm Helped US Citizen Avoid Taxes
Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Brian C. Rabbitt, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, announced today that HARALD JOACHIM VON DER GOLTZ, a/k/a “H.J. von der Goltz,” a/k/a “Johan von der Goltz,” a/k/a “Jochen von der Goltz,” a/k/a “Tica,” a/k/a “Tika,” was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 48 months in prison for wire fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, false statements, and other charges. VON DER GOLTZ, a former U.S. resident and taxpayer, was charged along with Ramses Owens, Dirk Brauer, and Richard Gaffey, a/k/a “Dick Gaffey,” in connection with a decades-long criminal scheme perpetrated by Mossack Fonseca & Co. (“Mossack Fonseca”), a Panamanian-based global law firm, and its related entities. VON DER GOLTZ previously pleaded guilty to the charges, and was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman.
Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “Harald Joachim von der Goltz, a one-time
U.S. resident, previously admitted to an elaborate scheme to evade millions in
taxes owed to the IRS. Von der Goltz was
abetted by the specialized criminal services of the law firm Mossack Fonseca to
conceal income and assets in shell companies and off-shore bank accounts. Now von der Goltz has been sentenced to four
years in federal prison for his conduct.”
Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt
said: “Harald Joachim von der Goltz
sought to conceal his considerable wealth through a sham foreign foundation and
various shell companies. But his
decades-long scheme to evade his tax obligations and defraud the U.S.
government came to an end today thanks to the tireless efforts of U.S. law
enforcement. No matter how complicated
the scheme, the U.S. government will bring to justice those who attempt to
evade their tax obligations under the law.
In particular, I would like to recognize the outstanding work of the
Internal Revenue Service in this case.”
According to the allegations contained in the
Indictments[1], other filings in this case, and statements during court
proceedings, including VON DER GOLTZ’s guilty plea and sentencing hearings:
Since at least 2000 through 2017, VON DER GOLTZ conspired
with others to conceal his assets and investments, and the income generated by
those assets and investments, from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) through
fraudulent, deceitful, and dishonest means.
During all relevant times, VON DER GOLTZ was a U.S. resident and was
subject to U.S. tax laws, which required him to report and pay income tax on
worldwide income, including income and capital gains generated in domestic and
foreign bank accounts. Nevertheless, VON
DER GOLTZ evaded his tax reporting obligations by setting up a series of shell
companies and bank accounts, and hiding his beneficial ownership of the shell
companies and bank accounts from the IRS.
These shell companies and bank accounts made investments totaling tens
of millions of dollars. VON DER GOLTZ
was assisted in this scheme through the use of Mossack Fonseca, including
Ramses Owens, a Panamanian lawyer who previously worked at Mossack Fonseca, and
by Richard Gaffey, a partner at a U.S.-based accounting firm. Specifically, in furtherance of VON DER
GOLTZ’s efforts to conceal his assets and income from the IRS, VON DER GOLTZ
engaged the services of Mossack Fonseca, including Owens, to create a sham
foundation and shell companies formed under the laws of Panama and the British
Virgin Islands to conceal from the IRS and others the ownership by VON DER
GOLTZ of accounts established at overseas banks, as well as the income
generated in those accounts. VON DER
GOLTZ, Gaffey, and Owens also falsely claimed that VON DER GOLTZ’s elderly
mother was the sole beneficial owner of the shell companies and bank accounts
at issue because, at all relevant times, she was a Guatemalan citizen and
resident, and – unlike VON DER GOLTZ – was not a U.S. taxpayer.
VON DER GOLTZ, 83, of Needham, Massachusetts, and Key
Biscayne, Florida, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit tax
evasion; one count of wire fraud; one count of money laundering conspiracy;
four counts of willful failure to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial
Accounts, FINCEN Reports 114; and two counts of false statements. In addition to the prison term, Judge Berman
ordered VON DER GOLTZ to serve three years of supervised release, to pay
forfeiture in the amount of $5,373,609 and restitution in the amount of
$3,448,848, and to pay a fine in the amount of $30,000.
Gaffey previously pled guilty and is scheduled to be
sentenced by Judge Berman on September 24, 2020, at 10:30 a.m. Owens and Brauer remain at large.
Ms. Strauss praised the outstanding investigative work of
IRS, Criminal Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations, and thanked
the Justice Department’s Tax Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
for their significant assistance in the investigation. Ms. Strauss also thanked the U.S. Justice
Department’s Office of International Affairs of the Department’s Criminal
Division and law enforcement partners in France, the United Kingdom, and Germany
for their assistance in the case.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds
and Cybercrime Unit and Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises
Unit, working in partnership with the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery
Section of the Criminal Division.
Assistant United States Attorneys Eun Young Choi and Thane Rehn, along
with Trial Attorney Michael Parker of the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery
Section, are in charge of the prosecution.
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