{"id":31747,"date":"2021-08-02T10:44:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T15:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=31747"},"modified":"2021-08-02T10:44:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T15:44:05","slug":"wealthy-americans-targeted-u-s-panama-tax-fraud-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/wealthy-americans-targeted-u-s-panama-tax-fraud-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Wealthy Americans Targeted by U.S. in Panama Tax-Fraud Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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U.S. authorities obtained a court order allowing them to demand financial information from banks and couriers about wealthy Americans suspected of using a Panamanian law firm to evade taxes.<\/p>\n

The Internal Revenue Service can now get information about electronic fund transfers and courier deliveries between the firm,\u00a0Panama Offshore Legal Services<\/a>, and its U.S. clients, the Justice Department said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0Thursday. The IRS seeks to identify clients who used the law firm to \u201ccreate or control foreign assets and entities\u201d to evade taxes, the department said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue our joint efforts with the IRS to investigate tax evaders who use foreign financial accounts and sham foreign entities to hide their assets,\u201d Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in the statement.<\/p>\n

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U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods modified an order Wednesday that authorized the IRS to issue summonses to entities including the\u00a0Federal Reserve Bank of New York<\/a>, the\u00a0Clearing House Payments Co.<\/a>,\u00a0HSBC Bank USA N.A.<\/a>,\u00a0Citibank N.A.<\/a>,\u00a0Wells Fargo N.A.<\/a>,\u00a0Bank of America N.A.<\/a>,\u00a0FedEx Corp.<\/a>,\u00a0United Parcel Service Inc.<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0DHL Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The order requires that they produce information about possible violations of tax laws by people whose identities are unknown, according to the statement. Woods authorized so-called John Doe summonses, which let authorities get names of U.S. taxpayers, records and other information relating to those taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The summonses are unrelated to the leak five years ago of more than 11 million documents, known as the Panama Papers, involving offshore entities created by a Panamanian law firm,\u00a0Mossack Fonseca<\/a>. The disclosures have led to criminal\u00a0convictions<\/a>\u00a0of at least two Americans.<\/p>\n

Panama Offshore Legal Services, or POLS, used HSBC, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank for U.S. correspondent accounts, according to a May 4 declaration by IRS Revenue Agent Katy Fuentes. The banks cleared dollar-denominated transactions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Free From … Taxes\u2019<\/h3>\n