The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has charged four individuals with securities fraud conspiracy for their involvement in fraudulently manipulating the stock of a U.S. company using a traditional “pump and dump” stock fraud technique. See United States v. Chris Messalas et al., No. 17-MJ-321 (E.D.N.Y.). Prosecutors also allege
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he Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) yesterday announced the assessment of a $7 million civil money penalty against Merchants Bank of California of Carson, California, for willful violations of several provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). (The FinCEN press release is here and assessment
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced today that its aggressive efforts to combat money laundering in the luxury real estate market have been extended for an additional six months. Confirming his agency’s concerns about illicit funds flowing through the U.S. real estate industry, FinCEN Acting Director Jamal El-Hindi said today that
The IRS released an advanced version of Revenue Procedure 2016-56 that requires three more countries – Israel, the Republic of Korea and Saint Lucia – to participate in the automatic exchange of information on bank interest paid to nonresident alien individuals for interest paid on or after January 1, 2017. There are now 40 countries
On Oct. 18, 2016, a federal judge sentenced a well-known Chicago restaurant owner to prison for carrying out an extensive scheme to avoid paying state sales tax collected from customers of his establishments. Two important lessons may be drawn from this criminal case. First, criminal prosecutions of business owners for avoiding payment of state sales
On November 30th, a federal district court in California entered an order authorizing the IRS to serve a John Doe Summons on Coinbase Inc. seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who conducted transactions in virtual currency. In the court’s order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley found that there is a reasonable basis for