More Offshore Account Charges -- Of HSBC (Reputedly) and Recorded Conversations (4/21/10)

On April 14, 2010, the Government filed a criminal complaint in the Southern District of Florida against Mauricio Cohen Assor and Leon Cohen Levy, father and son. They are real estate developers who were either legal residents or permanent legal residents at all times and thus were subject to U.S. income tax and FBAR reporting just as other citizens and residents. The complaint itself is a bare bones Klein tax conspiracy charge. The attached affidavit of the IRS CI Special Agent agent contains the torrent of words and claims the add fluff to a conspiracy charge. There is the now expected allegations of offshore accounts and offshore entities. The bank, reputed to be HSBC rather than UBS, was involved both through New York offices and Swiss offices. The affidavit sets forth some conversations which were recorded, presumably, by the bank. This is pretty or ugly stuff, depending on perspective. We have seen in the UBS matter handwritten notes of phone calls and meetings that are ugly. Recordings are of the same genre, but do tend to nail exactly what was said rather than leaving it to the vagaries of hand written notes.