Another Plea Agreement for Offshore Account (7/29/17; 7/30/17)

USAO CD CA announced here the plea by a plastic surgeon to one FBAR criminal count.  The relevant excerpts from the announcement are:

          According to the plea agreement filed in this case, while working as a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, Mani began to travel to Dubai in 2011 to perform plastic surgery for a foreign medical center. Mani’s accountant, who was aware that Mani was earning foreign income, informed him that he would be required to report any foreign bank accounts under his ownership or control to the IRS. 

          In 2012, Mani opened a bank account with a financial institution based in Dubai and began depositing income he earned from abroad into this account. By February 2013, Mani’s foreign bank account held more than $400,000. However, Mani willfully failed to file a FBAR to disclose his foreign bank account for the calendar years 2012 and 2013. 

          In addition to failing to disclose his interest in his foreign bank account, Mani also failed to report on his federal income tax returns the vast majority of the approximately $1.28 million in foreign income he earned in Dubai for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The plea agreement is here.

JAT comments:

1.  The gravamen of the offenses outlined in the plea agreement and statement of facts is really tax crimes with the FBAR crime facilitating the tax crime.  For this reason, I am surprised that DOJ Tax would approve the FBAR plea.

2.  The plea agreement requires two FBAR penalties of $100,000 (pars. 5(f) and 5(g)).  (Note: I had initially missed one of the penalties and revised this comment accordingly because a reader named Kneave Riggall brought the extra FBAR penalty to my attention; thanks to Mr. Riggall.)