NEW YORK, March 27 (UPI) -- A defendant in a wide-ranging KPMG tax-shelter case pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge and will cooperate with U.S. prosecutors.
David Rivkin, a former KPMG tax partner, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax-evasion before a New York judge, The Wall Street Journal said.
Rivkin, who was one of 19 defendants in the government's case against KPMG tax-shelter products, faces up to five years in prison, admitted to assisting nine clients by creating $235 million in phony tax losses through fraudulent tax shelters that were then used to avoid paying taxes to the Internal Revenue Service for years 1999 and 2000.
The deal increases pressure on the other 18 defendants scheduled to go to trial in the case.
KPMG has reached its own deal with prosecutors, agreeing last year to pay $456 million and admit criminal wrongdoing as part of a preferred-prosecution deal that allowed the firm to avoid a criminal indictment.
