NEW YORK, June 9 (UPI) -- Five former law and accounting firm executives and shareholders and two bankers were indicted in New York Tuesday in an alleged $7 billion tax shelter scheme.
Federal prosecutors said three former shareholders of the Jenkens & Gilchrist law firm, the former chief executive officer of the BDO Seidman accounting firm, and two former bankers from a foreign bank with headquarters in New York -- identified only as Bank A -- with tax fraud conspiracy and related crimes arising out of tax shelters the companies promoted.
The prosecutors allege the defendants and their co-conspirators designed, marketed and implemented fraudulent tax shelters used by wealthy individuals with multimillion-dollar taxable income to eliminate or reduce the taxes they would have to pay the Internal Revenue Service.
The seven defendants are named in 27 separate counts, including conspiracy to defraud the IRS, tax evasion, and impeding and impairing the lawful functioning of the IRS.
They were identified as Paul M. Daugerdas, 58, of Wilmette, Ill., a lawyer who is a former head of J&G's Chicago office and its tax practice; Erwin Mayer, 45, of Winnetka, Ill., a lawyer who was a shareholder at J&G's Chicago office in its tax practice; Donna Guerin, 48, of Elmhurst, Ill., a lawyer who was a shareholder at J&G's Chicago office in its tax practice; Denis Field, 51, of Naples, Fla., former chief executive officer and chairman of the board of BDO Seidman; Robert Greisman, 48, of Deerfield, Ill., a tax partner in BDO's Chicago office; Raymond Craig Brubaker, 53, of Plano, Texas, a former investment representative at Bank A's Dallas office; and David Parse, 47, of Elmhurst, Ill., a former investment representative at Bank A's Chicago office.
Three other high-level executives in BDO Seidman pleaded guilty previously this year. the scheme allegedly ran from 1994 through 2004.
