Florida Man IRS - An 83-year-old man from Delray Beach, Fla. has pleaded guilty on Tuesday, to concealing $1.1 million from the IRS in secret Israel and Switzerland bank accounts for more than 25 years.
Bernard Kramer, the person involved in the case termed as the Florida man IRS, is said to have kept the undisclosed accounts between 1987 to 2012. He also referred to them as "Hot Lips" while communicating with Swiss bankers in Zurich, where he opened his first account, a Manhattan criminal filing noted, USA Today has learned.
Kramer reportedly transferred to an Israeli bank in the late 2000s after UBS began turning over the clients' financial data to U.S. Federal prosecutors. He would ask for checks amounting less than $10,000 so the bank would not report him to government regulators.
The Florida man IRS case defendant had also failed to report interest and income from his two accounts to the Internal Revenue Service from 1987 to 2012 and did not submit a U.S. Treasury form called the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or FBAR specifying his properties, according to court papers obtained by the RawStory.com.
He has agreed to cooperate with government investigators and pay a civil penalty of $588,042 together with past due taxes. He also potentially faces up to eight years in prison at a Manhattan federal court sentencing for his Florida man IRS case, scheduled for Feb. 6.
"Today Mr. Kramer acknowledged responsibility for his conduct. He looks forward to putting the matter behind him," defense attorney Brian Ketcham, of Kostelanetz & Fink in New York City, said.
Kramer of the Florida man IRS case is just one of several other wealthy Americans being prosecuted for allegedly avoiding taxes on income held in overseas accounts. They have all been accused as part of an ongoing multi-year crackdown on suspicious tax evasion by the Department of Justice prosecutors and IRS investigators.
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