The I.R.S is still at it. They are money-hungry (in a good way this time) when it comes to indicting the tax evaders who filed false tax returns with the help of UBS. The Swiss financial giant recently turned over about 285 names to the Internal Revenue Service and those seeds bore fruit (albeit rotten apples, but fruit nonetheless).
More specifically, 2 stingy gentleman, both yacht entrepreneurs (no relation), both arrested in Florida for failing to claim millions of dollars on their taxes. Moran, the newest of the two to be caught, booked and bailed on a 6 million dollar bond is accused of evading taxes on 3.7 million dollars stored away in UBS’ Swiss Bank accounts.
The irony of this? Mr. Moran hid only 3.7 million away from the I.R.S in a UBS controlled account in Panama, but flaunts his million dollar assets on his website: his yachts. From a 257-foot yacht one can charter for one week at a cool mill for the price tag, to a 166-foot yacht you can own for the slim bill of only 29.7 million. You own multiple million dollar yachts, rent out yachts for millions a week and you want to be stingy about the taxes on 3.7 million dollars?! So that’s what 3 years of prison and a $250,000 fine is worth? Well, one somewhat honorable thing can be said for Mr. Moran. He pled [pdf] guilty (unlike his counterpart Mr. Rubinstein) and to waive any indictment will cooperate with authorities to pay all back taxes, fees and penalties. What a good little boy. Now why didn’t you just do that in the first place and avoid all this embarrassment?
But I’ve saved the best for last. The true and delicious irony to all of this? Mr. Robert Moran was prosecuted on April 15th…Tax Day. Not only does the I.R.S. get their man (or woman, who knows?), they also get the last laugh.
